Has Ethan Hawke really grown into playing roles once played by Lee Marvin and James Coburn? He certainly borrows their mettle and gravitas as a nitty gritty Tulsa “truthstorian” journalist in The Lowdown, one of the most engaging series this year, now streaming on Hulu and FX. His progression toward this wisened but gruff character Lee Raybon seems to have begun somewhere around his turn on the remake of The Magnificent Seven–whatever it is it’s something you’ll want to see more of. The Lowdown is the Oklahoma version of Tokyo Vice, the latest hard-hitting tale of an investigative journalist out to uncover the reality of corrupt politicians sucking money away from the rest of us.
Viewers catch up with Lee just after he’s been writing hit pieces on the future governor’s family. While he’s investigating a company gathering up black-owned real estate in North Tulsa, he learns the future governor’s brother committed suicide. Or did he? No matter, everyone is going to blame Lee’s article for it. Luckily for him the future governor’s bodyguard, played by Keith David, shows up to set him straight. It’s the second time we’ve seen David dazzle this year after co-starring in Duster. And he’s never been better.
That future governor is Donald Washberg, played by Kyle MacLachlan in another memorable appearance. Everything is not what it seems with the rancher and top dog of Tulsa, but he loved his now departed brother Dale, played by Tim Blake Nelson. Sort of. Donald slept with Dale’s wife Betty Jo, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn. And it turns out Dale was a closeted gay. In Oklahoma. He was also a bit of a philosopher, and Nelson digs into the part with ease. The mystery of this Tulsa Noir story is: What really happened to Dale and why? All the while Lee is there to try to take down Donald so he can’t succeed in being elected governor of Oklahoma.
Hawke’s hero is only slightly an anti-hero. Along with being a writer, Lee Raybon is also a collector of rare antiquities. He pays his employee at the bookstore (played by Siena East) when he can, and when he comes into money by buying a rare painting and flipping it he’s quick to share the proceeds and pay off everyone he owes. His first act is trying to shake an MLK autographed document from a man who turns out to be tied into the graft going on in Tulsa. As Lee digs into the graft he gets closer to all of the players, including the dead one, and discovers some humanity in the process. It’s just as good and gritty as it sounds–and it runs circles around Tulsa King, which may seem like it sounds the same on paper. When Lee gets kidnapped and bodies begin to drop around him, you just know you’re in the realm of good pulp noir, a crime tale Tarantino or Rodriguez would have been lucky to get their hands on. It even has a friendly diner, called Sweet Emily’s.
Creator/writer/director Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs) has his pulse on something big here. This feels like a modern Western, but it’s just a dusty episode of City Confidential featuring Tulsa, complete with the actual narrator accompanying the show’s hero, Keith David, who has never been funnier, especially when he and Hawke start working together. Lee doubles in his duties as reporter and private detective, which means the story incorporates all those tropes from The Rockford Files, including the lawyer next door who helps out and gets him out of trouble (played by Macon Blair), a wheeler dealer to help him acquire some books with hidden documents (played by Michael Hitchcock). Even the pop music tunes carry on this 1970s vibe–Harjo creates a backwater view of Tulsa today.
Land deals, a man running for governor who means well but lacks modern sensibilities, a troubled man of wealth stuck in a town with no peers, and a will that gives everything to an aging old Native American, played by Graham Greene, the last appearance on TV of the legendary actor. Yes, this series has all the thespian street cred, and Ethan Hawke leads it all like one of those legendary leading actors of the Newman/Redford vintage. Even Lee’s daughter is a great character, a sharp and savvy 12-year-old who adores her dad and wants to help him investigate, played by promising young actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong, star of this year’s Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Only a decade ago you might have seen Ethan Hawke as one of those under-rated actors who seemed to put plenty of intensity and passion into his roles without adequate recognition, whether for big movies like Dead Poet’s Society or Training Day (which earned him his first Academy Award nomination), for remakes of classics like Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Great Expectations, or John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, for landmark science fiction like Gattaca or true adventure like Alive. Then things changed. Was it his measured performance in another remake — John Ford’s The Magnificent Seven — his zany space pimp in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, or his take on villains that cinched his spot as one of the best actors of his generation, as Arthur Harrow in Marvel’s Moon Knight, or the creepy murderer The Grabber in The Black Phone? Whatever it was, he’s in it for good. Lee Raybon provide Hawke an Emmy-worthy performance.
But that’s not all. One of the best episodes of TV this year stars Peter Dinklage as Lee’s brother Wendell. In ten hour-long episodes Harjo makes room for more great, quirky characters, good music, and even some inspiring developments that will have you wishing every journalist watches the show for their own inspiration. The world needs more Lee Raybons.
The Lowdown is one of the best series of 2025 with some of its finest acting performances. Catch all ten episodes streaming now on Hulu.
