The Lowdown

An investigator with a stake in his city

Lee Raybon's curiosity is rooted in Tulsa rather than an assignment that can be finished and left behind. He wants to uncover what powerful people prefer to keep out of view, but he also has a life in the place he investigates. That gives the premise a productive tension: exposing a city's problems and remaining attached to it can be part of the same impulse.

His independence offers freedom without the protection of a large institution. He can follow an awkward question, but persistence may create trouble that no employer is obliged to solve for him. For viewers, it is useful to distinguish commitment from good judgement. A person can be right to keep asking questions while making the process much harder for himself and everyone around him.

Ethan Hawke and Sterlin Harjo's crime series

Ethan Hawke plays Lee, with Keith David as private investigator Marty Brunner. Kaniehtiio Horn plays Samantha, Lee's former wife, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays their daughter Francis. These relationships keep the investigator connected to a world beyond whichever lead he is currently pursuing. His work can carry a personal cost even before an antagonist chooses to make it dangerous.

Sterlin Harjo created the series for FX. Its blend of crime, character comedy and noir is a helpful guide to expectations: the investigation matters, but so does the personality of the person conducting it. Pay attention to how Lee's belief in his own mission sits alongside the reactions of people who know him well enough to question his preferred account of himself.

Starting the right Lowdown

This is the American series that began in 2025, not the earlier Australian comedy or the British documentary programme with a similar title. Search by the year or Ethan Hawke's name if a service presents several results. Begin with its first season so the people and local connections surrounding Lee have room to become familiar before later investigations build on them.

The setting invites attention to relationships as well as clues. Ask who benefits from a version of events, who has the ability to keep that version circulating and why Lee finds it difficult to let a story go. The series is a promising option for viewers who want a crime narrative led by an imperfect, personally invested outsider rather than a formal police unit.