Saying Goodby wTo Reservation Dogs: An Analysis of the Final Season of One of the Best Shows of the 2020s

 

As an observer of television I’ve noticed an intriguing theme during TV in the 2020s. When it comes to series that have the possibility to be all-time classics that aired entirely in this new decade, so far the ones that have greater potential have been comedies rather than dramas.

And as I mentioned in an earlier piece the best comedies I’ve seen so far this decade have been moving away from the often mean-spirited humor that made up so much of even the best comedies of the 2010s (Veep, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and towards a comedy that airs towards a sweeter, often more communal kind of humor. This has been best manifested through Ted Lasso and Abbott Elementary, by far the most successful new comedies of the past few years, but it has also been true of several other gems, such more successful (Hacks, Only Murders in the Building); some under the radar (Somebody Somewhere). And one of the best examples of this is the just completed Reservation Dogs which aired for three superb seasons on FX on Hulu.,

Reservation Dogs has always been one of the most brilliantly charming series I’ve ever seen as well as the fact that it broke ground by being the first series cast entirely with indigenous actors as well as being written and directed by them. Sterlin Harjo, the showrunner, was aided in partnership with Taiki Waititi in created a wonderful world that even within the confines of an Oklahoma reservation seemed to have the ability to span not only vast distances through time and generations.

This was made in clear in the major storyline that ran underneath the third season. As I mentioned in my initial review of the series, on his return from California Bear encountered Maximus (Graham Greene) a man who seemed horribly delusional, believing in aliens as well as a deeper psychosis. I didn’t know until the end of the series not only of Maximus’ connection to the reservation but that overall theme.

In a flashback to the 1970s called ‘House of Bongs’ we traveled back in time half a century looking at the teenage versions of the elders we’ve seen throughout the series. The episode took place in the beginning of summer break and Maximus was clearly somewhat apart from the group. Then one night, after a major LSD fueled experience, the young Maximus had an encounter with a flying saucer and his friends didn’t believe him.

In the episode immediately following the elders went out to intervene in Cheese, who lives with his grandmother and who she was beginning to worry about him. The group went out camping and Cheese got them to share their feelings. The scene started as comedy but became much more moving as it was clear that dealing with their darkness was not something the elders had ever been capable of doing. After it ended, they admitted that they’d had a friend like him when they were younger named: ‘Maximus’ and they’d lost him.

The threads came together in Send It where they were all being interrogated for their involvement in a ‘crime’ This had been the work of Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) who had been a friend of Old Man Fixico and that episode had a heart attack and was lying near death. The ‘Res Dogs’ got together for ‘one last job’ to find Fixico’s cousin, who they believed was committed to an institution and bust him out.

The lead-up to the episode was hysterical as it was planned with the intricacy of a heist and the intelligence of, well, a bunch of a teenagers. None of them had the slightest idea of what they were doing at any point when they discussed things like ‘cutting camera wires’ as well as providing a distraction. Bone Thug Dog and White Steve engaged in a scene so utterly hysterical with a clerk that you wondered if she was just doing this to be nice. It was hysterically funny particularly considering no one even knew who they were looking for.

Then Bear and Willie Jack got inside – and it was Maximus. Maximus recognized Bear and told him in fact he was here voluntarily. When Bear encountered him, he’d been off his meds for a while and he needed to get straightened out. But he refused initially to go with them. Bear, in one of the high points of D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai’s tenure expressed genuine rage and made clear that if he’d had a chance to see Daniel again, he’d jump at. Maximus nodded and just checked himself out. To be clear, the episode ended in high comedy – the school bus they’d brought for the ‘heist’ exploded, which was why Big was interrogating them in the first place but there was a sense of closure.

The series finale brought together all the things we have come to love about Reservation Dogs. Willie Jack went to visit her aunt in prison to deal with how she is coming to terms with Fixico’s passing. Her Auntie Hotki (Lily Gladstone) after talking with a spiritual ancestor in the room (I’ll get back to this) explained to her the nature of community and how the fact that through all the lives Fixico had touched, he was never truly lost and it clearly moved Willie Jack. The two have never had an easy relationship over the years but it’s clear that she has found a way to move forward.

The final episode dealt with the burial ritual of Fixico and a gathering of the elders: Uncle Brownie, Bucky, Grandma Irene and Maximus, possibly for the first time since Maximus’ break from the community. They were constantly drinking coffee (to keep the spirits away, they said) and Maximus seemed more stable than he had in the entire season. There was a fair amount of comedy mixed in with the mourning: the elder who showed up was clearly high on weed, they were debating on how much earth they’d need, and a moving moment where Willie Jack dug the first shovel of earth was immediately undercut when it was revealed that they had forgotten the shovels they needed.

But there was also a sense of an ending and new beginnings. Elora (Devery Jacobs) spent much of the episode trying to tell Bear that she was going to college and when she learned his mother had taken a new job far away from him, she was upset and terrified. The scene in the memorial service was moving as Bear made it very clear that he wasn’t upset but proud of Elora. “You’ve been through so much and you’ve come through it all.” There were sense of connections being built, particularly given the way that Willie Jack, who had started the series more lost now seems to be taking on the capability of a leadership role, particularly as she gave the final words over Plaxico’s grave. And it looked good to see that Big (the always wonderful Zahn McClarnon) may actually be able to connect romantically for the first time in his life.

