Tony Hillerman’s bestselling Leaphorn & Chee mystery series began in 1970 with The Blessing Way, which introduced Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn. He helps to solve a mystery that delves into Navajo society, spirituality, and folklore—all of which became hallmarks of the series. The fourth novel, 1980’s People of Darkness, introduced a younger Navajo police officer, Jim Chee, and by the seventh series entry, 1986’s Skinwalkers, the two cops were working cases together.
The books’ popularity led to a few intriguing adaptations over the years, including a 1991 straight-to-video feature film based on 1982’s The Dark Wind, directed by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris and starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Chee, and three TV movies for PBS’ Mystery! series in the early 2000s. Two of those were directed by Chris Eyre, a Native American filmmaker best known for his critically lauded 1998 film, Smoke Signals. Eyre also helmed several episodes of the newest Leaphorn & Chee adaptation: Dark Winds, an ongoing TV series that premiered last year. Its second season premieres July 30 on AMC and AMC+.
The show is notable for being mostly written, directed, and acted by Native Americans. (Hillerman, who lived in New Mexico for most of his adult life until his death in 2008, had no Indigenous heritage.) Its first season was based mainly on Listening Woman (1978), while this latest adapts People of Darkness; both are set in the early 1970s. Westworld’s Zahn McClarnon stars as Leaphorn, portrayed as a no-nonsense cop who’s not deeply spiritual but has respect for those who are, including his wife, Emma (ably played by Deanna Allison); they still mourn their son—a new addition to the TV series—who died in an explosion at an oil-drilling site years earlier.
Kiowa Gordon, who appeared in three movies in the Twilight Saga, plays Chee as a modern guy who isn’t very interested in the old ways of his Navajo culture. This is something of a departure from Chee’s first appearance in the books, where he’s very much connected to his family and his people. The show also smartly features Officer Bernadette Manuelito, who didn’t appear in the books until the 12th entry, 1996’s The Fallen Man. Here, she’s played by Jessica Matten, who delivers a fine performance as a sharp, ambitious cop looking to advance in her career. In the show, Manuelito and Chee begin a tentative romantic relationship, which, in the novels, eventually leads to marriage. (Anne Hillerman, Tony’s daughter, made Manuelito the focus of the book series when she began writing it after her father’s death; her latest entry, The Way of the Bear, was published in April.)
Season 1 paid far more attention to the supernatural beliefs of its Navajo characters, including a witch who appeared to wield very real magic. Season 2 tones this aspect down; there’s a cult known as the People of Darkness, but few take them seriously, and they only tangentially figure into the plot. The main story involves Chee’s unofficial investigation into the theft of a lockbox owned by the wealthy B.J Vines (John Diehl), a white man fascinated with Native American spiritualism. Vines’ wife, Rosemary (Star Trek: Picard’s Jeri Ryan), is the one who initially contacts Chee, and she seems to be hiding her true motives for wanting the box back. Meanwhile, Leaphorn and Manuelito investigate the car-bomb murder of Emerson Charley, a Navajo man who used to work for the Vineses. The two investigations intersect and reveal the involvement of a creepy blond hitman (Nicholas Logan) who’s determined to murder everyone connected to the case.
This season’s plot follows People of Darkness in its broad strokes, but instead of focusing solely on Chee, the show gives Leaphorn and Manuelito plenty to do—a frightening gunfight in a trailer is a particular highlight, as is a tense, extended outdoor sequence involving Leaphorn and the hitman in which it’s truly unclear if either man will survive. A new side plot, which references the Indian Health Services’ sterilization of Native American women in the 1960s and ’70s, is also engaging, although one wishes the show’s writers could have developed it further; the season is only six episodes long, and it sometimes feels rushed.
Not everything in the show works: Like the book, it spends far too much time on the inner life of the soulless hitman, who isn’t all that interesting. Also, the arc of a minor character—Sally Growing Thunder, a teen mom affectingly played in both seasons by Reservation Dogs’ Elva Guerra—is ultimately unsatisfying. However, it’s worth watching for its on-target evocation of the ’70s reservation setting and for its truly fine performances—especially by McClarnon, who brings impressive soulfulness to the tough Leaphorn, and Matten, whose portrayal of the fiercely determined Manuelito will have viewers wishing for a Dark Winds spinoff, perhaps based on Anne Hillerman’s books. With any luck, she’ll return along with the rest of the fine cast in a third season.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
