Comedies often defy the concept of the sophomore slump and actually improve in their second seasons as the writers learn how to write for the timing of their characters, and everyone gains confidence through the mandate of a renewal. It’s hard to believe that FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” one of the best comedies of 2021, could get better, but the first four episodes of season two display little sign of decline, hinting at a year that could be even emotionally richer than the first. If there’s a criticism here, it’s that these four episodes sometimes lean into the emotional undercurrents of this world more than ever before, although creators Sterlin Harjo, Taika Waititi, and their team of talented writers never forget the unique sense of humor that has made this show feel like nothing else on TV. While there’s a feeling that things are getting more emotionally intense on the res, that makes sense as the show’s central characters mature and come to terms with the harsh world around them (and even the one that most people can’t see).
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The first season ended with a division as Elora (Devery Jacobs) was the only one who actually came through on the gang’s promise to flee the reservation and go to Los Angeles. A tornado came through town and the new season opens with the characters who stayed picking up the pieces while Elora and Jackie (Elva Guerra) go on a bit of a doomed road trip. Encounters with a man who picks them up hitchhiking and an empty nester played by Megan Mullaly feature some of the most unexpected humor in the first half of season two while Jacobs continues to grow as a performer. Without spoiling, she gets to access new emotional range in the fourth episode and does her best work on the show to date.
The rest of the Reservation Dogs struggle to hold things together back at home, hurt by the fact that they’ve lost another one of their own. Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) spends more time than ever talking to his “Spirit” (Dallas Goldtooth), an awkward warrior guide who often gives absolutely horrible advice. Once again, the structure of the season usually allows for a different teen star to take the spotlight for a single episode sometimes, and Bear holds it in the third chapter as the young man learns the art of roof construction work. It’s one of the best episodes in the show’s history, perfectly intertwining a relatively mundane day of hard labor with a deeper context of what we learn from our fathers (or, in the case of Bear’s deadbeat dad, what they fail to teach us).
Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) actually opens the season convinced that the curse she put on Jackie led to the tornado. Cheese (Lane Factor) has less to do in the first half of the season, but he’s still a welcome presence who will almost certainly get his own standalone chapter in the back half. And, once again, the show is elevated by a killer supporting cast that includes Zahn McClarnon, the underrated Sarah Podemski, and the increasingly unhinged Gary Farmer as Uncle Brownie.
It’s a high compliment to say that “Reservation Dogs” often has the feel of early Richard Linklater in the way that it feels incredibly organic in its dialogue but also crucially specific in its setting. Linklater made films that felt like they captured a certain time and place. That kind of specificity in both character and setting is sorely lacking in television, especially streaming dramas and comedies that too often look cut from the same cloth. “Reservation Dogs” has that hard-to-capture thing that separates great comedies from merely good ones in that it speaks with its own voice.
It’s also a show that’s elevated by its veracity. Creators too often underestimate the value of allowing people to tell their own stories, and one can feel the personal connections that this cast and crew have to the first show to be shot on an Oklahoma reservation with almost entirely Indigenous writers, directors, and cast members. “Reservation Dogs” never panders to the tired concept of universal storytelling, recognizing that telling truthful, specific stories of a people and place will become universal through the empathy it engenders. Most people watching “Reservation Dogs” don’t have a spirit warrior who talks to them, but a lot of them have father issues that will resonate through Bear’s arc. Or they’ll see themselves in the troubled friendship dynamics of the central characters. They may not fully believe that a curse led to a natural disaster in their small town, but they can relate, especially in 2022, to that feeling that something is wrong in the world.
The second season of “Reservation Dogs” feels more serious than the first, with each episode centering on something tragic, whether it be a focus on death or disaster or a deadbeat dad. Sometimes the show can feel like it’s pushing the emotional beats a bit harder this season than when it allows them to come organically through the plotting; however, every episode finds a way to sneak up on you, realizing that things like grief and loneliness don’t pop up in sitcom structures as much as they work their way through daily life.
How long can “Reservation Dogs” maintain this balancing act? Will it get less interesting or feel less truthful as the teen characters age from adolescence into their quarter-life crises? As long as the writing and performances stay this pure, there will always be new stories to tell. That’s how life works, and no show captures life in quite the same way as “Reservation Dogs.” [A-]