“Reservation Dogs” on Hulu just wrapped up an outstanding second season, and FX greenlit the show for a third season. The critically acclaimed TV series centers on four Indigenous teenagers — the eponymous gang from which the show takes its namesake, the Reservation Dogs— living on a reservation in rural Oklahoma. The series follows the exploits of Elora Danan (Devery Jacobs), Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), and Chester “Cheese” Williams (Lane Factor). Much of these two seasons have been about the Dogs grappling with the death of Daniel (Dalton Cramer), Willie Jack’s cousin, the fifth member of their squad who was beloved by all and died a year before the events of the show began.
Co-created and executive produced by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, “Reservation Dogs” is pushing the boundaries of half-hour comedy, demonstrating that it can be anything: hilarious, devastatingly sad, absurdist, discursive, surreal, strange, deeply profound, and soulful—it’s easily one of the best television shows on right now. “We, like many other shows, owe a big debt to ‘Atlanta,’” showrunner, writer, and director Harjo told The Playlist in a recent interview about Donald Glover’s ATL set comedy which also has been groundbreaking in its use of similar surreal comedy that seems to know no boundaries. “They broke down doors, and many of us took inspiration from that.”
Perhaps the difference between “Atlanta” and “Reservation Dogs,” or shows like Hulu’s “Ramy,” which also gives us a peek into a culture we don’t always see represented, yet always mixing heart, humor, and social commentary, in its sense of loss. “Reservation Dogs” doesn’t wallow in the past and certainly tries to have a more celebratory, life-affirming look at reservations than we’ve seen in the past on screen. At the same time, it does not ignore history. “Certainly, there’s a sense of generational trauma that carries through to a lot of these characters,” Harjo said. “Their grandparents and great-grandparents endured hardships, and a lot of that loss and pain, it’s hard to ignore.”
In full disclosure, most of the audio of our interview was unfortunately corrupted and unusable, so a terrific, insightful interview with Harjo has been lost. But a few key moments were salvaged here, including the showrunner teasing season four. While season three had not been officially greenlit at the time of our conversation (it was announced two days later), I did ask Harjo if and when we’d hear word about season three, and he hinted beyond it.
“What can I say here?” he said with a big grin. “Put it this way; we’re already thinking ahead about what’s going to happen in season four.”
Smiling, he did not say more, but in retrospect, I got the sense that most of season three was written, and he and his writing team were already mapping out what’s next.
The supporting cast of “Reservation Dogs” is incredible, and the series’ rich sense of community is already integral to the show’s dynamic. The colorful characters give great dimension to an already vibrant world; Elva Guerra as Jackie, the Rez Dogs’ mortal enemy, turned maybe new fifth member, Sarah Podemski as Bear’s mother Rita, Zahn McClarnon as local law enforcement “Big,” Gary Farmer as Elora’s Uncle Brownie, Jennifer Podemski and Jon Proudstar as Willie Jack’s parents Dana and Leon, and Dallas Goldtooth as the spirit warrior William Knifeman” (Goldtooth being a member of Harjo’s original comedy troupe the 1491s, the sketches of which put many of them on the map initially).
Season two did a fantastic job of highlighting many of these characters, essentially giving their own episode; a narrative detour outside the Dogs’ main storyline, but somehow still elemental to the overall tale.
While most of my interview was lost, it was very meaningful to me; Harjo is such a brilliant, empathetic, funny creator worth listening to, so what follows are similar quotes he gave to other outlets during the same final episode press tour.
I had asked about the right mix of comedy. “Reservation Dogs” isn’t afraid to poke fun at itself and its culture, feeling truthful in that way, but always feels celebratory regardless.
“Most of the time, people are very precious with Native people, like, ‘This is no laughing matter.’ This is very serious and stoic, and that’s kind of how the world is trained to view us,” Harjo told NPR’s Fresh Air with a similar answer. “We realize we need to bake into the show permission to laugh with us. And I think that that spirit character, he comes in at this moment in the pilot. … If I asked most people in the world to draw a Native American, that’s what they would draw. They would draw an Indian that was dressed in buckskins from the 1800s. They wouldn’t draw me. They wouldn’t draw any of the characters on the show. So it was almost like giving people some familiar territory and then turning it on its head.”
Harjo expanded on the ideas of generational trauma, loss, and pain—and the way some of that pervades itself into the fabric of the show in the same NPR interview.
“I think that part of growing up and with Muscogee and Seminole culture is death is such a part of our experience,” Harjo explained. “It’s very community-driven. Your cousins are like your brothers and sisters. Your aunts are your extended parents, and you’re close to your elders, and everyone’s a part of this tight community. I was constantly at funerals. I’ve been a pallbearer, like, 12 to 15 times, I think, give or take. And our songs, the songs that we sing, there are these spiritual songs that we sing that mostly get sung, and you hear them at funerals, and it’s all about facing death and mortality head-on.”
“Reservoir Dogs” has the uncanny ability to make something melancholy, deeply funny, and something amusing to turn on a dime towards sadness. Perhaps it’s really a sense of resilience, truthfulness, and being able to laugh in the face of tragedy and move forward. In continuing with this answer, Harjo, in many ways, encapsulated the show.
“There’s something really beautiful about a funeral in our community, where everyone comes together, and it’s really funny,” he continued. “And you’re getting to see people that you haven’t seen in a long time, and you say, ‘I love you,’ to people that you wouldn’t normally say, ‘I love you,’ to. It’s just a part of being in a community. Someone was always passing away. … In the culture you’re taught that they’re not gone and that you can still speak to them and talk to them, and there’s ghost stories and things like that. But I just grew up with this sense of magic, and there’s a sense of like we can communicate, we can reach people in other places, and there’s ceremonies for it, and there’s different things. It’s something that I’m fascinated with … and I explore it as much as I can through my work.”
Filmed on location in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, “Reservation Dogs” is also a breakthrough in Indigenous representation on television, both in front of and behind the camera. Every writer, director, and series regular on the show is Indigenous, and this first-of-its-kind creative team tells a story that resonates with them and their lived experiences.
If you’re a fan of the show—and you should be—but even if you’re not, I encourage you to listen to the following conversations below, one with NPR’s Terry Gross, Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, a great conversation with the guys over at the Ringer’s The Watch podcast, and a few others too. All of it is essential listening. It’s unclear when “Reservation Dogs” returns for season three, maybe sometime in 2023, if we’re lucky, but it truly cannot arrive soon enough. Listen below.
