I recently finished watching the show 鈥淩eservation Dogs鈥� on Hulu, and I can鈥檛 recommend it highly enough. The series runs through the universal themes of family, community, love, and loss from the perspective of four young Native Americans, their friends and family on a Reservation in Oklahoma. I鈥檓 not very familiar with Indigenous culture, and representations of Indigenous peoples in TV and movies are uncommon and often heavily stereotyped, so I was very excited to see how this show might be different. Created by Sterlin Harjo, who is a member of the Seminole Nation, and Taika Waititi, who is of M膩ori descent, the show managed to avoid the usual clich茅s and tropes, probably because all the writers and directors are Indigenous, as are nearly all the cast and production team. The show balances heavy themes with just enough humor and tenderness, and I鈥檓 not exaggerating when I say I both laughed and cried while watching nearly every episode.聽
The show follows four Indigenous teenage friends who decide to call themselves the 鈥淩eservation Dogs鈥� as a play on one of their favorite movies. Bear, Elora, Willie Jack, and Cheese are trying to get to California from their home in rural western Oklahoma, and we follow their misadventures as they figure out how to make their dream a reality. Their fifth friend, Daniel, died before the timeline of the series begins, and heading to California was originally Daniel鈥檚 idea. So, the Res Dogs are heading there to honor their lost friend. 聽
The first season focuses on exposition, giving the audience a view into contemporary Reservation life that I found informative and enlightening. The fictional town of Okern has its share of poverty and lack of social services that we often hear about on Reservations, yet the town is also beautiful, surrounded by strikingly lovely forest, and people are all portrayed with dignity and depth. Issues like substance abuse and structural poverty are present but do not overpower or predominate the narrative or the setting. Native words are peppered in with contemporary English and the universal idioms of teens across America.聽聽We also see how Native American spirituality pervades Reservation life: people see visions of ancestors and often have conversations with them, funerals have special traditions, supernatural beings are main characters, and people share superstitions not often seen outside of Indigenous culture. 聽
In preparation for their trip west, the Res Dogs sell meat pies in front of the Indian Health Clinic, visit a reclusive uncle, prepare for the return of Bear鈥檚 famous dad, go hunting with family, and take a Driver鈥檚 License exam that turns into a car chase. Throughout it all, the pain left by the death of their friend is still felt. The final episode surprises with a disaster that throws a wrench in the Res Dogs鈥� plans but also shows them how the community can come together in the face of adversity. 聽
The second season focuses more on relationships and challenges to those relationships. After the disaster at the end of Season 1, the Res Dogs have splintered apart. Elora and a new friend decide to run to California without the rest of the crew, encountering danger and grace along the way. Willie Jack and Cheese work with some of the elders to break a curse, and Bear gets a real job as a roofer. Difficult themes are again approached with humor and tenderness, including the death of a close elder, an arrest, time in a group home, overt cultural appropriation, a 鈥渄ecolonization鈥� youth retreat, accidental ingestion of hallucinogens, white supremacists, and the return of a supernatural being. With some help from medicine people both present and ancestral, Willie Jack works to get the crew get back together, and by the last episode of the season, the Res Dogs finally take their trip out West to honor their lost friend, Daniel.聽
After completing the second season, it seemed to me like the show had already tied up all loose ends. What more the show could bring to its third and final season? Thankfully, the content was just as good, if not better, than the first two seasons. The final season continues the development of the four main characters as they find their way into adulthood, with additional focus on issues of kinship and community against a backdrop of structural disadvantage and intergenerational trauma. Across its ten episodes, the crew travels back from California, Bear has a solo journey, Elora learns about her parents and decides whether to go to college, and Willie Jack finds her destiny as a medicine person. This season tackles the grave topics of Indian Boarding Schools across the generations, dispossession of lands and culture, ancestral healing knowledge, and the unique traditions of a Native funeral. We also see characters struggling with mental illness, feeling like an outsider among friends, confronting whiteness and Indigenous identity, and the tension between seeking one鈥檚 fortune abroad versus staying home with one鈥檚 primary community.聽
Like finishing a beloved novel, I felt so sad after watching the last episode of Reservation Dogs. It was hard to say goodbye to these characters I have gotten to know so well and grown so fond of. And yes, I found myself crying once again. 10/10 I would absolutely recommend. 聽