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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
52
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Season 3 Review:
This impulse to decenter heroes and destabilize epiphanies is what elevates “Reservation Dogs” and makes it one of the best dramedies around. .... The series is quietly confident. It doesn’t need you to think it’s smart. But it is. And for all its skepticism about the ways Native American “wisdom” has been fetishized, marketed and misused, “Reservation Dogs” is ending its too-short run as impish and funny as it is sad and — I’ll say it — wise.
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Season 2 Review:
Sure, it’s billed as a comedy but there are so many touching moments it could easily top the shows that are billed as dramas. ... You’ll also see why there are many rites of passage in a teenager’s life. Some come with guidance; others require a little on-the-job experience. All should be preserved as beautifully as these.
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ColliderAug 3, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Season 2 of Reservation Dogs offers up a vision all its own that feels more unclassifiable. What makes this all work is how the rich characters are interwoven into everything, drawing us deeper into what is both a gorgeous and tragic tapestry of their lives that are still unfolding before us.
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Season 2 Review:
It took no time at all to understand Bear (D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Cheese (Lane Factor) and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis), nor to slip into the show’s world where the banal could meet the surreal at any given moment. The same holds true in Season. ... This is a show so self-assured in its own voice and perspective that it’s not just gratifying to watch, but a welcome relief.
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Season 2 Review:
Just a season and a half in, Harjo and co-creator Taika Waititi have already found their groove with Reservation Dogs. Inviting us onto the reservation to experience it with this group of quickly beloved kids, Reservation Dogs feels like a celebration of Native life and a way to inspire change for the better.
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IndieWireAug 2, 2023
Season 3 Review:
Simply reuniting with the likes of Big (Zahn McClarnon), Bev (Jana Schmieding), Mose (Lil Mike), Mekko (FunnyBone), and the rest is a joy. Mark Schwartzbard’s cinematography enthralls as usual, portraying everything from Los Angeles to Okern to an unidentified desert with lush color.
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The PlaylistJul 25, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Sometimes the show can feel like it’s pushing the emotional beats a bit harder this season than when it allows them to come organically through the plotting; however, every episode finds a way to sneak up on you, realizing that things like grief and loneliness don’t pop up in sitcom structures as much as they work their way through daily life.
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Season 1 Review:
From the cast to the setting, there’s a clear, abiding sense of place that runs through the small community in which the show is set. There’s history and pain and struggle there, but it never lapses into poverty porn; at all times, Harjo, Waititi, and the rest of the cast and crew treat their characters with dignity and nuance, even as we laugh with/at them.
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RogerEbert.comAug 1, 2023
Season 3 Review:
But this focus on Bear in the early goes makes it hard to evaluate the season as a whole; fans of “Reservation Dogs” know that its most valuable moments are the time we pull away from our central gang to touch base with one of the show’s many vibrant supporting characters. Season Two was rife with these moments.
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The Daily BeastAug 4, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Once again, Reservation Dogs excels at interweaving and juxtaposing the humorous and the sincere, the sarcastic and the spiritual. ... Some performers, like Farmer, have more to do this season; others, like Lane Factor, who plays the group’s fourth surviving member, Cheese, get a little lost in the half-hour episodes.
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Season 2 Review:
Reservation Dogs improves on its excellent first season by deepening the community on the rez, making it less about the Dogs and more about traditions, people who think they know the traditions but don’t, and just how funny and rich life there can be, even if people have to be creative to get by.
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RogerEbert.comAug 3, 2022
Season 2 Review:
While the choice to separate the gang futzes with the show's sense of momentum—Lane Farmer’s Cheese is sorely underrepresented in the front half of this season—it makes room for deeper, more personal character stories in each episode. It’s a dramatic shift from the ensemble antics that made “Reservation Dogs” such a standout in its freshman year, and it's proof that the show, like its central characters, is still growing and changing.
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Season 2 Review:
The terrific first season focused on the urge to get away; the second, which returns to Hulu on Wednesday, is about what it takes to rediscover your home. ... The new season leans a few notches closer to the drama side of dramedy, but there’s still plenty of laid-back humor.
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Season 1 Review:
Harjo and Waititi take their time painting the picture. They introduce outsiders (who stereotype residents) and give us a strong sense of what it’s like on the inside. ... “Reservation Dogs” is the comedy you never expected but may just need. It’s powerful dive into a world that’s oh-so deep.
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IndieWireJul 25, 2022
Season 2 Review:
For all of the mourning this season, it also carries an assurance as the creative team and actors inhabit their roles and the world they’ve created. The humor may take a backseat, but it’s in service of more complex storytelling. The Reservation Dogs may not know who they are yet, but this show certainly does.
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IndieWireAug 9, 2021
Season 3 Review:
How Harjo will end the series is anyone’s guess. Easily, the town could continue on with other stories, other protagonists. The four friends, however, were the lure that brought us in. No doubt, their exit will be emotional. If there’s a lesson to be learned from the journey, it’s this: Great stories are everywhere. It just requires someone to give them light.
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Season 2 Review:
Given the unpredictable character development and impassioned performances throughout these four episodes, the second season of Reservation Dogs is looking as promising as the first season, whose innovation and nuanced indigenous depictions won a coveted Peabody award, critical acclaim, and endless quotables from Knifeman.
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Season 1 Review:
After the first two episode, we want to see these kids get that money and leave, even though we know that’s not likely to happen. Even if they steal everything in sight, Harjo and Waititi have seen to it that we quickly want to root for them to steal even more, even though we know we shouldn’t. That’s a pretty damn good sign.
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Season 1 Review:
From the pilot on, “Reservation Dogs” arrives fully formed, with a cinematic eye for its sun-baked environs. ... Bear’s journey is engagingly detailed in the four episodes screened for critics (of eight total), so it’s a bit disappointing that the show fails to deepen any of the other characters, even to establish their friendship dynamics.
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Season 1 Review:
It’s challenging to look into the future and imagine what this series might become. Still, there’s every reason to hope and believe that this is a show that’s only just finding its footing, and all the stuff that feels smart and unusual right now will only become deeper, more confident, funnier, and more distinctive.
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RogerEbert.comAug 6, 2021
Season 1 Review:
There are times the humor needs a moment to breathe but with the dense subject matter and only about 26 minutes each episode, that’s a risk the showrunner (also Harjo) is willing to take. Overall, these dangerous creative choices pay off. The clever banter and creativity allows for a unique perspective to be seen on television for the first time.
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Season 1 Review:
Viewers are supposed to invest in the conflict between our heroes and the Indian Mafia — or perhaps the dream move to California — Reservation Dogs hasn’t tightened its storytelling enough for that to be the case for me. And maybe it never will. ... In any case, there are more than enough pleasures to be found in this easygoing, but quietly revolutionary, Southwestern snapshot.
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Season 1 Review:
These are the low-key and absurdist moments that fill the otherwise empty hours of their days, both cementing and testing their bonds of friendship. The show’s title may be a wink in the direction of Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” but the comparison ends there. If anything, the show’s episodic, site-specific misadventures will bring to mind another FX series, Donald Glover’s “Atlanta,” and there’s a loose, throwback ‘70s feel to here.
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