Reservation Dogs Review - Part Drama, Part Ha Ha -"What's On The Box"

Whats On The Android Box? Series Review

It’s about time Native American Indians were portrayed in some way other than spirit warriors or hopeless suicidal teens on deserted tumbleweed reservations. Yes, there is a suicide in this one and the whole story is centered around it, BUT it’s different.

Reservation Dogs shares modern day “res” stories minus the memes about moccasins and the great spirit. It’s a satirical part comedy part drama that hits all the right spots. The series follows the lives of four Native teens coming of age in Oklahoma.

Reservation Dogs (yes, a play on Reservoir Dogs) has dwarf rapper indians, hoodlum Indian gangs who steal chip trucks and sell dodgy expired meat pies to save money to escape to California, and a spirit guide known as William Knifeman. William Knifeman is slightly overweight, doesn’t know how to ride his horse properly and makes hilarious half laugh, half chuckle Indian war cries after every “truth” he speaks. He died on the fields of The Battle of Bighorn when his horse’s hoof got stuck in a hole and he got squashed to death.

I loved this. It takes what is normally the heaviness of a history and turns it on its back, tickles it’s cultural stomach and helps it laugh at itself just a little bit. Yes, the teens are sad, they’re poor, they smoke too much weed and dabble in unwholesome activities to survive, but deep down they all still carry the “great spirit” inside of them and their journey around losing a friend shows how we all have our own great tales to live.

Although it is unlike anything we have seen around Native America, dont get me wrong, it still celebrates everything that makes Indian culture unique. We get glimpses of mythlike creatures ‘Tallman’ – a hairy creature with red eyes that appears in the forests and “Deerlady”, a hoofed blonde female who makes it her duty to teach bad men a lesson.

For a fan baby of all Indigenous film and culture, this seriously made me look twice and war cry three times over my shoulder.