In the heat of summer, finding a great TV show can be like finding water in the desert. Hulu has a number of great shows worth checking out, and there are a few on the streaming service during the month of June. If you’re struggling to find a show worth watching this month, then we’ve got you covered.
Reservation Dogs is one of the more critically-acclaimed shows of the last few years, and with good reason. The series follows four Muscogee Nation teenagers living in Oklahoma who are trying to hustle and steal their way to get to California. Although it’s a comedy, Reservation Dogs is also one of the more searing portraits of Native American life today. Here’s why you should check it out.
It features a roster of exciting young talent
Both in front of and behind the camera, Reservation Dogs introduced us to a number of new stars. All of the series’ stars are largely unknowns, and each of them manages to establish a totally distinct character within the world of the show.
Equally impressive is series creator Sterlin Harjo, who establishes a distinct comedic voice that is coupled with careful observation about what Native life is like on a reservation. While the cast and creator may not have a certain future, Reservation Dogs is an excellent showcase for their remarkable talent.
It’s a careful examination of how Native culture has grown and changed
One of the more remarkable things about Reservation Dogs is that part of its premise comes from simply being poor. The poverty of the central teens is evident throughout the show, but it’s also inflected by a specificity that many in the audience may not be familiar with.
Much of the behavior of these main characters is utterly relatable, but there are also moments when they spend an entire episode trying to remove a curse that is hanging over them. It’s a blend of moments that are specific to Native American culture, and things that anyone might find relatable, and it’s that combination that makes the show feel so relevant.
It’s genuinely funny
A show about impoverished characters living life in post-colonial America might not seem like a laugh riot, but Reservation Dogs is a comedy in a way many of these sorts of “pseudo-comedies” are not.
The show is often absurd, but part of its charm is in the ways in which it combines the melancholy of these characters’ lives with the absurdity of the situations they find themselves in. Reservation Dogs definitely has a slightly surrealist bent, but that only services to reinforce how carefully built the world and the characters in it feel.
Reservation Dogs is streaming on Hulu.
