Sterlin Harjo’s The Lowdown debuted last night on FX. We jumped over to the office TV with our friends Stuart Hetherwood and Ryan McGahan to watch the pilot episode. You can stream the first episode here.
Matt Carney: What was your favorite gag from the first episode?
Z.B. Reeves: The Killer Mike scene was incredible, but I think my favorite cutaway was the security guard cousin playing video games as they kidnap Lee. That character’s intro, too, was hilarious: when the Hoot Owl Books cashier is like, “Oh, that’s my cousin, he’s great,” and it smash cuts to the cousin dancing outside. They’ve got a few of these perfectly stylized cuts in the episode.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter, The Talegate
Stuart Hetherwood: I thought the best scene was when Lee goes to see the estate sale guy. He pays Lee $1500, they do the phone call, and he charges Lee $1500 right back. The cyclicality, the character development, the way they’re just dancing around one another. It’s all just one shot, basically. The writing was tight, it progressed the story forward, it solved multiple issues.
ZBR: That was a great scene. That actor is incredible.
Alicia Chesser: And I love seeing how well that character knows how to talk to the woman with the money.
SH: I just love that character—that sophisticated, gay, catty businessman. Like, I know that guy.
MC: Catty gay man of a certain generation is a very common type of guy in Oklahoma.