The series that has won over Anglo-Saxon critics on the best-of-the-year lists

In The Killers of the MoonMartin Scorsese started from the codes of western to revisit the American founding narrative and highlight, through a real event, the extent to which the country's oil wealth was built on the plunder and massacre of the Indigenous population. The film takes place on Osage lands in Oklahoma, a state also known for another landmark of racist violence, the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. It is precisely in Tulsa that the film is set. True hidden, the new series created by Sterling Harjo after Reservation dogsThe series, set on an Indian reservation in the area, centers on Lee (Ethan Hawke), a white owner of a Tulsa used bookstore who also works as a journalist and amateur sleuth. In one of his articles for a local publication, he exposes the shady dealings of the Washbergs, one of Oklahoma's most powerful families, headed by Donald (Kyle MacLachlan), who aspires to become governor. But Donald's brother, Dale (Tim Blake Nelson, one of the series' best performances), is found dead in his home in what appears to be a suicide. Lee suspects that the death wasn't self-inflicted and begins investigating the case, starting with a letter he finds among the first editions of Jim Thompson novels that Dale treasured in his library. The clue gradually leads him to a long history of white supremacy and land grabbing.

True hidden hybridizes the updated forms of noir and from westernThe protagonist, played by Ethan Hawke, who also produces the series, connects with a whole lineage of off-the-books detectives and investigators who combine an obsessive work ethic, a lack of social skills, and the charm of a few underdogs. All of this is presented without the cynicism of other current takes on the genre, and with the natural affability that Hawke exudes. In a way, Lee also connects with Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), the protagonist of...One battle after anotherby Paul Thomas Anderson. Both are separated, sensitive, and willing parents of a precocious teenager, fighting a kind of white supremacist lobby made up of men with specific economic interests, a group that would embody contemporary American ills. But Harjo unfolds his story in a territory more typical of westernwhich allows him to focus on denouncing the dispossession to which the indigenous nations were subjected. Although the creator has commented that True hidden It is set in the same fictional universe as the previous one. Reservation dogs, Here, the indigenous characters are relegated to secondary roles, although their story is the one that ultimately takes center stage.

The best thing about the series lies in its desire to create its own universe, one that also has strong political undertones: a world with charismatic losers where there is still room for neighborly bonds, for investigative journalism in local print media, for work that doesn't solely consider financial gain, and for ways of life. It's a shame that the ambition to create a personal vision is often overshadowed by overly influential references: the series approaches the films of the Coen brothers but doesn't dare embrace their nihilism, and it also flirts with... Twin Peaks without crossing to the other side of the mirror and is lavish in "politically incorrect" male supporting characters, always within acceptable limits.