--- title: "Reservation Dogs" year: 2021 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/reservation-dogs" fi1m_score: 86 critics_score: 86 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T03:54:27.375535+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T03:54:50.163251+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Reservation Dogs (2021) Created by Taika Waititi, Sterlin Harjo · MPA TV-MA · Drama, Comedy **Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 86 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Four teenagers plotting an escape from a town that keeps turning out to be more interesting than California > Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s comedy about four Oklahoma teenagers stealing their way towards a new life is funny, patient and quietly heavy with grief. The spirit-world detours do not always land, and later seasons scatter the gang, but we would recommend it to almost anyone. ## Synopsis A small reservation town in rural Oklahoma, a year after the death of a friend called Daniel. Four teenagers have decided to get out. Elora Danan Postoak (Devery Jacobs) is the one who means it; Bear Smallhill (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) thinks he is in charge; Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) has the sharpest tongue; Cheese (Lane Factor) is the youngest and goes along with everything. Their plan is California, and the plan for the plan is petty theft, beginning with a crisps delivery lorry stolen in broad daylight. Tribal police officer Big (Zahn McClarnon) suspects them. Bear’s mother Rita (Sarah Podemski) is holding the house together, and a rival gang led by Jackie (Elva Guerra) has arrived to take over the town’s small-time crime. ## Review Four teenagers on a reservation in rural Oklahoma want to get to California. Their friend Daniel died a year ago and none of them can say why, so they steal things: a lorry full of crisps, copper wire, whatever turns into dollars towards the fare. That is the whole engine of *Reservation Dogs*, created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, and it works because the series is not really about leaving. It is about the town they say they cannot wait to see the back of, and it is one of the best-made comedies we have watched in years. The four are well cast and well written. Devery Jacobs plays Elora as the one who has done the sums and will go, and she carries most of the sadness without being asked to speak it. D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai’s Bear appoints himself leader and spends three seasons finding out nobody agreed. Paulina Alexis gets the biggest laughs as Willie Jack, all flat delivery and sudden, exact insults, and Lane Factor’s Cheese is the polite boy who will sit in a police car all afternoon if someone asks him nicely. They talk over each other like people who have known each other since they were small. Harjo directs and writes, alongside a room that includes Bobby Wilson, Ryan RedCorn and Dallas Goldtooth, and the writing has a shape. A scene sets up a joke, lands it, and then keeps going until something sadder or stranger walks in. Christian Sprenger and Mark Schwartzbard shoot the town in hard, hot daylight, wide frames of empty roads, four kids small in the corner of the picture. Rich Toyon and Brandon Tonner-Connolly’s production design gives us a convenience store, a clinic waiting room and a community hall that all look like they have gone forty years without repainting. Mato Wayuhi’s score slides between hip-hop and something closer to country, and it is used sparingly. Zahn McClarnon’s Big, the tribal police officer who has theories about most things and evidence for none of them, made us laugh out loud more than anyone, because McClarnon plays him dead straight. Sarah Podemski’s Rita, Bear’s mother, gets the show’s adult weight: a woman working, dating, worrying, and watching her son turn into his absent father, the rapper Punkin Lusty (Sten Joddi), whose one hit follows Bear round like a smell. What got at us was how the grief arrives. Nobody makes a speech about Daniel. His name comes up sideways, in a photograph or a pause, and Jacobs’s face when someone else mentions California says more than anything out loud. Then there is the spirit world, which the series is proud of and we are less sure about. Bear is visited by a warrior on horseback who claims a heroic death in battle and turns out to have died falling off his horse. It is a good joke the first time. Kaniehtiio Horn’s Deer Lady, a figure from Native folklore given episodes of her own, is stranger and better. But when an episode hands itself over to the supernatural, the flat daylight naturalism that makes everything else work goes soft, and the series starts to feel like a sketch show with a good heart. It ran for three seasons and 28 episodes, and the later seasons widen to the adults, giving whole episodes to aunties, uncles and Bill Burr as a coach. Some are the best things in it; some are agreeable padding. We missed the four when they were apart, a compliment to the casting and a complaint about the plotting. The editors, David Chang and Yana Gorskaya among them, let scenes run past the punchline, which is the right choice and occasionally the slow one. Waititi has made a film about a boy in a small Maori town before, *Boy*, and this has the same instinct: children who talk like adults, adults who behave like children. Harjo’s contribution is the weight. The town matters. Most people in it stayed, and the series lets you understand why without pretending it was easy. The 18 certificate is for the language, constant and inventive. Give it three episodes; it is slow to declare itself, and it does not let go. *Fi1m score 86, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are uniformly warm, and