'The Lowdown' Shane Brown/FX Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Oklahoma is having a cultural moment. The Thunder are NBA champions. My brother and sister-in-law just uprooted to the Sooner State. And, with The Lowdown, Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo is staking a claim as the state's TV laureate (to differentiate him from Joy Harjo, no relation and our former national poet laureate). A shaggy dog mystery-comedy in the vein of Terriers and Lodge 49 - which is to say "very much my jam" and "very much destined for niche viewership" - Harjo's follow-up to one of television's great half-hours of the decade/century/ever is still finding its way, based on the five episodes sent to critics. And "its way" is an endearingly meandering way, one in which the murder mystery at its center is only meant to be loosely compelling. Related Stories Movies 'Highway 99: A Double Album' Review: Ethan Hawke Pays Tribute to Merle Haggard With a Rousing and Soulful Pilgrimage Through His Songs Movies Telluride: Richard Linklater on 'Nouvelle Vague,' Selling It to Netflix and France's Oscar Choice The Lowdown The Bottom Line Harjo & Hawke are a potent combo. Airdate: 9 p.m. Tuesday, September 23 (FX)Cast: Ethan Hawke, Keith David, Kyle MacLachlan, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kaniehtiio Horn, Michael "Killer Mike" Render, Tim Blake Nelson and Tracy LettsCreator: Sterlin Harjo Instead of asking viewers to invest in a whodunit or howdunit or whydunit, The Lowdown offers immersion in Tulsa and its environs, an embrace of Oklahoma's contemporary melting pot, in which artistic oddballs, fringe right-wing bigots, deep-rooted Indigenous communities and more butt heads for available resources, power and visibility. Harjo's affectionate but thoroughly clear-eyed love for his home state saturates every frame and informs every reference in an intentionally messy and varied tapestry, stitched together with lovable eccentrics, lived-in settings and an Oklahoma-infused musicality. Disclaimer: As much as Oklahoma is a lead character in The Lowdown and the impeccable cast is peppered with native sons, the series couldn't exist without Texas-born, New York-raised star Ethan Hawke, whose guest-starring role in the final season of Reservation Dogs was subject to perhaps the most egregious Emmys snub since Hawke's work in The Good Lord Bird. As impossible as it is to imagine The Lowdown stripped of its regional authenticity to film in Atlanta - hi, "Tulsa" King - or Vancouver, it's equally impossible to imagine the series without Hawke, whose world-weary, rough-around-the-edges performance continues to cement his place as one of our most essential and constantly evolving leading men. He's a messy wonder and the show around him seems more than capable of rising to his level. Hawke plays Lee Raybon, a self-described "Tulsa truthstorian." On a practical level, Lee owns and operates a platonic ideal of a used bookstore, sleeping in a disorderly office above its dusty collection of literature. The bookstore definitely doesn't pay Lee's bills, but then again neither does his other job, which is writing reported features in Tulsa's apparently robust journalistic scene. That might explain why Lee is having trouble meeting his financial obligations to his ex-wife (Kaniehtiio Horn) and teenage daughter, Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). Francis, fortunately, loves Lee anyway and is fully prepared to get involved in his current troubles in the name of daddy-daughter time. See, Lee's most recent piece, related to the shady past of the wealthy Washberg family, has caused some ripples. For one thing, Donnie Washberg (Kyle MacLachlan) is running for governor and doesn't love the bad publicity. For a bigger thing, Donnie's brother Dale (Tim Blake Nelson) is newly deceased, seemingly by his own hand, but Lee has doubts. As he continues his investigation into the Washbergs, Lee becomes embroiled with Dale's widow (Jeanne Tripplehorn's Betty Jo), a literature-quoting private investigator named Marty (Keith David), a gay antiquarian (Michael Hitchcock's Ray), a couple of skinheads, several members of the Indian Mafia, some bootleg caviar dealers and anybody else standing in the way of the search for the truth. Pushing Lee forward are a series of letters that Dale left in his collection of Jim Thompson first editions. Thompson was also born in Oklahoma, which is a common thread almost any time an author or musician features prominently in this show. Pieces of Thompson's pulpy DNA are visible in the Dust Bowl noir of The Lowdown, though I'm gonna say that the series has more in common with the comically picaresque criminality of Charles Portis (True Grit, The Dog of the South), who had the misfortune of being born in Arkansas and not its neighbor to the west. Either way,