It was inevitable that Bear would have a final meeting with his Spirit guide in the aftermath of the funeral, but this actually had a deeper seriousness to it that all the prior meetings have lacked. Bear has actually learned that he was never alone and that he has a community and a family, even if it is not all by blood. He spent so much of the first two seasons desperate to escape the reservation; now he seems willing to take time to find a way forward. It was funny -  the spirit just had to walk off rather than disappear - but there was a profoundness to it.

We got to say goodbye to the Res Dogs twice. First we saw the four we’ve known and loved for three years as they say tearful goodbyes. And then we cut to the four elders saying to themselves: “We did good.” And the show has earned that departure because we see the love for community that passes down through generations.

There has been a sense of spirituality in the final season even more than before. In Wahoo, Rita was visited by her old friend Cookie, Elora’s mother who died of opioids before Elora knew her. At first the episode was hysterical as Rita justifiably thought she was going crazy and scheduled a meeting with a therapist, even then not dealing with. She then went to a restaurant where they had lunch in public and Rita looked crazier. But then Cookie got to the point: she wanted Rita to see Elora and ask how she was doing. After the visit, Rita said that Cookie had all the answers. And Cookie lost it: “How? I’m always going to be 20. I can never see my daughter. But you can.” The episode ended with Rita telling Bear about her new job and him saying how glad he was she was taking it. Rita and her friends also said goodbye to Cookie, something that they hadn’t done in twenty years.

And in the penultimate episode of the series Elora tracked down her father, whose existence she had only learned about a few episodes ago. She didn’t want to see him but she needed to get financial aid and this was the only way. So she ended up following her father (Ethan Hawke) and when her amateurish efforts failed, he immediately recognized her.

The episode was understandably awkward for several minutes until her father brought her back to his home and gave her pictures of her mother with herself as an infant. Elora had almost no pictures of herself that young and the episode took a regretful turn. Her father made it clear that they got pregnant with Elora to young and that they were never going to work out: both of them were on drugs and he’s only gotten cleaned up within the past decade. The episode then became moving as Elora was introduced to her stepbrother and stepsister and they instantly connected. As they had dinner together there was something sweet and it looks that Elora has a more certain future than just college.

Sterlin Harjo said before he announced that Season 3 would be the last one that at one point he’d had plans for the show to run five seasons. I believe that he made the right decision. Reservation Dogs has been the kind of show that America – not just indigenous people – need. It shows a community that has been completely destroyed by White America but that even with almost every single thing against them, they find a way to keep moving forward and not let the system beat them. I wish there’d been more seasons of Reservation Dogs because I’m sorry its over. But I’m glad to know that it ended on its own terms.

Of course the right terms would be a shitload of Emmy nominations. And given the level of transition TV is in right now that might actually happen. Reservation Dogs  has been a major force in critics groups since it debuted in 2021: it took the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Ensemble Cast and New Scripted Series in 2022 and won the Peabody that same year. It’s received nominations from the WGA every year its been on the air, was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical in 2022 (the year the show wasn’t televised). The AFI named it TV program of the year three years running and the Critics Choice Awards has named the series Best Comedy all three seasons it was on the air and giving acting nominations to Woon-A-Tai, Jacobs and Alexis the last two years. Naturally the Emmys spent the last two years focused on Ted Lasso and Only Murders in the Building. (To be fair, they also have been giving a lot of nominations and awards to Abbott Elementary and The Bear so its not like this is entirely a case of EmmysSoWhite.)

But with the Emmys in transition, the odds for Reservation Dogs have improved. On Gold Derby it currently ranks seventh of probable nominees for Best Comedy and there aren’t a lot of formidable contenders behind it. As for acting it’s a trickier subject but in Best Actress Devery Jacobs is currently ranked seventh. Ayo Edebiri of The Bear, Quinta Brunson of Abbott Elementary, Jean Smart of Hacks (which I can’t wait to review) and Selena Gomez for Only murders in the Building are locks for nominations. The two performers ahead of her are SNL veterans – Kristen Wiig for Palm Royale and Maya Rudolph for Loot  - but the former series isn’t highly regarded and the latter has less potential. Woon-A-Tai faces a harder battle considering that Jeremy Allan White, Larry David, Steve Martin and Martin Short are far ahead of him and Kelsey Grammer has a good chance for the revival of Fraiser. Realistically Alexis, for all her abilities, has no chance getting in against the ensembles of The Bear or Abbott Elementary, Hannah Einbinder for Hacks – and that’s before you consider the frontrunner is Meryl Streep. Jacobs has the most likely chance of the group to get nominated and it could contend for direction and writing.

What I can say is unequivocally that Reservation Dogs is one of the great series of this decade even if the Emmys never give it what its owed. I realize as the whitest of white people I might not be qualified to talk about it, but I recognize that some ideals – laughter, loss, community and family – are universal traits. I’m grateful to have spent time in the world Harjo has created and I look forward to seeing what new projects he comes up with in the future. I also look forward to the third season of Dark Winds whenever it comes around. It’s a different, darker part of that world but I’m just as glad to be part of it too.

 

My score: 5 stars.