Reservation Dogs

It follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma, as they spend their days hanging out and committing crimes to earn enough money to leave their reservation community.

Reservation Dogs
Genre	Teen drama Comedy drama
Created by	Sterlin Harjo Taika Waititi
Starring	Devery Jacobs D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai Lane Factor Paulina Alexis
Composer	Mato Wayuhi
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	28
Production
Executive producers	Sterlin Harjo Taika Waititi Garrett Basch
Producer	Kathryn Dean
Production location	Oklahoma
Cinematography	Mark Schwartzbard Christian Sprenger
Running time	22–38 minutes
Production companies	Waititi Crazy Eagle Media Dive FXP
Original release
Network	FX on Hulu
Release	August 9, 2021 (2021-08-09) – September 27, 2023 (2023-09-27)

It is the first American series to feature all Indigenous writers and directors, along with an almost entirely Indigenous North American cast and crew. The first season was filmed entirely in Oklahoma, a first for a series. The series premiered on Hulu under FX on Hulu branding on August 9, 2021 (International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples). It was renewed for a second season in 2021 and a third and final season in 2022, which premiered on August 2, 2023. The series concluded on September 27, 2023.

Reservation Dogs received widespread critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including a Peabody Award and two Independent Spirit Awards, and has been nominated for one Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award, one Golden Globe, two Television Critics Association Awards, and nine Critics' Choice Television Awards. Additionally, it was named one of the best series of 2021 and 2022 by many critics, and consecutively listed as one of the ten best television programs of 2021, 2022, and 2023 by the American Film Institute.

The series follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers (the Rez Dogs) in rural Oklahoma, in a small town in the Muscogee Nation, where they spend their days "committing crime and fighting it." Their friend Daniel, who dreamed of moving to California, died one year before the events of the show. As the Rez Dogs grapple with his death, they contemplate whether to make the trip to California themselves. They each need to address unresolved issues in their lives and community and make plans to leave.

In Season 2, the Rez Dogs are still experiencing grief over Daniel's death and have lost some of their connection to each other. The "California dream" does not turn out as they expected, resulting in more feelings of disappointment and abandonment. They cope using humor but also increasingly face adult challenges. Financial and family responsibilities arise as they continue to try to figure out their lives.

Season 3 explores the history of the elders in the community and how the events and choices of their youth led to their present day lives. Parallels are drawn between the Rez Dogs and the younger selves of the aunties, uncles and grandparents.

Main

• Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan Postoak. Named for the Willow character, she is the most responsible and driven member of the gang. Elora lost her mother when she was still a toddler.
• D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear Smallhill. Bear sees himself as the "leader" of the Rez Dogs gang, despite being the only one of the group to think so. He grew up with only his mother parenting him and is still very close to her. He longs for a relationship with his estranged, deadbeat dad. Bear experiences visions of a spirit guide.
• Lane Factor as Chester "Cheese" Williams. More laid back than Elora or Bear, he rolls with the flow of whatever mischief or misadventure comes his way. He lives with his "cousin uncle", Charley; Cheese tends to connect with various adult characters in the show.
• Paulina Alexis as Wilhelmina Jacqueline "Willie Jack" Sampson. A tomboy, she is very close with her parents. Daniel was Willie Jack's cousin and she is strongly affected by his death.

