The Lowdown

The Lowdown is such a fun show. Ethan Hawke is such a good actor and this is one of his best roles in years. He carries this show and steals every scene. There is one person who comes close but he's only a supporting character who isn't in to later in the season and that's Peter Dinklage. Hawke and Dinklage are hilarious together. The Lowdown is about an investigative journalist named Lee Raybon (Hawke) whose obsession with the truth is always getting him into trouble. Hawke is so good here that I wouldn't be surprised to see him nominated for some awards. This is a show where you'll have such a good time watching it that it will fly by and keep you wanting more.

I can't account either for the poor taste of people giving this show low stars. It is excellently done in all respects. High quality neo-noir and with humor. Reminds me of the Coens, but then so many productions these days remind me of the Coens. Very believable incredible characters (that's an oxymoron, right?). A pleasure to see Kyle MacLachlan resurrect his EVIL Agent Cooper from David Lynch's final "Twin Peaks" masterpiece. A real treat to see Dinklage appear and raise the bar for the show.

Ethan Hawk is amazing in this! He's the full blown character and nothing held back. Love him for this performance. The entire cast is outstanding and the storytelling is entertaining, hilarious & deeply engaging. I appreciate the original storyline and the authenticity of the dialogue. Watch! You won't regret it. Bravo!

Sterlin steps back up to the plate, without Taika's Watiti's help this time, and knocks it out of the park. His excellent "Reservation Dogs" (also on Hulu) was a brilliant character and location-centric series that should be shown in movie direction/production classes. An absolutely brilliant series that, in my opinion, should NOT have been marketed as a comedy.

Sterlin's obvious love of his home state of Oklahoma is evident in both series, and his direction makes us love it, too. The scenery brought me right into the story and kept me intrigued. He and Ethan Hawke obviously worked well together during the final few shows of "RezDogs", and I'm happy to see Ethan leading this cast. He has a great "everyman" sense that engages us viewers and keeps us interested in the next scene. The casting department brought in some really impressive characters for Ethan to work with, too. I feel safe in saying Sterlin is an "actor's director" and maintains an enjoyable, open-input type set. I predict a huge future ahead for him.

Sterlin has also surrounded himself with a talented behind-the-scenes crew. As of this writing there are only three episodes avaliable (of the eight in the season), but I'm already a big fan of the cinematography, scoring, and set direction. All three of those departments nicely maintains the same feel of the script and overall "dusty, lower-middle class Midwest" storyline.

I'm hooked! Great job, Sterlin Harjo and crew.

Seeing Peter Dinklage ready to fight neo-nazis 1 on 3 in the middle of the street at broad daylight, is the kind of punk this show aims for, and it's so refreshing when most mystery/detective/noir shows always try to paint the authorities as the good guys. Well this show takes a whole different approach.

The formula of this show is a bit curious, because each episode has some choice guest appearances that you then seemingly say goodbye to pretty quickly, maybe after 1 or 2 episodes and then they're never to be seen again. It's obviously still too early to tell if this is actually how it is, but it would be a shame if that's the case as all the talent is amazing.

On the other hand, it helps paint a picture of the environment in a unique way, almost like the story was written from the point of view of someone close to the main protagonist who only knew the people indirectly. Like if you ever tagged along with your parent and met some of their friends that one time and that's all the impression of them you ever got.

And since this show is about an eccentric writer and his relationship to primarily his daughter, I can see how the show might written in this way for a reason not yet uncovered. Time will tell.

Definitely worth a watch for people that don't enjoy the usual copoganda slop, but do enjoy uncovering a mystery.