Watching: Dark Winds

S01 2022, download

This is another one that probably should be relegated to a I Saw This (!!) post, as I barely remember it. I am sure I will recall more as I re-read more, starting with the One Episode style post from when we first attempted, and failed, to watch the first season. I also swore Kent wrote about the first season, but that must have been in an alternate reality.

I won't repeat what I said in that older post, but suffice to say, we really like Zahn McClarnon (Doctor Sleep). We really liked the idea that he both got to play a familiar character AND be presented, finally, as the Main Character. I was less jazzed by it being set in the 70s, as I would rather explore our current tumultuous (if getting better?) relations with indigenous culture, and surprisingly, also less interested that it had supernatural overtones. But we gave it more time, and it was worth it. I really enjoyed the series, and its about time we downloaded the subsequent season.

So, Joe Leaphorn, head of the Navajo Tribal Police, is investigating a murder of an elder in a hotel, as well as the daughter of an old friend, a girl his own late son used to date. The sole survivor is an old, blind, traumatized woman. Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon, Blood Quantum), who we know is an undercover FBI agent, is assigned to the reserve as the new deputy. Chee is university educated and hasn't been back to the reservation since leaving to go to school. Chee has been sent into the reservation to find bank robbery money.

There's a lot going on in the show. The show is not afraid to tell the stories happening on the reservation, not as individual episodic plots, but intertwined into everything as life is. Leaphorn's wife (Deanna Allison, Accused) has taken in a young pregnant woman, afraid the clinic (where Emma is a nurse) will sterilize the young woman after she gives birth. The father of the murdered girl is at odds with Leaphorn because he was shot during an altercation after an explosion at the mine where Leaphorn's son was killed. Leaphorn's deputy Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten, Tribal) is not fond of Chee as he dismisses her strong connection to her people's spirituality -- you see, there are witches about and Chee mocks the idea. Money from the robbery is being cleaned through a local gift shop and cheesy used car sales lot, and a visiting Mormon family runs afoul of the robbers. Yeah, a lot is going on.

But yet, the show still excels better than most of pulling it all together without seeming far fetched. I like my murder mystery shows, the ones that involve pulling at multiple threads, but I also like being exposed to a world I am not entirely familiar with. I have already mentioned my great fondness for Longmire, which McClarnon is a part of (similar role, but Leaphorn is more sympathetic if less complicated) and it was my original attraction to the show, but they are two very very different shows, only connecting through the lead actor and an exposure to the challenges of Native Americans just trying to live their lives.

Of note, I might try to give "Tribal" a shot, a very Canadian crime show also set on a reserve and starring Jessica Matten but... I expect it to be so very very Canadian. There was a time when Canadian scifi dominated the small screen, but had a very very distinct style and production level which had it dismissed by most. I kind of feel that way about Canadian crime shows now.