[The FX comedy "Reservation Dogs" returns in an expansive mood. ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

RESERVATION DOGS REVIEW: SEASON 2 IS FUNNIER, SADDER, AND BIGGER  
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Darren Franich
August 3, 2022
Entertainment Weekly
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_ The FX comedy "Reservation Dogs" returns in an expansive mood. _

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My happy place, it turns out, is Wes Studi
[[link removed]] explaining string theory. "Every
element of our bodies was made inside an exploding star," says Bucky,
the cheerful layabout Studi plays on _Reservation Dogs_. "We just
borrow stardust until we die, and then we return it for something else
to use." He's talking about a cosmic connection binding everyone
together, a song that plays eternally even when the notes change.

Season 2 of the FX sitcom has a lot of notes, and a lot of everyone.
The show debuted last summer as a loopy crime caper, with a crew of
teen petty larcenists staring down a rival gang of punky-cute
badasses. Those Tarantino-youth-group affectations disappeared quick,
revealing a multi-generational tale of loss and a cultural mood of
impoverished/good-humored striving. Midway through the new season
there's a big gathering, and I counted 12 or 13 characters I deeply
care about: moms and uncles, friends and enemies, Zahn McClarnon as a
gallant-goofus cop, plus the occasional visitor from one spirit realm
or another.

Co-creator Sterlin Harjo is in an expansive mood. He directs the first
two episodes, which arrive together Wednesday on FX on Hulu. (Or
FX/Hulu. Or the Hulu formerly known as FX. Whatever. It's on Hulu.)
The two-part premiere forms one hour-long tale, with a pair of
missions that find tasks for the vast supporting cast and one shiny
guest star. Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) called down a curse on
nemesis Jackie (Elva Guerra). Now she wants to reverse the bad
medicine, which she thinks has brought nasty side effects onto her
disintegrating friend group. Elora (Devery Jacobs) is gone, on the
road with Jackie to California. Antics ensue, not all hysterical. A
hitchhiking attempt turns bloody. Uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer) believes
himself to be a holy man, which leads him to rip his vintage pin-up
posters off the wall: "Holy men can't be havin' colonizer boobs on
their wall!" Bear (D'Pharoah Woon-a-Tai) feels abandoned by Elora, and
unsure of what to do now. The group's "secret hideout" is getting torn
down, because a rich Texas Rancher wants to raze the abandoned
building and build a megachurch. 

[RESERVATION DOGS]

Lane Factor, D'Pharaoh Woo-A-Tai, and Paulina Alexis on 'Reservation
Dogs'

| CREDIT: SHANE BROWN/FX

_Reservation Dogs_ was co-created by Taika Waititi
[[link removed]], beloved for one _Thor_ movie
until people saw his next _Thor_ movie. You could initially pinpoint
this show around his eccentric creative spectrum, with a genre-hopping
blend of emotional sweetness and conversational surrealism. Season 1
kept digging deeper into the characters and the setting, though,
finding a well of emotional resonance matched by a wonderfully
specific sense of place. Low-key humanity dominates season 2. There's
a whole extraordinary episode about Bear's first day on a roofing gig.
He learns the ropes and gets hazed by the older guys. He also has to
face some lingering daddy issues. (Doesn't everybody?) Harjo and his
writing staff mint delightful comedy and grab-a-tissue pathos out of
plots that can be straightforward, absurd, or existential. Another
episode closely observes a community's rituals of farewell, as an old
relative's impending demise brings out a couple lifetimes of bad
memories.

Individual scenes feel loose, even improvised. If you think Studi
talking string theory is fun, wait till you hear him and Farmer
stumble through the lyrics to "Free Fallin'." But _Reservation
Dogs_ also lives up to its daunting status as, per the press notes,
"a breakthrough in Indigenous representation on television." The
anxiety of first-ing can weigh heavily on a creative mind. No
surprise, maybe, that the teen leads struggle with their own anxieties
around their ancestors' legacy. Bear keeps getting visited by a ghost
(Dallas Goldtooth), who is sort of a parody of an "Indian Spirit
Guide" but who also provides genuinely helpful advice about
interpersonal communication. (Certainly, he must be the first spirit
guide in Hollywood history to ever use the word "pedagogy," or to
proudly claim that Crazy Horse menstruated.) There are characters
striving to get off the literal reservation — and characters who
worry that doing so would be an act of, like, cultural betrayal. Heavy
stuff, with a light touch. Brownie seems to be cleansing his home of
unclean white-man artifacts — and then he changes his mind, because
he just can't send his VHS copy of _Big Trouble in Little China_ to
the trash can.

Here, in short, is a show everyone should see and most will love. I do
have two minor concerns. First, the ensemble actually might
be _too_ big for a half-hour show with a 10-episode season. It's an
embarrassment of riches problem, but the four young leads are all real
discoveries, and these first four episodes don't give Willie Jack or
Lane Factor's freakishly sincere Cheese nearly enough to do. (Happy to
rescind this statement when and if they both get showcase episodes.)
Second, _Dogs_ has a tendency to cycle back through the same couple
of core pilot concepts. Halfway through season 2, characters keep
talking about going to California, and the tragic death of Daniel
(Dalton Cramer) seems to come up whenever an episode needs a slow-down
dramatic moment. (Mourning Daniel often seems to be Elora's sole
character trait). Obviously, ambition and sorrow don't fade away. But
both of those story strands lose power with repetition.

This is a rich, sweet, and sharp comedy, though, with a world-built
visual texture that turns every room into a freeze-frame treasure. It
never stops being funny that every single person knows Elora's name
come from _Willow_. It never stops being oddly touching how vigilant
Cheese is about pronouns. "Build things, boy," someone advises Bear.
"Don't tear them down." _Reservation Dogs_ is building something
big. GRADE: A-

* reservation dogs
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* Hulu
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* Native Americans
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* indigenous representation
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