Recurring

• Sarah Podemski as Rita, Bear's mother. A devoted single parent, Rita works at the local Indian Health Service (IHS) clinic and frequently fields advances from male admirers. She is determined to find a man who can be a better father figure to Bear than Punkin.
• Zahn McClarnon as Officer Big; a lighthorseman known for his patience with petty criminals as well as for his superstitious nature.
• Dallas Goldtooth as William "Spirit" Knifeman; a self-proclaimed warrior who died at The Battle of Little Big Horn, even though he did not do any fighting; he has been sent to act as a guide to Bear. In season 2 he also appears to Uncle Brownie.
• Gary Farmer as Uncle Brownie, Elora's uncle. While the bar fights of his past are legendary, he now lives in the woods as a hermit. Part of the 1976 friend group, when he spoke of wanting to one day open a dojo.
• Elva Guerra as Jackie, leader of the NDN mafia; she grew up in the city and wants to return to urban life. She and Elora bond during their first attempt to reach California. She also lost her brother to suicide.
• Lil Mike as Mose, half of a local rap duo along with his brother; they ride around the community on their bikes or kick scooters, keeping track of local gossip and commenting on events.
• Funny Bone as Mekko, the other half of the local rap duo.
• Jack Maricle as White Steve, member of the NDN mafia.
• Jude Barnett as Bone Thug Dog, member of the NDN mafia.
• Xavier Bigpond as Weeze, member of the NDN mafia.
• Dalton Cramer as Daniel, Willie Jack's late cousin and friend of the Rez Dogs, who died by suicide a year before the start of the show. He appears occasionally in dreams and flashbacks. He wanted to go to California, a dream that the Rez Dogs try to fulfill in his honor. He had a secret crush on Elora.
• Bobby Lee as Dr. Kang, the primary physician at the tribal clinic.
• Kirk Fox as Kenny Boy, owner of the local salvage yard; constantly trying to convince people he is Native American, interspersing his speech with mispronounced and misunderstood words and concepts in Navajo, Lakota, and Ojibwe, much to the annoyance of actual Natives.
• Matty Cardarople as Ansel, a worker at the local salvage yard.
• Jon Proudstar as Leon, Willie Jack's father. Since the loss of his nephew, he has become overprotective of Willie Jack.
• Kimberly Guerrero as Auntie B, Willie Jack's aunt, a paranoid beadworker.
• Jana Schmieding as Bev, the clinic receptionist and Jackie's aunt.
• Casey Camp-Horinek as Irene, the grandmother Cheese meets at the clinic. She later becomes his foster parent. In the 1976 friend group at high school, she is a budding activist who wants to join AIM.
• Kaniehtiio Horn as Deer Lady, a spirit in the form of a beautiful woman with deer hooves.
• Geraldine Keams as Mabel, Elora's grandmother. In the 1976 friend group, she says she wants to have lots of babies. Maximus and Fixico had a falling out in 1976, partially over a love triangle with Mabel.
• Jennifer Podemski as Dana, Willie Jack's mom
• Tamara Podemski as Teenie, Elora's aunt. She is Mabel's daughter and Cookie's sister.
• Janae Collins as Cookie, Elora's mom and close friend of the Aunties and Big. She died when Elora was very young, but is seen in flashbacks; in season 3 she returns as a spirit, but only Rita can see her.
• Wes Studi as Bucky, an eccentric local artist; part of the 1976 friend group at boarding school
• Richard Ray Whitman as Old Man Fixico
• Bobby Wilson as Jumbo, who works at the weed dispensary
• Migizi Pensoneau as Ray Ray, Jumbo's good friend
• Warren Queton as Clinton, Rita's boss at the IHS Clinic
• Nathan Apodaca, as Uncle Charley, the "cousin uncle" Cheese lives with who is arrested in season 2
• Nathalie Standingcloud as Natalie, an ophthalmologist that works at the clinic, one of the Aunties
• Macon Blair as Rob
• Darryl W. Handy as Cleo
• Rhomeyn Johnson as Miles

Guest

• Garrett Hedlund as David
• Lily Gladstone as Hokti, Daniel's mom and Willie Jack's auntie, a medicine woman who is currently in prison
• Graham Greene as Maximus, eccentric recluse who sees spirits and is waiting for the return of the Star People; in the 1970s, lived on the Oklahoma reservation, attended the same boarding school as Deer Woman had in a previous era, and had a friend group similar to the current Rez Dogs.
• Evan Adams as Larry, the IHS mental health therapist, who interrupts, talks over, and dumps his own trauma on clients
• Tafv Sampson as Gram, an ancestor of Willie Jack and Hokti, who now watches and helps them as a spirit. She walked the Trail of Tears and, in the afterlife, is in a hot sexual relationship with William Knifeman
• Sten Joddi as Punkin Lusty, Bear's estranged father, a rapper living in California
• Bill Burr as Garrett Bobson (Chukogee), Elora's former basketball coach and driving instructor
• Brandon Boyd as White Jesus of Los Angeles
• Amber Midthunder as MissMa8riarch, alleged online influencer, youth seminar leader; claims to be many things.
• Quannah Chasinghorse as the 1976 version of Irene, Cheese's adopted grandmother
• Elisha Pratt as Augusto Firekeeper, self-described "actor, model, poet, hatmaker", etc.
• Joy Harjo as Manager of the convenience store where Elora works
• Megan Mullally as Anna
• Michael Spears as Danny, Daniel's father
• Marc Maron as Gene, head of a foster home, who "spends his days harassing and trauma-dumping on Native youth."
• Ryan RedCorn as Olf, "a Comanche-Ponca Juggalo" on the bus trip from California to Oklahoma
• Keland Lee Bearpaw as Danny Bighead
• Tim Cappello as sax player on beach
• Ethan Hawke as Rick, Elora's father

