Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) cobbles together a living as a so-called “truthstorian” journalist while running a used bookstore downstairs from his apartment. When local skinheads break into his pad to beat him up, they cite his latest newspaper article as the reason. Well, that and the fact that they feel mislabeled, since they grow out their hair now.
With its affinity for physical media and passion for the power of print journalism, the Tulsa-set The Lowdown has a pleasantly out-of-time quality. It may feature smartphones and vape pens, but creator Sterlin Harjo’s influences are largely procedurals of a certain vintage—those centered around rumpled investigators (often private eyes) who are bounced between unscrupulous bosses and receive various facial injuries for their trouble.
Among Lee’s readers are members of the bigwig Washberg family. Word on the street is that black sheep Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson) killed himself in response to another of Lee’s articles airing the Washberg ancestors’ dirty laundry. Lee, though, suspects that Dale’s death might have something to do with the family’s corruption and Dale’s older brother’s (Kyle MacLachlan) gubernatorial run. And when Lee finds secret letters tucked into the late Washberg brother’s collection of yellowing Jim Thompson paperbacks, he sets out to find the truth.
But like Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye and the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, The Lowdown is less concerned with plotting than it is in conjuring a specific atmosphere, as well as capturing the rhythms of community. The third episode, for example, takes a rather long detour involving a ring of caviar poachers, and while that storyline does little to move the main plot along, it goes a long way toward cementing the show’s relaxed and off-kilter tone.
As Lee, your run-of-the-mill divorced loser who’s determined to dote on his precocious daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), Hawke brings a rascally energy to a familiar part. Somewhat overconfident of his abilities and ever-buzzing with suspicion of the world, Lee cajoles and hounds people in a charismatic rasp, only for him to undercut the impression that he’s got it all together by presenting “business cards” that are actually just handwritten sticky notes.
Lee’s no less kooky associates also leave an indelible impression, from a neighboring tax lawyer (Macon Blair) who lets Lee store contraband in his safe to a punk-rock comrade (Peter Dinklage) who rolls into town to show off his investigative prowess. Rather than trying to pad out its mystery, The Lowdown works toward one of television’s most worthwhile pursuits: establishing a setting and cast of characters that the viewer looks forward to spending time with. Like a good pulp paperback, the series draws you in with the confidence of its vision and the sense that wherever the plot may lead, it’ll certainly be a good time.
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