The Lowdown Season 2 Brings Back Ethan Hawke and Adds Tommy Lee Jones as His Father

Tommy Lee Jones walks in at the end of the first episode. He plays the estranged father of Ethan Hawke's character.

That entrance launches Season 2 of The Lowdown, which premiered Oct. 14 on FX. The Tulsa-set crime drama comes from creator Sterlin Harjo, with Hawke also serving as executive producer, meaning he helps steer the show as well as star in it Variety.

New episodes air at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on FX and stream on Hulu, according to FX scheduling Variety. Hawke returns as Lee Raybon. He calls himself a "truthstorian", the show's word for a scrappy citizen journalist chasing local corruption.

This time Lee gets pulled into the Oklahoma prison system. Public defender Ginger, played by Betty Gilpin, recruits him to investigate the disappearance of her client inside. It is a closed world. It does not want to be looked at.

Jones plays Lee Sr. He is described as an itinerant con man, always moving and always working an angle Variety. He was cast to star opposite Hawke, and his arrival complicates Lee's already messy family life. Ryan Kiera Armstrong returns as Francis, Lee's daughter.

Harjo said the bones of the season were worked out during the Season 1 press tour with executive producer Duffy Boudreau and Hawke. He named three favourite films as starting points for the tone: Prime Cut (1972), Cutter's Way (1981) and The Third Man (1949). Short list. Clear signal about conspiracy and betrayal.

The prison story was shot in a real place. Season 2 filmed in McAlester, Oklahoma, in the prison Harjo visited as a child when his uncle was held there. That history shaped the setting. The walls are not a backdrop.

The wider cast has grown too. Martha Plimpton and Austin Amelio joined for Season 2, alongside returning players. No episode count has been confirmed in the latest reports. The focus so far is on the new case and the father-son clash.

The cast gathered early for launch. The Season 2 premiere was organised for Oct. 7 in Austin, Texas, and Jones attended People.

For fans, this means a tighter mystery and a more personal one. Lee is still hunting the truth. Now his father is part of the story.