The Lowdown Season Two Opens With Tommy Lee Jones and a Prison Mystery
Lee Raybon is back, award in hand and family trouble close behind.
The Lowdown season two opened on Oct. 14 with two episodes on FX and Hulu, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ethan Hawke returns as Lee Raybon, a Tulsa "truthstorian" who writes and investigates local stories. He is still living with the exposé that drove season one.
Hawke is joined at the top of the cast by Betty Gilpin and Tommy Lee Jones. Gilpin plays Ginger, a public defender, meaning a lawyer who represents clients who cannot pay for one. Jones plays Lee Sr., also called "Frog," the estranged father of Lee Raybon.
The family line runs through the next generation too. Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays Francis, Lee Raybon's daughter and Lee Sr.'s granddaughter. The wider circle includes Cody Lightning as Waylon, Jude Barnett as Henry and Josh Fadem as Abel, who runs Lee's favourite record store. Kaniehtiio Horn also appears as Samantha.
The premiere starts with recognition. Lee accepts a journalism award for the investigation at the centre of last season. Then it turns.
Ginger pulls Lee aside with a warning. She believes two men are following her. She kisses him to fool them into thinking the pair are a couple. It is a ruse, and it works just long enough for her to explain the real problem.
Her former client Mekko Dean appears to have vanished from prison. That disappearance sets the central mystery for the season. Ginger wants Lee's help to find out what happened.
The other new thread is Lee Sr. He is found wandering alone on a country road by a police officer. His behaviour is confused. He wears an ill-fitting suit and a red baseball cap reading "Pslams 107:29".
The show is from Sterlin Harjo and is described by FX as a western-noir, meaning a crime story with the tone of a Western. Season two was filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to FX. Hawke also serves as an executive producer.
For fans, this means two cases to follow. One is out in the open, about a missing prisoner. The other is personal, about whether a son and father can share the same town again.
