“The Lowdown,” a new series that filmmaker Sterlin Harjo calls his love letter to Tulsa, has been freed from its envelope.
A public screening for the pilot episode of “The Lowdown,” a series set and shot in Tulsa, was hosted Monday night by the Philbrook Museum of Art.
“The Lowdown” will premiere Sept. 23 on FX with the first two episodes of an eight-episode inaugural season. The series follows the “gritty” exploits of citizen journalist Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed Tulsa “truthstorian” played by Ethan Hawke.
The series debuts at 8 p.m. Tuesday with back-to-back episodes on FX. Philbrook arranged a one-day-early preview for people who couldn’t wait to see Harjo’s follow-up to his award-winning and critically acclaimed shot-in-Oklahoma series “Reservation Dogs.”
Admission to the screening was free, but tickets were required because of limited seating capacity (250).
“The show looks interesting, and I am excited about it being set in our area,” said James Davis, who secured a ticket for the sold-out screening. “I was excited to be able to check it out early and be around others to talk about it — and you can’t beat free.”
Davis and other Philbrook visitors got to find out what series star Ethan Hawke meant when, in an interview that took place when Season 1 was being filmed, he said this: “A lot of the fun we feel making it is we don’t know how to put it in a box. How you can do something so serious and so funny?”
Hawke stars as a citizen journalist and self-proclaimed “truthstorian” in “The Lowdown.”
His character, Lee Raybon, lives in a Pearl District book store and navigates Tulsa in a white van branded on the back with the words “you’re doing it wrong.” Raybon loves cultural artifacts (sort of like an Okie Indiana Jones) and exposing hidden truths. The inspiration for Raybon came from Lee Roy Chapman, a Tulsa citizen journalist who died in 2015.
Those who attended the Philbrook event learned, along with Raybon, that penning exposes can be hazardous to your health. Raybon’s newest expose is a look behind the curtain of a powerful Oklahoma family. Shortly after publication, a member of that family commits suicide. Raybon has the moxie to show up at a hastily arranged estate sale for the deceased. And, with that, the Tulsa noir is off and running.
The Philbrook event was not a red carpet premiere with cast interviews. However, prior to the screening, a separate screening was arranged for those who worked in various capacities on the series.
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After exiting the first screening, Clifford W. Wofford, a background actor in the series, said this: “I thought it was really intense. And Tulsa in itself was represented — the location and everything about it was Tulsa. It was just a great feeling to put Tulsa out there. Ethan Hawke did a great job. The script was great. Everything about it was really outstanding.”
Video clips featuring Hawke and Harjo were provided for the screenings. The public screening featured a chat with co-producer Dylan Brodie and music from J.D. McPherson, who is scoring the series.
Last week, Harjo and four cast members — Hawke, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kyle MacLachlan and Keith David — took part in interviews during a virtual media junket for “The Lowdown.”
David plays Marty, a mysterious figure who chats up Raybon at Sweet Emily’s, a restaurant near Raybon’s book store. David was asked during the media junket to fill in a blank. This show is like (fill in the blank). A pause followed.
“I can’t make any comparisons right this second,” David said.
Maybe that’s a good thing?
“It’s really kind of not like anything that you’ve seen,” David said. “But it’s got combinations of things that you’ve liked and stuff that you’ve watched.”
Tripplehorn, a Tulsa-raised actress, was asked during the same junket to describe what “The Lowdown” was like. Her response was “none other.”
“That’s a good answer,” MacLachlan said. “It keeps changing. It takes twists and turns. It goes places where …”
“We didn’t even know,” Tripplehorn said, finishing MacLachlan’s sentence during a joint interview session.
“Was it ‘Pulp Fiction’ where you start off down one road and suddenly you’re, like, where have I gone?” MacLachlan asked, indicating that ‘The Lowdown’ goes off on tangents.
Said Tripplehorn: “It’s going to be great for people watching it, and it was great for us making it because it just kept us on our toes.”
Following the season premiere, new episodes of “The Lowdown” will debut on subsequent Tuesdays. Episodes will be available on Hulu the day after premiering.
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com
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Jimmie Tramel
Tulsa World Scene Reporter
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