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2022)

Season 3 (2023)

Development

The series was first reported on in November 2019 and was confirmed by Taika Waititi on Twitter shortly after. The initial report announced that Waititi would be co-writing the series with Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, who would also share executive producer and directing duties with Waititi. After the pilot had been shot in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, FX announced a series order for the project in December 2020. The casting for the four lead actors, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Alexis, and newcomer Lane Factor, was also confirmed at this time, alongside a group of guest stars to be featured in the pilot episode. Filming sites for principal photography for season one, which had wrapped by July 2021, included Okmulgee, Tulsa, Sand Springs, Beggs, Inola, and Terlton, all in northeast Oklahoma. On September 2, 2021, FX renewed the series for a second season, also filmed on location in Okmulgee.

Creative team

The series features a predominantly Indigenous cast and crew, including creator Sterlin Harjo, and an all-Native writers' room. It's the first show to feature an entirely Native writers' room. Discussing their creative partnership and respective roles in the production, Waititi stressed, "I really believe people need to tell their own stories and especially from whatever area they are from", leading to Harjo, who is from Oklahoma, taking the lead on the project and Waititi taking a more supporting role. Additionally, many of the storylines in the show are inspired by events from Harjo's childhood.

Part of the development process included casting unknown actors from Indigenous communities, and the young leads in particular forming a working rapport, often around their shared love of Indigenous comedy. Jacobs and Alexis added that they bonded over their mutual appreciation of the sketch comedy group 1491s. Four of the five members of the 1491s worked on season one of the series, and with the addition of Ryan RedCorn to the writers' room for season two, all of the 1491s are now working on Reservation Dogs as writers and actors, directors, or producers. On September 22, 2022, FX renewed the series for a third season. Harjo announced on June 29, 2023, that the show would end with the third season.

Themes

The series explores themes of death, grief, and community, mirroring experiences common in Native American communities. The series is marked by loss, notably the off-screen deaths of Daniel and the death of Elora Danan's mother, Cookie. This theme of loss resonates throughout its three seasons, culminating in the poignant series finale.

The series premiered on FX on Hulu in the United States on August 9, 2021. In international markets, it is distributed through the Star hub of the Disney+ streaming service. In Latin America, the series premiered as a Star+ original. In India, all eight episodes of season 1 premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on October 2, 2021.

The series made its cable TV premiere on FX in the United States on June 26, 2023.

Critical response

All three seasons of Reservation Dogs received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the overall series holds a 99% approval rating. Meanwhile, on Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the overall series received a score of 89 out of 100. Each season of the series was also listed among the ten best television programs of 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively, by the American Film Institute.

Season 1

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season received an approval rating of 98% with an average score of 8.2 out of 10, based on 61 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Aimless afternoons yield absurd delights in Reservation Dogs, a low-key comedy that deftly captures the malaise of youth and Rez life thanks in no small part to its impressive central crew." On Metacritic, it received a score of 84 out of 100, based on 22 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Writing for The Guardian, Ellen E Jones gave the show a rating of five out of five, and said "Reservation Dogs is able to lay waste stylishly to centuries of myth and misrepresentation due to one simple, crucial, innovation: almost everyone involved in the production is a Native American, offering a perspective which never panders to the often-fetishising gaze of outsiders. Instead, this show tells of the push-pull of home: that simultaneous yearning to both belong and be free". Candice Frederick of TV Guide rated the series four out of five, based on the first four episodes and said, "Though it wrestles with some heavy, but not overtly political, themes, Reservation Dogs seems to mostly have fun with young life on a reservation." In another four out five rating, Alan Sepinwall, writing for Rolling Stone, said, "a show like Reservation Dogs feels long overdue. And this exact show? It's awfully good." Paste magazine's Allison Keene gave a rating of 9.2 out of 10 and called the series "a perfect summer series, one that takes places on languid afternoons and moves at an unhurried pace."

