Reservation Dogs Review: Reverence and reconciliation on the Rez
Sterlin Harjo’s Native American comedy series is endearing, soulful and original; a class apart from everything the genre has to offer.
From Sterlin Harjo & Taika Waititi, FX’s Reservation Dogs follows the exploits of four indigenous teens as they come to terms with the loss of their close friend and grapple with growing up on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma.
Where its debut season excelled at finding its foothold, the sophomore season of Reservation Dogs digs deeper and unravels each of its characters on a more nuanced, intimate level. It is the very same intimacy that has held the series together from the get-go and what every episode pivots on.
The second season picks up from the aftermath of the literal and figurative storm that took hold of the reservation in the previous season finale with the eponymous group of ‘Rez Dogs’ scattered and fending for their own problems.
Each of the teens come of age, in a series of often harshly realised (yet hilarious) truths about themselves and their community over the course of the season. Sterlin Harjo’s grounded, yet stylised vision of life on a reservation is brought to the fore with better character arcs in this season.
This season, Devery Jacobs’ (who plays Elora) co-wrote her first episode for the series alongside Harjo. Episode Four titled, “Mabel”, is named after Elora’s dying grandmother who was her primary caretaker after her mother’s passing.
Like most contemporary comedy series, Reservation Dogs transcends genre boundaries, “Mabel” being a testament to the same. A bittersweet send-off to one of the reservation’s matriarchs, the episode highlights the value of community and belonging beautifully, and hits new highs with its heart-rending climax.
A number of cameos from indigenous actors and actresses expanded the scope for storytelling this season, yet the series, like its characters, stays firmly in touch with its roots, never deviating from its course correction of Native American erasure from mainstream narratives. And it does so with aplomb, without sounding preachy or forced.
We also receive a better understanding of some of the adult characters this season, most of whom have been carrying generations worth of trauma, aching to be unpacked in increasingly hilarious circumstances.
The local reservation cop, Big, played by the impeccably funny Zahn McClarnon, offers the best of these instances as he takes a literal ‘trip’ down memory lane following an accidental, yet wildly imaginative tryst with psychedelics.
Harjo’s writing builds upon central narratives, cleverly weaving them around these little explorations of supporting characters. Though Big and the local drug dealer, Kenny Boy, spend a majority of the episode laying on the grass and busting a ritual involving cat-fish fornication and worse yet, white people; we are given deeper insights into Big’s past involving Elora’s mother and her death.
The trauma from loss has a resounding influence across many generations on the Rez, reconciliation from which is often found in the warm embrace of these tightly-knit communities and their reverence for their rich heritage.
In more ways than one, the characters from the series embark upon paths of reconciliation - from past trauma, from present mishaps and from the uncertainty of the future. In doing so, not only do they gather a heightened sense of identity, but also garner our love and appreciation as the viewers.
We mourn alongside Elora, we sympathise with Bear, we feel Willie Jack’s growing frustrations and remain hopeful with Cheese because the series treats its audience with the same level of respect and maturity as it does its characters.
Even as an outsider to the community and culture, I think it’s safe to say that Native Americans are simply, really funny people and quite frankly, it’s an absolute bummer that we haven’t had any more of the humour from prior to this series.
And while the finale subverts all expectations and brings one to tears with concerning effortlessness (seriously, that sh*t hurt), it reaffirms our faith in the untapped potential that these subaltern voices hold in their capacity for storytelling. Reservation Dogs holds no reservations, and that’s what makes it one of the very best of its time.
All episodes of Reservation Dogs are now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.