Week-to-Week: Reservation Dogs ends as it began—without peer
Plus a fall scheduling update and a final subscription drive extension
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In its antepenultimate episode, Reservation Dogs delivered a perfectly cromulent series finale.1 “Send It” featured the eponymous teens gathering together to pull off a grand heist, liberating Maximus from his voluntary confinement in the wake of Fixico’s heart attack. We were first introduced to these characters as juvenile delinquents, but here their rebellious spirit is channeled toward reuniting their elders, a sign of how the show has broadened its storytelling to their relationship to the community at large. If the show had ended there, I would argue that the critical reception would have been more or less identical to what we’ve seen over the past couple of days, heralding the show as a singular achievement in an era of Peak TV.
It didn’t end there, of course. First there was “Elora’s Dad,” a poignant interlude into a single character’s relationship to their past and their plans for their future. And then there was “Dig,” a finale that more or less returns to the same themes as “Send It”—with Fixico having passed on, multiple generations confront the meaning of that loss as a community.
As many noted at the time, there wasn’t a huge amount of plot left unresolved by “Send It”—yes, it would have been unsatisfying for Elora’s future to be left hanging in the balance, but everything else felt pretty solid, and “Dig” doesn’t really add a lot of additional “closure” to the futures of the Rez Dogs’ lives. However, what became clear as I watched “Dig” was that the show needed this additional episode—while we as the audience fully understood the full circle moments in “Send It” as a reflection of the show’s larger themes, the Rez Dogs themselves wouldn’t have seen it so clearly. The season’s somewhat disarming narrative flow has coalesced in our bird’s eye view, but Fixico’s funeral gives the teens the chance to recognize and interpret the show’s central message about native community first hand.
It’s an incredibly powerful device, leveraging the oral traditions and spirituality of native community. It begins with a returning Lily Gladstone, as Willie Jack goes to see Hokti to both inform her of Fixico’s passing and seek guidance on how she can reconcile the responsibility she feels as his mentee with the minimal time she had with him. Hokti’s Flamin’ Flamers diagram is a simple but meaningful demonstration of something that Willie Jack has probably been told at numerous times over her life, but needs to see at this pivotal moment so she’s able to step up at Fixico’s funeral and represent her generation’s willingness to carry on his memory.
It’s so meaningful, in fact, that the finale could have stopped there and said everything that “needed” to be said. But it’s important that Elora and Bear get to share a similar moment of connection, where they realize that even though one is leaving and the other is staying, it doesn’t change the love they share for one another. And Bear needs to have his final moment with William Knifeman, where he’s able to put into words what he’s learned from his elders. These moments don’t really change our perception of the show or its characters, but they’re critical for the coming-of-age narratives the show kind of let drift a bit (as I complained about earlier in the season). What “Dig” does so well is make that drifting seem purposeful, as the characters come to these realizations not as a thrilling climax but rather as a subtle, reflective moment of collective understanding.
I am still of the mind that there were some ways this season could have been more cohesive while retaining its power. For example, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a more focused moment for Cheese in this finale. He may be the youngest, and thus the furthest from facing the existentialism that Elora, Bear, and Willie Jack are confronting at this juncture, but I wish we could have seen some more followup on his outdoor excursion with the uncles, and what he’s imagining his own future looks like. As much as I appreciate the show’s efforts to bring the different generations into focus, I was disappointed to see one of the Rez Dogs feel a bit adrift in this episode as compared to characters like Maximus who we were just introduced to this season.
But this is ultimately nitpicking an incredibly emotional conclusion, which created a sense of resolution despite being built on the premise that no life truly ends so long as we remember them. We got some flashes forward to Elora and Rita’s departures, but for the most part we stick to the collective moment of Fixico’s funeral, and simply live in the rituals of food, gravedigging, and remembrance. The spirit of the occasion is consistent with the finale’s goal, transforming a goodbye into a celebration of what the show was at its best, and which set it apart from really any other show in television history. While my criticisms of the season’s narrative structure mostly stand, I can’t pretend that it “mattered” in the end—when the story threads came together, the effect was something only Reservation Dogs could manage, which is all you can really ask for from a TV show in this age of over-saturation.
There has been no shortage of writing about the finale, either in the form of critical reflections (Alan! Dan! James!) or thinkpieces talking about what Reservation Dogs says about the era of Peak TV (Kathryn! Phil!). But as much as I think there’s something compelling to be said about the show’s place within the larger television ecosystem, here’s the thing: the whole point of the show is that it’s unlike anything else on TV. Even the parts of this season that didn’t fully work for me are productive in breaking down conventions, and pushing the boundaries of its format. And the truth is that while it’s certainly a form of injustice that the show never broke through at the Emmys in its first two seasons, the reasons it “failed” are also the reasons why it made such a strong connection with those who did tune in.