Reviewing the first two episodes, Danette Chavez of The A.V. Club gave it a "B+" and said, "Reservation Dogs is already on track to be one of the best comedies (and shows) of the year." Kristen Lopez of IndieWire also gave it a grade of "B+", saying, "[Reservation Dogs] is a surprising series that illustrates why everyone's story is worth telling" and also praised the four main actors, stating that "the teens assembled here are all fantastic, conveying so much about their characters' true selves even if they don't know it yet". Vox's Emily St. James also praised the main actors, calling them "one of the best ensembles of teen characters in recent memory" and regarded the first season as "one of the best first seasons of a comedy in some time." Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter also praised the cast as well as the "triumph" representation of the Native Americans.

The New Yorker's Doreen St. Félix wrote, "Reservation Dogs is a mood piece, and a sweet one, a collection of intertwined and poetic portraiture that focuses not solely on the central cast". Daniel D'Addario of Variety said, "Reservation Dogs is a lovely, eminently watchable triumph. It's an overdue tribute to a sort of community it doesn't mythologize. Instead, the show treats the reservation and its residents on their own terms, as worthy of being explored for just what it is, and just who they are." Polygon's Joshua Rivera praised the series, saying, "like a lot of great art, Reservation Dogs challenges its audience with wit and style to look in spaces that have long been ignored, and identify with experiences that are outside their own." Writing for IGN, Matt Fowler said, "Reservation Dogs features characters we like, a community we're drawn to (and may be curious about)." Esther Zuckerman of Thrillist praised the series' tone, stating that "Reservation Dogs is at times melancholy, and at times deeply irreverent. But whatever mood it's going for at any given moment, it's some of the most unique, enjoyable, and artistically satisfying television available to watch."

Season 2

On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds an approval rating of 100%, with an average score of 9.1 out of 10, based on 35 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Reservation Dogs has bittersweet bite in its sophomore season as it mines more difficult dilemmas than before with its spiky sense of humor, making for a piquant portrait of a community and a place." On Metacritic, it holds a score of 93 out of 100, based on 16 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Critics were given the first four episodes prior to its premiere to review. It received an "A" from Manuel Betancourt of The A.V. Club and Chase Hutchinson of Collider, an "A-" from Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly and Brian Tallerico of The Playlist, and a "B+" from Kristen Lopez of IndieWire. Betancourt highlighted the way it treats dark materials, such as generational trauma, wounding grief, and systemic inequities, with "winsome humor", without going too far. Hutchinson praised the writing, humor, and performances, particularly Jacobs' and Woon-A-Tai's. Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter also praised the performances and further singled out Jacobs', particularly in the episode "Mabel". Kristen Reid of Paste gave it a 9.3 out of 10 and said, "Just a season and a half in, Harjo and co-creator Taika Waititi have already found their groove with Reservation Dogs. Inviting us onto the reservation to experience it with this group of quickly beloved kids, [It] feels like a celebration of Native life and a way to inspire change for the better."

Variety's Caroline Framke wrote in her favorable review: "for the hundreds of shows premiering every year, there's still simply nothing else on TV quite like 'Reservation Dogs'. [It] gives voice, time, and flawed dirtbag humanity to Indigenous Americans, who have long been little more onscreen than one-note punchlines. But it also does so with an approach that could only have come from these writers, actors, directors and production crew members. This is a show so self-assured in its own voice and perspective that it's not just gratifying to watch, but a welcome relief." Joe Keller of Decider summarized his review by saying, "Reservation Dogs improves on its excellent first season by deepening the community on the rez, making it less about the Dogs and more about traditions, people who think they know the traditions but don't, and just how funny and rich life there can be, even if people have to be creative to get by."

For the season finale, TVLine named Woon-A-Tai, Jacobs, Factor and Alexis the "Performers of the Week" for the week of October 1, 2022. The site wrote: "No single actor outshined the others; rather, it was their combined chemistry and the characters' reliance on each other that made us laugh at their antics and reel in their heartbreak. [...] Jacobs exhibited a wealth of vulnerability in her body language and diction as Elora admitted her fear of letting Daniel go. Woon-A-Tai was brought to tears, as Bear was consumed by love for his friends. Alexis displayed a wealth of fortitude as Willie Jack proved to be both the Dogs' safety net and comedic relief. And after they joined together for a prayer, Factor quivered and choked on his emotions as Cheese revealed his lingering anger."

Season 3

On Rotten Tomatoes, the third and final season holds an approval rating of 100%, with an average score of 9.5 out of 10, based on 40 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Bowing out while still having plenty of creativity to spare, Reservation Dogs' final season sidesteps feeling premature by satisfying on every level." On Metacritic, it holds a score of 94 out of 100, based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Critics' top ten list

Accolades