the praise gathers around the same thing: the sense of place. Most critics find the rural Oklahoma reservation drawn with a specificity television rarely gives Native life, and credit the all-Native writers and cast for it. The four young leads are singled out for their ease with one another, and several reviews note that the comedy sits alongside grief and the pull to leave home without either being softened. Snack foods, back roads and small schemes are mentioned more than plot. The spread is narrow. The one real reservation comes from Collider, which finds the season uneven, its tonal shifts and surreal touches distracting from the character work it otherwise admires. Other critics describe the same meandering pace as a virtue, suited to aimless teenagers and rewarding patience. A few treat the first run as promising rather than finished, and hope the characters are given more room to deepen. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the series as a stereotype-smashing triumph that blends Native American perspectives with indie film influences in a fresh coming-of-age comedy about four teens on a reservation. It singles out the authentic all-Native creative team and cast for delivering a light yet poignant take on home, trauma, and escape without pandering. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/13/reservation-dogs-review-a-stereotype-smashing-tarantino-esque-triumph) - **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series a lovely, eminently watchable triumph about Native life. They single out its rare sense of place and authentic, non-mythologizing portrayal of the reservation community. [Read](https://variety.com/2021/tv/reviews/reservation-dogs-fx-hulu-taika-waititi-sterlin-harjo-1235029493/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (85/100, inferred): The review praises it as a triumph of Indigenous representation with lived-in charm. It highlights the fresh Oklahoma location and strong ensemble of young newcomers in a coming-of-age story. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/reservation-dogs-1234991659/) - **Vulture**, Kathryn VanArendonk (85/100, inferred): The series rewards patience with its deliberate, meandering pace and distinctive mood, which suits the aimless lives of its four Indigenous teenage protagonists in rural Oklahoma. The critic singles out the grounded, sensory details (like endless spicy chips) and the fresh perspective from new Native voices and actors as what makes it special and hopeful for deeper development. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/reservation-dogs-review-fx-on-hulu-series.html) - **Paste**, Allison Keene (9.2): The critic praises the show's funny, casual, and charming portrayal of Indigenous teens in Oklahoma, highlighting its authentic representation, sly humor, strong cast chemistry, and warm, heartfelt tone as a perfect summer series. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/reservation-dogs/reservation-dogs) - **The Ringer**, Alison Herman (90/100, inferred): The stellar first season of Reservation Dogs proves far more than a tale of small schemes and bigger dreams, carving out its place among FX's immersive, existential comedies and ranking as one of the year's best series. It builds from promising debut to a worthy successor of Atlanta by zooming in on character studies and out to a full community portrait, capturing the totality of grief that amplifies its comedy through specificity and Native perspectives. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2021/09/21/tv/reservation-dogs-season-1-review-finale-fx) - **Collider**, Gregory Lawrence (B-): The critic finds the series uneven and overstuffed with tonal shifts and surreal elements that can be distracting, but praises its unique approach and moments of deeper exploration of the protagonists. [Read](https://collider.com/reservation-dogs-review-fx-on-hulu-series/) ## Details - **Created by:** Taika Waititi, Sterlin Harjo - **Creator:** Taika Waititi, Sterlin Harjo - **Director:** Sterlin Harjo, Blackhorse Lowe, Tazbah Chavez, Danis Goulet, Sydney Freeland, Erica Tremblay, Devery Jacobs - **Writer:** Sterlin Harjo, Dallas Goldtooth, Ryan RedCorn, Tommy Pico, Bobby Wilson, Tazbah Chavez, Migizi Pensoneau, Devery Jacobs, Chad Charlie, Erica Tremblay, Taika Waititi - **Cinematography:** Mark Schwartzbard, Christian Sprenger - **Editor:** Varun Viswanath, Gina Sansom, Patrick Tuck, David Chang, Yana Gorskaya, Dane McMaster - **Music:** Mato Wayuhi - **Production design:** Brandon Tonner-Connolly, Rich Toyon - **Costume design:** Heidi Bivens - **Producer:** Bobby Wilson, Kathryn Dean, Tazbah Chavez - **Cast:** Devery Jacobs as Elora Danan Postoak; D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear Smallhill; Zahn McClarnon as Big; Lane Factor as Cheese; Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack; Sarah Podemski as Rita Smallhill; Elva Guerra as Jackie; Bobby Lee as Dr. Kang - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 9 August 2021 - **Genres:** Drama, Comedy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZl6jC2k55k ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, uhd - Disney+: add-on, uhd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Smoke Signals* (1998): Two young Coeur d’Alene men on a road trip; the same jokes, an older sadness. - *Atlanta* (2016): Another comedy that wanders off its plot to look at a place properly. - *Derry Girls* (2018): Teenagers, a town everyone claims to hate, and history leaking into the jokes. - *Boy* (2010): Waititi’s early film about a Maori boy and a useless father, warm and unsentimental. - *Songs My Brothers Taught Me* (2015): Chloé Zhao’s quiet drama of a Lakota teenager deciding whether to leave the reservation. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/reservation-dogs