Reservation Dogs (2021-Present)

I remember how excited I was when this show was first announced, and I was psyched when the first season finally premiered. A modern-day single-camera sitcom starring Indigenous actors, was awesome enough, but when you have Taika Waititi as one of the creators (along with collaborator/co-creator Sterlin Harjo)? Just give me all of that!

Bear, Elora Danan, Willie Jack, and Cheese are four teenagers determined to leave their Oklahoma reservation. A year after the death of their friend Daniel (“This place killed him,” they explain,) they’ve been squirreling away money from legal and illegal ventures alike in the hopes of moving to California. As they save up for the day when they can leave town, they run into assorted misadventures with their colorful neighbors and family members.

I don’t want to be too enthusiastic in laying all the creative kudos for this show on Waititi. I’m not familiar with Harjo as a writer or director, but since he’s a member of Seminole Nation and from Oklahoma, I don’t doubt that his stamp is all over the series. Still, much of this show’s sensibility is precisely what I love about the Waititi films that I’ve seen, its compelling mix of offbeat/outrageous humor and searing heart. The series is both irreverently funny and understatedly affecting, and it knows just when to slide from one into the other.

The four kids are obviously our main window into this community, and we follow their exploits and scrapes with gusto. They get into everything from fights with rival “gangs” to hitting up elders for advice on casting curses. But the show is populated by all manner of fun recurring characters and guest stars. I especially enjoy the quasi-hapless trooper Big, Elora Danan’s paranoid old pothead “Uncle Brownie,” and local wildcard Bucky. Some of the kids’ family members make for strong recurring characters as well, including Bear’s put-upon single mom and Willie Jack’s well-intentioned dad.

All four of the young actors playing the kids are great. Each is both funny and affecting in a different way, and their friendship chemistry together is a delight. Paulina Alexis’s offbeat, deadpan Willie Jack is definitely my favorite, followed by Lane Factor’s sweet but awkward Cheese. As the supporting members of the group, they get some of the best fun moments, while D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Devery Jacobs do more of the emotional heavy lifting as Bear and Elora Danan, both of whom have acquired some serious loads that they’re carrying. The adult characters, from the regulars to the guest stars, all deliver. I’ll single out Zahn McClarnon as Big and Jon Proudstar as Willie Jack’s dad, but everyone here does a great job.

Season 1 is excellent, and I can’t wait to see more of this show and these characters. Bring on season 2!

Warnings

Violence, language, drinking/smoking/drug use, sexual content, and strong thematic elements (including suicide.)