Hulu Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

The upcoming third season will be the last:


It sounds like there will be spinoffs set in the same universe however.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Final Season Trailer:

 

[Chris Will]

Still only on Hulu, ugh! I thought with all the episodes airing on FX the new season might as well. Guess I'll wait until the whole season is out and pay for one month of Hulu to watch it.

 

[jayembee]

Well, it should be no surprise that they are running earlier episodes on FX in order to drive interest in subscribing to Hulu. I never thought otherwise.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

New Teaser:

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

Love this show. I do think the end of Season Two was a fitting end, but I'm still tuning in on day one for the last season.

 

[jayembee]

Catching an ad last night on FX for the re-runs of Season 1, I decided it was time to binge the first two seasons before S3 pops up. Man oh man, this show is priceless! Hysterically funny, but with more sobering moments when needed. I watched all of S1 last night, and I'll make my way through S2 ASAP.

Finally got started in on Season 2, seeing the first six eps last night. Still loving this show. The standout episode of the six was the one about the passing of Elora's grandmother. Just a perfect example of kith and kin and community. I'm kind of wondering if Mabel will pop up as a spirit guide for Elora just as William is for Bear (and Brownie). I noticed that Sterlin Harjo's co-writer on this episode was Devery Jacobs, who plays Elora. I suspect she had her own experience of a loved one passing.

And then to have this episode followed by the more comical "ladies night" and "decolonization" episodes, which were also a treat.

On edit: I forgot to mention that my only disappointment so far with Season 2 (and hopefully for the entirety of it) has been the relative lack of Zahn MacClarnon as Big. But he might've been less available while doing Dark Winds.

 

[jayembee]

Watched the last four S2 eps last night. Nice to see another episode with a prominent role for Big (and the Deer Lady!).

I agree with Jason, that the season finale would've made a fine series finale. But I'm looking forward to the new season. I'm going to miss these shitasses, though.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Finally got a chance to watch the first two episodes of Season 3 on Hulu. Both were good, with the series premiere dropping a couple major reveals: Bear's deadbeat father has a whole other family in LA, including a few half-siblings, and Elora Danan's father is alive -- and a white guy!

But the second episode was the kind of episode no other show could make. Totally bizarre but full of dramatic heft. Graham Greene hasn't gotten enough truly great roles since his Oscar-nominated role in Dances With Wolves but his guest role here was really something special.

I felt like I got a glimpse into the last several decades of Native American trauma through his character Maximus, an intensely bizarre man that the show presents on his own terms. He's a survivor of the Indian boarding schools, someone alienated from both his community and his species. But someone who has found a way to make the world make sense. All of his scenes were full of patient kindness, even with an undercurrent of danger and violence. And when the authorities come to take him back to his psychiatric facility, you can tell this is a dance that has played out many times before. The offering of the eggplants is entirely expected, and while the bureaucracy keeps Maximus in its clutches, the officers who are carrying out their duty don't treat him unkindly. Some people are just not compatible with society and its rules, and Maximus is one of them.

I also liked the subtle ways that he was tied into the larger Reservation Dogs universe, with glimpses of young versions of Uncle Brownie and Elora's late grandmother Mabel in Maximus's old 8mm home movies. The actress who played young Mabel even looked quite a bit like Devery Jacobs.

Speaking of Devery Jacobs: She was promoted to story editor this season, and will be directing an episode later this season in addition to writing for the show and acting in the show.

 

[jayembee]

It was also interesting that this time, William Knifeman spoke directly to the audience in a fourth wall break.

I found it rather odd, too, that none of the others tried to talk to Bear on that last leg of the bus ride, and thus never noticed that he was left behind.

 

[jayembee]

The Secret Origin of Deer Lady.

Wow. Just. Wow.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Secret Origin of Deer Lady.

Wow. Just. Wow.

It reminded me a lot of Rhymes for Young Ghouls, from the late First Nations filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, with its depiction of the horrors of the Indian residential schools. It actually starred a young Devery Jacobs. That movie is even more harrowing than this episode was, though.

