FX's new Indigenous adolescent comedy Reservation Dogs is a slice-of-life marvel of self-expression.
Reservation Dogs, Sterlin Harjo, and Taika Waititi's upcoming FX series are centered on the issue of personal responsibility. The half-hour comedy, shot on location in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, follows four Indigenous adolescents as they steal, loot, and save their way to the promised paradise of California. But what does it mean to defraud one's own community, especially one that values collaborative action, tradition, and respect?
Teenagers (mostly upper-middle-class and white) have been battling with their identities on film for decades, but Reservation Dogs revitalizes the coming-of-age genre. The series serves as a major milestone for Native representation: every writer, director, and series regular is Indigenous, including Harjo, a Seminole-Muscogee filmmaker from Holdenville, Oklahoma, and Waititi, who is of Maori descent.
Harjo and Waititi's colorful universe is brought to life on film by a brilliant group of performers. The quartet is nominally led by Bear Smallhill (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), who begins coming into his own with the assistance of a dubious spirit guide one year after the death of their fifth member, Daniel (Dallas Goldtooth). Goldtooth satirizes conventional representations of Native Americans in cinema and television as "William Knifeman," adding a tiny bit of absurdist comedy into an otherwise very genuine series. “Now, I'm supposed to roam the spirit realm, finding lost souls like you,” he says Bear, after narrating his long, unlucky dying tale. “The spirit world is cold. My nipples are always hard.”
Aside from the nipple difficulties, William Knifeman imparts some valuable advice to Bear and his "thuggy-ass pals," and his presence is a motivating factor for the lost kid. Bear's guilt gets the best of him after a successful potato chip theft, and he encourages his buddies Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Cheese (Lane Factor) to adopt a vigilante, rather than criminal, attitude. With that, the newly christened "Reservation Dogs" set out to defend their neighborhood from a rival gang with a violent history.
Reservation Dogs has a remarkable performance from Zahn McClarnon, who plays one of the show's adolescents. best known for playing Hanzee Dent in another FX series, Fargo.
McClarnon is usually cast in the most dramatic of tragic parts, but the show's creators use him for laughs as Lighthorseman Big, a tribal cop with a deep interest in conspiracy theories and the occult. McClarnon, true to style, makes the most of every scene he's in, and his natural silliness makes him the ideal foil for a group of adolescents who view low-stakes criminality as the only way to get out of their neighborhood.
Sarah Podemski (Tin Star, Love Alaska) plays Bear's mother Rita, an independent lady who favors harsh love to idealism, and Kirk Fox (Parks and Recreation) plays Kenny Boy, the owner of the junkyard on the outskirts of town,, and Lil Mike and FunnyBone as neighborhood rappers Mose and Mekko. Reservation Dogs serves as Lil Mike and FunnyBone’s acting debut, and they don’t disappoint, using their limited screen time to consistently deliver laughs as they cruise around town in search of good gossip.
It's nice to see so much representation on screen, but Harjo and Waititi's use of it is even more amazing. Reservation Dogs rejects the temptation to glorify or mythologize its Indigenous people, instead of presenting the reservation and its numerous individuals, flaws and all. The FX comedy is at its finest during its "slice of life" sequences, which simultaneously broaden the show's distinct universe — Episode 2, for example, takes place in the crowded waiting room of an Indian Health Service (IHS) clinic — and emphasize the relatability of its primary themes. These four Indigenous teenagers have the same concerns as their white peers, but the answers are complicated by centuries of dispossession and abuse.
Reservation Dogs, with its varied cast and crew, brings viewers into a world that coming-of-age cinema and television has long neglected, and it's every bit as lively — if not more — as Lady Bird's Sacramento or St. Elmo's Fire's college haunts. Reservation Dogs may be the first series to tackle the reality of Native living, as well as the first to have an all-Indigenous cast, but let's hope it isn't the last.
The first two episodes of Reservation Dogs premiere Monday, August 9 on FX on Hulu, with new episodes streaming weekly.
No comments:
Post a Comment