If you didn’t watch the first season of Dark Winds, well, you missed out and you’re strongly advised to pick it up on Blu-Ray, find it on NOW TV, or do whatever you normally do when you want to watch something, and catch up before you start the second season.
Adapted from Tony Hillerman’s book series, Dark Winds follows the adventures of wise, fatherly Navajo Tribal Police officer Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), and archetypal 70s cool-guy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), an FBI agent in the first season and now a washed-up private detective. While in the first season the two found themselves working together, establishing a classic odd-cop dynamic, here their paths mostly don’t cross and instead they’re working the same case in classic detective-story fashion.
The seeds for this season’s overall story arc were sown during the first season, which mostly adapted Hillerman’s third book, Listening Woman, but sprinkled in part of the fourth, People of Darkness, and that’s where this season picks up.
Jim Chee takes on a case for a certain Mrs. Vines (Jeri Ryan of Star Trek: Voyager and recently Picard), a woman with motives no less mysterious than those of her husband (John Diehl); meanwhile, Leaphorn – and of course Bernie Manuelito (Jessica Matten), the best of the cops under him – are trying to track down a mysterious killer (Nicholas Logan) who is cutting a swathe through the reservation.
Logan, the whitest white man you’re ever likely to see, makes for a terrific villain in the stone psychopathic tradition of Anton Chigurh or, better yet, Rutger Hauer’s The Hitcher. Of the new characters this season, he’s easily the highlight, his aura of menace and absolute evil lending the season an action-move frisson that the slower, more True Detective-esque first season lacked. With that said, the plotting this time around is distinctly slacker; in a season of just six episodes, we spend four of them simply chasing the killer back and forth. One suspects that this is what comes of adapting half a book into a season of television, but then, other plot threads are left underdeveloped – most especially, a subplot concerning a journalist (Jacqueline Byers) attempting to write an exposé on the Family Planning Services Act, which was essentially a covert government-sponsored eugenics programme. This is important recent history, which is no doubt the motive for this subplot’s inclusion, but it’s too removed from the main events of the season and given too little time to develop to make the impact it should.
Still, a weakly-plotted Dark Winds season is sill better shot, better-acted and, heck, better-written than almost anything else currently airing. There were some concerns voiced by Navajo commentators after the first season that the show lacks authenticity, and I don’t know enough to say how far the effort to correct this has succeeded; one thing, though, that none have criticised is the acting. I’ve already praised Nicholas Logan, but the regular actors here surpass themselves. Zahn McClarnon is the star turn, a strong male character who understands that kindness and humility are not weakness. McClarnon is a phenomenal actor and he’s had a Hell of a decade, with turns in Fargo, Bone Tomahawk, Westworld, Doctor Sleep, The Forever Purge, Marvel’s Hawkeye and Echo, and pretty much anything else with Western elements. It’s obvious he’s settled into his rôle, slipping into the character like the comfortable blue jeans Leaphorn always wears with his police uniform. There’s more ease in his portrayal this time around, but at the same time more vulnerability. We also get to meet Joe’s parents and see the strained relationship he has, especially with his father. Joe himself is a much better father, and grandfather for that matter. The mistakes and the pain of the past can inform us, correct us. There’s more vulnerability here from pretty much everyone, actually. Bernadette is tired of the sexism and small-mindedness of the reservation and wants to pursue a career elsewhere. She’s not outwardly vulnerable, but then she doesn’t feel able to be and Matten nails this with a performance that’s far subtler than it may first appear. The swagger and flash of first-season Jim Chee is deconstructed here; groovy shades, leather jackets and super-wide 70s lapels aside, he’s actually a dork and a sweetheart deep down. Additionally, among the new cast we get A Martinez as a sheriff who has a complex relationship to Leaphorn. He’s not overall terribly important to the plot, but merits a mention because it’s a great performance and a character with a surprising amount of depth given the minor part he plays overall in the story.
Season Three of Dark Winds is already in the works and, with eighteen Tony Hillerman novels to draw on (plus an ongoing continuation series by Hillerman’s daughter), the series could run and run, and it should. Season Two surpasses even Season One, a comparative rarity in prestige television such as this.
★★★★★