“Logo Text [This story contains spoilers from the first two episodes of The Lowdown on FX.] The Trailer for the Lowdown Shows Ethan Hawke’s Character, A Crusader and Self-Described “TRUTHERIAN” NAMED LEE Raybon, Getting Beat Up Quite A Bit. If anything, The Preview Undersold It. By the end of the Series Premiere, Lee Has Been”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
.[ThisstorycontainsspoilersfromthefirsttwoepisodesofThe Lowdown on fx.]
The Trailer for The Lowdown Shows Ethan Hawke’s Character, A Crusader and Self-Described “TRUTHTHERIAN” NAMED LEE RAYBON, Getting Beat Up Quite A Bit. If anything, The Preview Undersold It.
By the end of the Series Premiere, Lee Has Been Assaulted in His Own Home By A Pair of Skinheads Who Didn’T Like Something He Wrote About Them in A Small Local Paper. By the end of the episode, he’s been beaten worse (by the same guys) and thrown in the trunk of a car, only to witness their murdere at the Hand of a more Polite-Seming. Who is very likely Connected to Lee’s Other Obsense, The Powerful Washberg Family.
WHEN The SHOW OPENS, LEE HAS Written A Long Piece On the Washbergs’ Corrupt History in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Very Much Upsetting Donald Washberg (Kyle Maclachlan) Leading to the Death by (Apparent) Suicide of Donald’s Brother, Dale (Tim Blake Nelson).
IT is, in Other Words, A Ripe Setup for a Noir Story that Wears ITS ITSPIRIPIRATIONS Chinatown To novelist Jim Thompson the Coen Brothers – Proudly.
“Jim Thompson is at the Center of the Show, and The Big Lebowskiand The Long Goodbye WAS A REALLY Big Jumping-Off Point, ”Series Creator Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs) told The Hollywood Reporter. “Lebowski Was inspired by a Lot of Those Projects, and We Were Inspired by All of Them. Nick Cassavetes’ Killing of a chinese bookie is in there. There are a lot of influences that we were thrting to hide. We’re Sort of Celebrating the History of Noir and Wearing It on Our Sleeves. ”
Part of What Sets The Lowdown APART FROM TOSE PRIOR WORKS IS ITS SETING: LIKE Reservation Dogs, The Lowdown is set and filmed in harjo’s home State of Oklahoma. Lee is Also Investigating A Developer Who is Buying Up Land in A Historically Black Neighborhood, Which Echoes A Dark Chapter in the City’s History.
“TULSA WAS Originally Founded by My Tribe, The MuskoGe Creek, and The Word ‘Tulsa’ Comes From A MuskoGe Word,“ Harjo Says. “In the city of tulsa in the 1920s, a horphic Thing Happy, who [a situation where] People Tried to Cover That Up and Not Talk About It For A Long Time. You Can’t Hide Truths Like That. And I Think that over the last 10 years, that have had talked about and have had to come to the forefront, WHICH HAS ALSO HELPED TULSA GROU ITENT IDENTITY AND HAVE A MORE SOLID FOUNDATION AS. … There’s a Dark, Dark History There that that had had never been explored. Just Like Chinatown Was ripe for noir in la at the time in the time that it was set, I Think That Right Now, There’s So Much Colling Together – Truth and Darkness. ”
Lee is Also Not A Private Detective-He’s A Rabble-Rouser and Something of A Mess Who OWNS A STRUGGLING RARE BOOK Shop and Is Trying Very Hard to Connect. There is a detective in the story – Keith David’s Marty – But He’s Been Hired by the Washbergs to Keep An Eye on Lee, Althugh He Also Can’s.
“I love Characters Like Don Quixote – People Who Have A Grand Dream and Tremendous Amount of Blind Spots. It’s Just Ripe for Humanity,“ Hawke Told Thr. “We’re all like that in some kind of. Anybody’s Soccer Games or to Anything else but that. [Lee is] SO Multi-Dimensional. He’s so Many Things at One Time. It Makes It Funny, and He’s Earnest, and He’s A LIR AND HE’S A TRUTH TELLER – IT’s Fun. ”
Hawke Also Visibly Plays Lee As if Has Really Felt All The Punishment The Character Has Taken. LEE OFTEN MOVES STIFFLY, AS IF HE’S ALWAYS IN AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT OF PAIN.
“He’s A Crusader, He’s An Adventurer. He’s Like A Spiritual Warrior of Sorts,” Hawke Said of Lee (Both Marty and An Editor Played by Michael “Killer Micham” render tag Him. of the bunch ”). “SO HE’S GOING to HAVE BATTLE SCARS, AND There’s So Much Comedy to Be MINED FROM THAT, AND I ALWAYS TRIEDED TO INCORPORPORATE IT. I THINK ABOUT LIKE Four Days. ‘ I’ve Got to Try to Play that and Fill It Up with As Much Realism as We Could, and Mine It For Humor. ”
Also adding to the humor of The Lowdown Is The Title Lee Gives HimSelf. Harjo Explands That HE Initialy Wrote A Line in Which Lee Says He’s “Workshopping” The TRUTHERIAN LABEL BUT THEN JUST WENT WITH IT as DAMTING HE CALLS HIMSELF.
“As I was trying to define what he is in a lee like, I Came Upon Upon Truthtorian – IT Just Kind of Popped in My Head,“ Harjo Said. “I WAS LIKE, ‘THAT’S RIDICLOUS, BUT IT Wuld be Really Funny If He Said That And Kind of Is Working Through It And Doesn’t Know It Sounds Great.’ But it is close to what he is. [figuring out] WHAT IS The TRUTH THAT CONNECTS ALL OF THESE THINGS. ”