FX’s new serialized drama The Lowdown has pushed the crime procedural further, even if it's not geared towards an audience that enjoys rewatches of shows like Castle and Bones. In The Lowdown, the mystery’s merely a backdrop for a stylized hangout adventure about a renegade writer who’s crusaded against the establishment. Ethan Hawke’s Lee Rayborn is a journalist, but he’s offended when a subject refers to his outlet as a “newspaper;” newspapers are strictly based on the accounting of events, and Rayborn has taken a more creative approach to his in-depth magazine profiles and investigations. Rayborn has named himself as “a man who knows too much,” and has confessed that writing’s his addiction. It may leave him lonely, broke, and dispirited, but Rayborn doesn’t have the will to prevent himself from following a good lead.
Conceived, created, and shot in Oklahoma, The Lowdown isn’t a love letter to Tulsa because an average day in Rayborn’s life has thus far involved a beat-down by small-time mobsters and a fistfight with white supremacists. Although the state is occasionally used as a backdrop in other productions, The Lowdown presents life in Oklahoma is a reality. There’s charm to a part of the country that’s removed from sprawling metroplexes and coastal elitism, and Rayborn has enjoyed the used bookstores, eclectic blues music, and southern barbeque he’s found in Tulsa. However, life in Oklahoma isn’t dissimilar to that of the “wild west,” which is something The Lowdown has made a point of with its frequent allusions to John Sturges and Robert Aldrich. It’s a land where frontier justice is still in place, and Rayborn’s survival is based on the connections he’s able to hold with those in power.
The humor and suspense in The Lowdown is a result of how unwilling Rayborn is to appease those with any degree of influence. A sharp conversation with the community leaders about the subjugation of black-owned businesses may have left some local politicians with sweaty palms, but it's also an indication that Rayborn won’t get any state support if he’s unraveled another disturbing mystery. Unfortunately, Rayborn’s latest case has squared him off against Tulsa’s most powerful charlatan; the gubernatorial candidate Donald Washberg (Kyle MacLachlan) is involved in shady practices, and Rayborn has become obsessed by the mysterious suicide of his younger brother, Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson).
Those that expected The Lowdown to be a hard-hitting jubilation on the merits of independent journalism may be disappointed to find that Rayborn’s personal ethics are matched by his ego. Rayborn hates the city’s racist power elite, including the investment firm broker Frank Martin (Tracy Letts), but he’s also a divorced father who’s struggled to connect with his daughter Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). The most obvious inspiration for The Lowdown is Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, in which Elliot Gould portrayed a comical version of the iconic sleuth Phillip Marlowe. The difference is that Marlowe’s free-spirited nature was alluring, as he seemed content to float between mysteries and took pleasure in being a lifelong bachelor; comparatively, Rayborn is too altruistic for his own good, incapable of being an entirely present father, and ultimately, just a loser.
Enjoyment of The Lowdown may be based on one’s stomach for Hawke, who has followed a non-traditional career path similar to that of Rayborn. While there was a brief instance when Hawke was floated as the next heartthrob of his generation in the aftermath of Before Sunrise and Reality Bites, his willingness to take on independent and arthouse projects has turned him into a cult figure. Hawke’s worked with directors like Peter Weir and Paul Schrader, developed a creative partnership with Richard Linklater, directed his own indie films, and remained a prominent figure on stage. At the same time, Hawke’s also starred in several dozen low-budget genre movies that were only released on VOD or Wal-Mart shelves.
The Lowdown is aware of the tropes of the genre it operated in, which has been advantageous in the establishment of expectations. There’s not any mystery to the fact that the surviving Washberg has a deadly secret that his brother had tried to cover up, and that the skinheads on Rayborn’s heels are connected to the conspiracy. However, Rayborn isn’t a detective assigned to catch the bad guy, but a storyteller inspired by reality; the process he’s used to uncover details of the case are far more interesting than whatever conclusion they’re pointed towards. The acquisition of any story details has involved some sort of small scale problem for Rayborn to get himself out of, which include foot chases, awkward social gatherings, and the disruption of a yoga class. Rayborn’s stuck with a string of bad luck, but The Lowdown needs his misfortune to justify eight episodes of story.
A majority of those who watch The Lowdown will view it through the Hulu streaming app, but the series still aired linearly on the FX network. FX is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking crime shows in history, including the remix of Fargo, the neo-western mystery Justified, and The Shield, an anti-hero series that predated Breaking Bad and Ozark. There was some concern that following the purchase of 20th Century Fox by the Walt Disney Company, FX would become another platform to distribute franchise content. Even if The Lowdown is crushed in ratings by FX’s summer hit, Alien: Earth, the fact that the two shows exist on the same network is worth celebrating.