I liked the device of distorting the spoken English, so that we only understood what the young Deer Lady understood. And as her English developed, fewer and fewer words were distorted.

I'm really enjoying how this season is leaning into the show's supernatural elements, while grounding them in real world stuff.

This show has a lot of tremendous casting, but Kaniehtiio Horn as the Deer Lady might be the best casting in the whole series. It takes a special kind of physicality and gravitas to make that character work, and she has it in spades.

 

[jayembee]

It reminded me a lot of Rhymes for Young Ghouls, from the late First Nations filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, with its depiction of the horrors of the Indian residential schools. It actually starred a young Devery Jacobs. That movie is even more harrowing than this episode was, though.

I'll have to check that out. Taylor Sheridan's 1923 also has the residential school horrors as a major plotline through it's episodes. And also done more harrowing than this episode. I wonder if Deer Lady was responsible for the gravestone we see at the end. I assume so, but it's not made clear.

I liked the device of distorting the spoken English, so that we only understood what the young Deer Lady understood. And as her English developed, fewer and fewer words were distorted.

Yes!

I'm really enjoying how this season is leaning into the show's supernatural elements, while grounding them in real world stuff.

I love Magical Realism as a literary style, and this show embraces it. In comparison, Dark Winds presents it as more of a vibe of unreality, but toes the line rather than going over it. Another Indigenous show that embraces it is a Canadian show from a ways back called Rabbit Fall. I need to watch that again.

We could use a US equivalent of Canada's APTN.

This show has a lot of tremendous casting, but Kaniehtiio Horn as the Deer Lady might be the best casting in the whole series. It takes a special kind of physicality and gravitas to make that character work, and she has it in spades.

For someone I'd not heard of before this, I'd agree. It's hard to beat Gary Farmer, though.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

For someone I'd not heard of before this, I'd agree.

She first appeared on my radar watching "Letterkenny", where she plays Tanis, the leader of the Natives and Wayne's sometimes rival and sometimes lover.

It's hard to beat Gary Farmer, though.

That's a statement that accurately applies to just about everything.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

On one hand, it was cool to get an origin story for Maximus and see Brownie and Fixico (and Elora's grandmother) when they were young.

On the other hand, with this being the last season, I hate that we got one less episode with our main characters.

Nathan Alexis was uncannily great casting as young Brownie, though. At first I thought Gary Farmer was dubbing all of his lines.

 

[jayembee]

Well, given that last week's episode was pretty much All Rez Dogs, I suppose they figured they could get away with focusing on others for an episode. I still need to watch this week's ep.

 

[jayembee]

Nathan Alexis was uncannily great casting as young Brownie, though. At first I thought Gary Farmer was dubbing all of his lines.

I would've sworn that it was Gary Farmer's grandson playing the role. The resemblance was uncanny. Beyond that, now having seen the episode, I have to agree that it's a shame missing out on another episode with the Dogs. It didn't feel like much was gained from this episode other than learning the reason for Maximus's obsession with "the Star People". Otherwise, it didn't seem to connect with any of the characters we know, like Mabel and Fixico, or offer any insight about them. Well, one could infer from the episode "Maximus" that he had an unsaid reason for leaving the Okern reservation, and maybe it was his estrangement from Fixico that was the reason.

OK...now I feel like I just worked out the point of the episode...

 

[jayembee]

A couple of things that I missed in this episode that I found out in an article at Den of Geek:

(1) The boarding school where this group of kids were going to is -- 50 years earlier -- the same school that Deer Lady was sent to.

(2) Irene, the not-Mabel female character, apparently grows up to be the woman who becomes Cheese's adoptive grandmother.

 

[jayembee]

Oh, I forgot...

(3) Footage shot for this episode with Maximus's "crew" was used for the home movies seen in the "Maximus" episode.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just like Daniel was the ghost of the first two seasons, Maximus feels like the ghost of this season even though he's not dead.

Really enjoyed today's episode, which is all about regret and community and resilience.