Reservation Dogs has quickly channeled the initial excitement of seeing a Taika Waititi collaboration with indigenous creators into one of the most well-paced and well-realized first seasons in recent history. Not only is it groundbreaking, it is also heartfelt and hilarious. It’s refreshing to not see Native Americans fetishized or otherized through a foreign lens.
A group of four indigenous teens, Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora Danan (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) and Cheese (Lane Factor), live in the Muscogee reservation by a small town in Oklahoma. They carry out small-time crimes and hustle to save up money so they can move out to California. We see the group contend with a rival teenage gang and go through everyday life as they interact with interesting characters from around the town as well as receive advice from supernatural beings.
While Reservation Dogs could have easily been about the gang going through over-the-top adventures, the series grounds them in daily life scenarios.
They spend their time in a hospital waiting room and deal with the frustration of coming up empty in a hunt as well as the disappointment of a famous deadbeat dad flaking out at the last minute from meeting his son after many years.
That doesn’t mean that there’s a shortage of wacky stuff- in the first episode, they steal a truck of chips, and later, they drive around with Elora’s uncle, Brownie (Gary Farmer) to sell his jar of fifteen-year-old weed in a place where it has been legal for a while.
The cast has a natural chemistry with each other, despite being relatively inexperienced. While Bear is hardheaded and has to depend on his spirit guide to help figure out things, Elora is smart, dogged and determined on escaping to California. Willie Jack is laid back, but also energetic in her own way.
The main cast is supported by able veterans such as Zahn McClarnon as the tribal police officer Big, who is laid back and inept to a fault, too occupied with YouTube videos to figure out that the gang is behind the recent spate of crimes in the town. The aforementioned Gary Farmer is great as the eccentric Brownie. Then there are the indigenous rappers Lil Mike and Funny Bone who travel around on bikes and relay news about the town to the gang. Bill Burr also puts in an engaging turn as Elora’s former-basketball-coach-turned-driving-test-administrator. Often these side characters connect the main characters to their departed loved ones.
One of the ghosts that loom over the Rez Dogs is the death of their friend, Daniel, who is Willie Jack’s cousin and whom Elora was involved with. One of the main reasons Elora is so bent on going to California is because it was Daniel’s dream. In the season finale, she sticks through with the plan even as others step back.
The spiritual elements of the show are also greatly handled.
Along with the spirit guide who died unceremoniously at the Battle of Little Bighorn and can’t stop coughing, we see glimpses of a shape-shifting Deer Woman and the Tall Man through other characters’ memories. In the finale, it is implied that Brownie can turn tornados away.
The showrunner, Sterlin Harjo (who wrote five episodes and directed three of them) and the writers have struck a great balance in the first season. Hopefully, Reservation Dogs can develop and reach new heights in future seasons.
