Reservation Dogs, Season 1 (2021)

 

Bear, Cheese, Willie Jack and Elora are all indigenous teenagers living in rural Oklahoma.  They  have a collective plan, inspired by the long-held dream of their deceased friend Daniel, to put together enough money to move to California.  To finance this plan, they engage in a variety of fairly minor time criminal activities.

Of course, even the best laid plans can go awry.  And it's safe to say that the quartet's plans aren't always the best laid to begin with.  They'll have to struggle with various challenges as they pursue their goals.  There's the law, of course, given their illegal activities, but also the antics of their often-eccentric friends and family; the arrival of a rival gang looking to muscle in on their turf; and most fundamental of all, the long-unspoken question: "Is Daniel's dream actually my dream?".

Reservation Dogs is a solid comedy-drama.  I was tempted to call it "quirky" but that may simply be my cultural biases showing.  The show is written and directed entirely by indigenous creators, and what seems quirky to me may simply be unfamiliar because I'm a middle-aged middle-class white guy, and I'm used to almost everything on TV coming from a similar background to my own.

I can however say that I enjoyed the show.  The cast are talented and make their characters empathetic and likeable, while still being flawed and human, and the show touches on serious issues and questions without ever feeling like its drifting into polemic.

It's likely that the show's sense of humour won't be for everyone, but I encourage everyone to at least give it a try: it's definitely a show with a different kind of voice than we usually see on TV.