Hit or Miss: 'Reservation Dogs'

FX is adding to its slate of high brow comedies with the addition of a new show from Taika Waititi, the brilliant New Zealand director coming off an Academy Award winning year for Jojo Rabbit and with several new projects on the horizon he is lending his talents to work with longtime friend Sterlin Harjo a Native director who has set all of his films on location in Oklahoma his home state and has won numerous awards from Sundance and the American Indian Film Festival for Four Sheets from the Wind, Barking Water, and This May Be the Last Time. These two together have gotten a series order for their new show along with their third collaborator and producer Garrett Basch, Reservation Dogs, The pilot was written by Waititi and Harjo with Harjo also directing, the story involves a group of youths committing crimes and fighting crime in their hometown in Oklahoma as they do their best to save, rob, and earn money to make their way to California to honor a fifth member of their group who they lost a year before, they blame the poverty, and the mindsets of the community that crushes spirits that caused his death. While dealing with rival gangs, petty crime, and life on the reservation they do their best to honor their friend’s dream of seeing the coasts of California. Reservation Dogs is a landmark show because it is entirely created by Native filmmakers and every series regular is part, if not full blood Native American. This crew of filmmakers draw heavily on their own personal experiences of growing up and living on the reservations themselves and use their own stories to tell this one that is full of youth, courage, and misadventure according to Nick Grad, President of Original Programming of FX Entertainment. It is also completely shot on location in Oklahoma. The show stars D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai as Bear, Devery Jacobs as Elora, Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack, and Lane Factor as Cheese to round out the main group of five. Despite what the description might suggest as well as the somewhat grim backstory that precedes the beginning of this series, it is being billed as comedy. Taika Waititi’s body of work would suggest it to be in that vein with the Kiwi actor and director helming many comedies and being successful with all of them even with his recent What We Do in the Shadows series also on FX being renewed for a third season that will premiere in September. This new show will be a pivotal part of FX’s fall lineup of shows especially since many of the massive dramas that FX relies on American Horror Story, Mayans MC, and Atlanta are all currently not airing and with Archer also finishing its 11th season, FX has very few shows left to push outside of this new slate including, Y The Last Man based on a popular comic book. All of these shows will be readily available for streaming the day after airing on Hulu which leads to the staying power of many of their smaller shows. Reservation Dogs will be premiering on FX on Monday, August 9th on FX.