Ethan Hawke is a survivor. He made his screen debut at age 14 in the whimsical sci-fi fantasy Explorers and became a certified movie star after Dead Poet’s Society. He was Winona Ryder’s kinda toxic boyfriend in Reality Bites and Julie Delpy’s dreamy fling in Before Sunrise. He’s done everything from Richard Linklater’s experimental masterpiece Boyhood to The Purge.
Like everyone, his career has had ups and downs, but the last few years have been pretty Ethan Hawke-heavy. Right now, you can catch him on the big screen in Black Phone 2 as The Grabber, a masked serial killer with a superb villain name. But if you want to see how good this guy really is, there’s The Lowdown.
A limited series currently airing on FX and Hulu — which is in the process of being folded into Disney+ — The Lowdown is loosely based on the life of Lee Roy Chapman, a freelance journalist from Oklahoma whose investigative reporting uncovered the deep history of the Tulsa Race Massacre. (He also uncovered the largest LSD manufacturing cartel in American history, which operated out of a pair of decommissioned nuclear missile silos in Kansas in the 1990s. But that’s a story for another time.) It was created by Sterlin Harjo, the Oklahoma native who was the mastermind behind the Native American sitcom Reservation Dogs.
Hawke plays Lee Raybon, a self-styled “truthstorian” who is, like Hawke, a survivor. He’s got a raspy voice and deep smile lines from a lifetime of hard living. Most of his modest income is from his small bookstore, which mostly goes to the upkeep of his daughter Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and his ex-wife Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn). His most recent journalistic triumph is a massive exposé of the powerful Washburn family. Donald Washburn (Kyle MacLachlan) sees the airing of the family’s dirty laundry as a minor inconvenience to be overcome on his way to the governor’s mansion. But when his eccentric brother Dale (Tim Blake Nelson) commits suicide, things get more complicated. Lee doesn’t think Dale actually killed himself and suspects his wife Betty Jo (Jeanne Tripplehorn) of being complicit in, if not outright guilty of, his murder. His suspicions grow deeper when he deduces that Betty Jo and Donald were having an affair. Lee finds a note from Dale claiming that his full confession is contained in a series of letters that have been secreted inside a collection of rare first edition novels by crime writer Jim Thompson, but Lee’s attempts to get the rare books in an estate sale descends into farce.
His suspicions grow exponentially deeper when he is beaten and kidnapped by a pair of white supremacists. While trapped in the trunk of one of the Nazis’ Crown Victoria, waiting to be thrown over a bridge, Lee instead witnesses their murder by Washburn bagman Allen Murphy. But Allen is not exactly a rescuer; in fact, he doesn’t even know Lee is in the trunk. He is finally freed by Marty (Keith David), a private investigator who works as Donald’s fixer. As the mystery deepens, Lee’s daughter Francis gets drawn into the investigation. As she has her first ever cup of coffee, she pulls an all-nighter with her dad, trying to put the pieces together — much to her mother’s dismay.
Hawke is brilliant as the charismatic but self-destructive, down-on-his-luck reporter. But the success of The Lowdown is not all on him. Harjo’s vision of Tulsa is a fully formed world. Each character has their own motivations and priorities that Lee has to navigate. The supporting cast is impeccable. The veteran Keith David is always a welcome screen presence. Fifteen-year-old Armstrong is a revelation as the daughter who long ago realized her dad’s limitations but loves him anyway. Episode 5, which veers away from the main story, features a guest spot by Peter Dinklage that is among the actor’s best performances.
With its complex intersections of racial and class politics, mixed with heavy doses of druggy reveries, I would call The Lowdown a Southern Gothic masterwork. But since it’s set in Oklahoma, I guess that makes it a Great Plains Gothic. No matter what you call it, it’s a rollicking good time.
The Lowdown
New episodes every Tuesday on FX
Streaming on Disney+ Wednesdays