Starring: Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, Jessica Matten, Amelia Rico, Jeremiah Bitsui
Director: Chris Eyre, Sanford Bookstaver
Released: 2022
Mood: If you’ve been plagued with indecision in all aspects of your life and need a show that’s guaranteed to be so good that you’ll get back to feeling confident in your choices.
Some actors are just SO GOOD in a TV role that even though they’re surrounded by other solid actors, the show couldn’t exist without them.
Tim Allen in Home Improvement. Ted Danson in The Good Place. Andre Braugher in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Jim Parsons in The Big Bang Theory. Julie Bowen in Modern Family – yeah that’s right, I’m team Claire all the way.
I had a point, though: Zahn McClarnon is so absolutely f*cking brilliant in the first season of the supernatural, psychological, Western-noir-thriller Dark Winds that I legit forgot all other shows existed. For several days. This show is outstanding, but also, he IS the show.
I know I’m late to the Dark Winds party – it’s already been renewed for its fourth season. But this impressive, Indigenous-driven series truly deserves the enthusiastic words of someone who hasn’t read the books, usually only watches comedies, is whiter than Ivory soap, and is otherwise unqualified to have a critical opinion on it other than the fact that she has this website full of her opinions.
Dark Winds takes place in the 1970s. Its first season opens with a bang, or rather, with several bangs.
There’s a helicopter raid on an armoured truck, with two guards killed and a lot of money stolen. As the helicopter flies over Navajo land, it’s witnessed by an older man. Three weeks later, that man is found dead in a motel room along with a young woman. The only witness is a blind medicine woman, who has since gone catatonic.
Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) of the Navajo Tribal Police is investigating the murders. The FBI plants agent Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) on the Tribal Police, to use the murders as an excuse to snoop for leads on the helicopter heist. And at the same time, deputy Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) looks into the welfare of a pregnant teen, only to become cursed by her mother (Amelia Rico).
All of this explodes into multiple enthralling sub-plots involving Leaphorn’s family, the witch, the FBI, a shady Catholic priest, a Mormon tourist family, a ridiculous used car salesman (Rainn Wilson), and a Native extremist group called the Buffalo Society.
The last time I was this excited about a procedural drama was probably season four of Dexter.
But Dark Winds isn’t just a procedural, nor is it just a supernatural show, a suspense-thriller, or a ‘modern’ Western drama. It defies the boundaries of these and other genres to deliver something that’s so deliciously engaging on every level that the only reason I didn’t binge the whole season in 24 hours is because I have to share the TV in the evenings and my husband didn’t want to watch it. You can harass him for his poor choices in my Facebook group.
Season one is loosely based on the third book in Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series, Listening Woman. I peeped the book’s plot online, and I can see why diehard fans of the novels are bothered – the show’s story is REALLY different, and it sounds like the characters are, too. Chee and Manuelito aren’t even introduced yet in that book.
But as a newcomer to the Leaphorn & Chee universe, I think the TV show’s characters and plot are friggin’ great.
This is Zahn McClarnon’s third time playing a Tribal Officer (previously in Longmire and Reservation Dogs), but this time he’s the lead and we finally get to see everything he can do.
Horseback riding, crawling through cave tunnels, on-foot chases, sweetness, frustration, heartbreak, snark, long moments of deep thought, negotiating at gunpoint… You get to see a fully developed person in Joe Leaphorn, through McClarnon’s layered performance. Cast this man in everything!
Kiowa Gordon and Jessica Matten are both strong in their roles as young, attractive officers of the law, but the character I can’t forget, no matter how hard I try, is Amelia Rico as the witchy Ada Growing Thunder.
Ada doesn’t talk much, but Rico sucks you in every time she’s on screen with two chilling looks: a dead-eyed stare when she’s messing with someone’s head, and a creepy cat-got-the-mouse smirk when she’s succeeded.
There are no duds among the other performances. Everyone brings something meaningful to their roles.
On top of its stellar, mostly Indigenous cast, Dark Winds also boasts an entirely Indigenous writers room, and apparently majority Indigenous producers, props, stunts, wardrobe, and other departments. It’s filmed around the Navajo Nation. There’s a lot of effort going into representation.
Still, some people have taken issue with the Navajo portrayals. I’ve seen a few articles, like this one from Native News Online, that mention the language being butchered due to poor pronunciation, Rico’s character being a whitewashed take on Navajo spiritualism, and the depiction of daily reservation life being mostly stereotypes.
But then you can also read about the production team’s efforts, like this L.A. Times story from season two’s Navajo cultural advisor, George R. Joe. He explains how words and pronunciations vary from one side of a reservation to another, and choices had to be made.
Like I said before, I’m whiter than Casper the ghost eating white rice on a snowbank, so it’s not my place to comment on the accuracy and authenticity of the Navajo content. It sounds like they’re trying really hard, and it’s not perfect, but it’s also not offensive and it’s better than a lot of other productions.
Dark Winds season one has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and high scores on all other major review sites, and that’s exactly how it should be. If you watch it and don’t think McLarnon deserves an Emmy nom (and win), you’re no longer welcome and you’d better get off my property right now.
