Dark Winds is neo-noir crime show that represents state of the art genre story-telling. The program is diverting with fascinating characters and locations. Production values are excellent and the acting is persuasive. There's not much substance to the show, but it's entertaining and can be recommended. Dark Winds is interesting in that demonstrates certain formulae and conventions that are effective mainstays of programs of this sort. (Dark Winds can be seen in two six-show series originally made for AM in 2022 and 2023. As a result of this origin, episodes are about 48 minutes long and cut into 12 to 13 minutes block with fades signifying were commercials were originally inserted. The show has picked up for a third season, now in production.)
Dark Winds is a police procedural detailing the efforts of its protagonist cops with respect to solving a several crimes. Shows of this sort capitalize on unfamiliar settings that have an exotic appeal. In this case, Dark Winds takes place on the 27,000 square mile Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah. This setting provides very picturesque locations in which the action plays-out -- sequences are shot in Monument Valley and scenic canyon country with towering buttes and colorful rock formations. (There are many spectacular night scenes with a psychedelic aura -- the buttes and cliffs glow in a turquoise aura under dark skies dense with stars.) The show contains a lot of dialogue in Dine, the language spoken by the natives on reservation and the cultural folkways of the Navajo (Dine) people are exploited to full effect -- the show has an anthropological flavor featuring rituals, good and bad medicine, malign witches and the like. As with many shows of this kind, supernatural agents and events are suggested, although, in most instances, the plot progresses toward establishing a naturalistic explanation for these things -- although often malign and criminal. The door is kept open a crack with respect to supernatural intervention in the plot. The story-line is classically designed. The presiding good cop (Joe Leaphorn) is confronted with a savage double-murder, possibly committed by supernaturals. The FBI, who here appear as foes or antagonists to Leaphorn, are investigating a bank job in Gallup, New Mexico in which a helicopter carrying loot was last seen flying into Navajo country. Of course, the two investigations will turn out to be related and Joe's detective work on the double murder will have implications that will draw him into the bank heist story.
When a program is set in an exotic and unfamiliar milieu, the viewer needs a character who appears as a surrogate for the audience, someone who doesn't know the local customs and practices, and with whom the other actors can interact to explain what is going on and provide necessary plot exposition. The role of newcomer is played by Jimmy Chee, a cop who is Navajo but new to the reservation -- he is the vehicle used for exposition in which other characters "fill him in" on necessary information. The protagonist in this kind of program must be either flawed or suffering from some past trauma that afflicts him emotionally and may cloud his judgement. Joe Leaphorn, the main cop, has lost his son in an explosion that may or may not have been triggered by terrorists attempting to drive the mining industry off Navajo land. The show is set in 1971 so that the cast can include hippies, damaged and violent Vietnam vets, and Navajo militants of the kind associated with the American Indian Movement (AIM). Furthermore, the setting more than 50 years ago allows several things: first, there's more overt racism against the Indians and more politically incorrect imagery (for instance wood carvings of cigar store Indians) available to the show than might be the case today -- although in truth not much seems to have changed as to FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and racial tensions shown in the program. Second, the period setting in 1971 allows for a classic rock-and-roll soundtrack to enliven the proceedings. Of course, there's a comely lady cop to provide love interest for Jimmy Chee, the handsome newcomer to the Rez.
The cast is led by Zahn McClarnen (Joe Leaphorn). McClarnen who has chiseled features and a dark complexion looks the way everyone, including Indians, imagines a brave and stoic native warrior would look. His character is highly intelligent, intuitive, and married to a loving and supportive wife. McClarnen has tremendous charism, looks spectacular, and he carries the show. (McClarnen was indelible as Officer Big in the comedy Reservation Dogs.) The other characters are also memorable including Noah Emmerich, an actor who specializes in playing corrupt FBI agents, and Rainn Wilson (formerly of The Office) who has a cameo in a couple episodes as Devoted Dave, a flamboyant hypocritical and corrupt used car dealer -- there's no enough of him in the show. There are a half-dozen very good Indian actors in the show, all of them unfamiliar to me, but who provide a quirky and interesting cast of characters as well as local color -- we see the hogans in which the Navajo live, their flea markets and trading posts and are privy to their customs: a Navajo girl's coming of age ceremony (it involves sashes, much grinding of corn into meal, and long distance running) is prominently documented in a couple episodes. The eccentric characters in the show and some of the subplots are similar in flavor to the Coen Brothers' crime films -- and the show also invokes (and looks a bit like) the FX series Fargo, the program in which I first saw Zahn McClarnen playing the scary Indian assassin Hanzee.
Dark Winds has an impressive pedigree: it's produced by George R. R. Martin (the author of The Game of Thrones) and Robert Redford and the program has an authentic vibe -- it's actually shot in the places where the action takes place. Further, the show adapts crime novels by Tony Hillerman set on the Navajo Reservation (the so-called "Leaphorn and Chee" mysteries) and the story, although implausible in many respects, is well-plotted and compelling. It's not padded and moves along a serviceable clip. When your interest flags with the rather routine villains and gun fights and cop procedural details (autopsies and qualitative testing on water samples), the fascinating Navajo lore retains your interest. It would be a mistake to make any claims that this series is anything more than an amusing, well-crafted detective show -- but that's sufficient in itself and I recommend the program.
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