Which is all to say that while I know there’s a lot more that we could say about the show, its characters, and its place in the television landscape, the best thing about the Reservation Dogs finale was how much it felt complete simply having experienced it, and bearing witness to the community it represented.
Subscription Drive Update
Well, first and foremost, we finally have our last confirmed premiere date for a show we’re going to be covering: Showtime this week revealed the first look at The Curse, Nathan Fielder’s latest provocation co-created by Benny Safdie and starring Emma Stone alongside the two creators.
Ben Rosenstock will be on the beat here at Episodic Medium starting on November 10, with reviews posting on Friday evenings after the series’ non-linear debut earlier in the day. This will be a rare double premiere day for Episodic Medium, as my reviews of For All Mankind season four will begin that afternoon.
As you hopefully know by now, we’re doing our yearly subscription drive, which I already extended once to 9/30, with 20% off yearly subscriptions. You might be wondering why I extended it, and the simple reason is that I want to give new and existing readers of this newsletter every opportunity to assess our upcoming lineup. And with the writer’s strike now resolved (more on that next week, but a hearty huzzah for now), and SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP heading to the bargaining table, it’s increasingly clear that there will be a pretty significant spring and summer TV season, which HBO confirmed with a date for True Detective: Night Country this week.
So with two new premieres—the second season of Our Flag Meets Death and Loki, both on October 5—in the week ahead, I’m extending our subscription drive for one more week, until 10/7. This is the last time I will be doing so, however. Once the drive is over, the 20% off deal on new subscriptions won’t return until next year, when we’ll do this all over again. Thanks to everyone who’s signed up—you’ve given us some financial stability that has unlocked additional Episodic Classics coverage, and also created the possibility of adding additional shows to the lineup this fall.
Episodic Observations
Ultimately, even though I do still think the teens’ storylines got lost in the shuffle a bit, the most emotional part for me in “Dig” was definitely Bear and Elora’s moment in the church. The power of “I Love You” in that context is really meaningful, especially given how much the show veered away from romance this season beyond some signs of flirting between Bear and Jackie that the finale largely bypassed (and, of course, Big and Bev).
As far as straight-to-streaming releases go, Hulu’s alien invasion pic No One Will Save You starring Kaitlyn Dever is definitely worth watching. Its stylistic “twist” if you will is something that is definitely effective but also doesn’t feel like a gimmick, given that I didn’t know about it going in and didn’t really fully piece it together until the movie had ended. I’d watch Dever in most things, admittedly, but this was a particularly fun ride.
I am going to be working my way through Love is Blind’s fifth season on my Peloton at 1.25x speed—as God intended—over the next few weeks, but I have to say that even after having seen it broken down in a TikTok, the absolutely wild description one woman gives of what she does for a living still made me lose my mind as I pedaled through the insanity.
While anyone choosing to use other means—including I suppose, simply living in the U.K.—might have already watched it, today marks the arrival of The Great British Bake-Off’s newest season to Netflix here in the U.S. I admittedly did read some reporting that suggested they had learned a lesson from the bad theme weeks and challenge design of recent seasons, but I’m going to take a wait-and-see attitude on that front. By comparison, I’m pretty confident Alison Hammond will be a delightful addition.
As always, yes, I wrote this sentence mostly so I could use the term “antepenultimate.” I’ll never miss an opportunity.
Glad to finally be a paid subscribr, even if I can currently only afford the monthly payments. Maybe if my luck changes by next week I can upgrade to the yearly subscription.
Unfortunately I’ve only made it through season 1 of Reservation Dogs thus far, so I only skimmed your review. I’m happy to see it end on a high note and I intend to catch up soon, but the glut on quality TV makes it hard to keep up with everything. I’m just now using the end of my Peacock preview to get to Poker Face, for example.
As for upcoming series and classics, I do have a suggestion for both- King of the Hill. The upcoming revival on Hulu should be worth looking into, and the original series continues to pixk up discussion from new fans and rediscovery often. I also like the idea of going back to series already covered on EM’s earlier seasons like Succession or WWDITS. And I’d really like to see The Americans covered as well. Not enough good things can be said about the series, and it belongs on the Mount Rushmore of cable TV greats.
I'm glad you wrote about the finale. It was painful to watch as I truly did not want the series to end, but I am gratified that I got to be one of the people who watched every episode of this show the day it came out.
I hope with all my heart that all the creatives involved have long and sustained careers because their voices are so needed. Looking forward to seeing Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon--and I'll be devastated if Dark Winds doesn't get another season.