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Ethan Hawke (“Moon Knight”) stars as Tulsa, Oklahoma, citizen journalist Lee Raybon in the new FX crime drama, “The Lowdown,” premiering Tuesday, Sept. 23, on the network, and streaming the next day on Hulu. Ethan Hawke and Peter Dinklage in “The Lowdown”
Cover Story The real story: Citizen reporter sheds light on the darkness in ‘The Lowdown’ By Sarah Passingham Southwestern dust covers a lot of truths behind mysterious tales in Oklahoma. One perhaps foolishly fearless citizen journalist, however, is dead set on sweeping his way to the bottom of things in the new FX series “The Lowdown,” premiering Tuesday, Sept. 23 on the network, and streaming the next day on Hulu. Ethan Hawke (“Moon Knight”) stars as Lee Raybon, a self-taught reporter with an obsessive interest in skeletons hiding in a powerful Tulsa, Oklahoma, family’s closet. Devoted to his truth-finding mission, Lee gets beat up, knocked out, taken hostage and threatened in the official trailer for the upcoming series. Hawke is perfectly sleazy as Lee, who lives in the rare bookstore he operates when he isn’t following the trail of one of his conspiracies. As described by FX, “while Lee’s no idealist, he’s fiercely committed to exposing corruption and unearthing the city’s hidden rot, even when it puts him at risk.” However, Lee’s commitment to the greater good leaves him
lacking in other areas of his life. His 14-year-old daughter Francis, portrayed by “Skeleton Crew” actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong, is often the one left behind when truth comes calling. Despite her father’s proclivity for absenteeism, Francis longs to follow in his footsteps and go where her curiosity leads her. The case that starts this particular one of Lee’s spirals centers around the Washberg family. Following the publication of Lee’s exposé on the local bigwigs, one unsavory member of the family meets an unfortunate, suspicious end. Dale Washberg’s (Tim Blake Nelson, “Poker Face”) alleged suicide doesn’t sit right with Lee, who starts following a trail of breadcrumbs left by the dead man that points in a different direction than the official story. Dale’s widow, Betty Jo (Jeanne Tripplehorn, “The Gilded Age”), piques Lee’s interest when her grief over her late husband quickly sends her closer to her brother-in-law, whose local political profile is heating up. Gubernatorial candidate Donald Washberg (Kyle Ma-
cLachlan, “Overcompensating”) is paid a visit by Lee in a public urinal of all places in the series trailer. In another scene, the two exchange pointed words, both onto each other. Up against a family with all the resources in the world to take him down and keep Lee from reaching the ultimate truth that they want to stay hidden, one mysterious man has got the unorthodox journalist’s back. Marty, portrayed by seasoned scene stealer Keith David (“Duster”), pops up at random to encourage Lee in his Washberg investigation. Also starring in “The Lowdown” are Kaniehtiio Horn (“Letterkenny”), Siena East (“The Sex Lives of College Girls”), Scott Shepherd (“True Detective”), Tracy Letts (“Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty”), Macon Blair (“Oppenheimer,” 2023), Killer Mike (“Billions”), Cody Lightning (“Echo”), Michael Hitchcock (“Black Monday”) and Peter Dinklage (“Dexter: Resurrection”). “The Lowdown” comes from the creator of the Peabody
Award-winning FX dramedy “Reservation Dogs,” Sterlin Harjo, who wrote, directed and executive produced the new series. Bringing another story of Oklahoma to FX, Harjo was inspired by a real person, very close to home, when writing Lee. Harjo told the Los Angeles Times in an interview in August, “the story is fictional, but the character was inspired by someone I worked with named Lee Roy Chapman at This Land Press magazine. He was very much a soldier for truth and I would ride shotgun and make these videos about the underground, unknown histories of Tulsa.” Chapman founded the Center for Public Secrets to house neglected stories of Oklahoma’s history, including the video series he and Harjo worked on, appropriately named “Public Secrets.” About the series, Harjo said, “it was about a pentup need for truth in this city. That push to tell the truth and find truth and tell our story and create a narrative around us. It gave us and the city an identity, something to hold on to.”