5 TV Shows To Watch If You Like The Lowdown

If you aren’t watching “The Lowdown” on FX, you should get on that. An incredibly well balanced blend of dark comedy, murder mystery, political thriller, family drama, and wholesome ensemble show, it’s one of the most underappreciated shows on television going into its second season on October 14. But if you’ve already watched the first season and just can’t seem to wait for “The Lowdown” Season 2, or you’re reading this afterward and just need more in the same vein, we’ve got some similar recommendations to keep you occupied.

Finding shows like “The Lowdown” isn’t necessarily simple, due to its specific blend of tones and genres. Ethan Hawke’s leading performance as independent investigative reporter Lee Raybon makes it a bit of a star vehicle, with a clear crime focus on each season’s respective conspiracy. But many of the show’s most memorable moments are more about the culture and community of Tulsa, Oklahoma itself. Character relationships are at the heart of the series, even as the mystery elements drive the plot forward.

That exact mix is hard to come by, but we’ve assembled some strong options that embrace both the lighter and darker sides of “The Lowdown.”

Reservation Dogs

Let’s start with the clear and obvious recommendation. Before Sterlin Harjo created “The Lowdown,” he created “Reservation Dogs,” another FX series set in Oklahoma that ran for three seasons from 2021 to 2023. But as the name implies, instead of being set in a major urban area like Tulsa, it takes place primarily on a Muscogee Nation reservation. The story primarily centers on a group of four teenagers coming of age as they grapple with the death of a close friend. As the show continues, though, it expands to nearly every corner of the community, with each episode delivering unique character pairings across generations, with some of the best writing in the modern era of TV.

That formula can be seen on “The Lowdown” as well, though Harjo’s current series gets a bit more specific narrative direction from the mysteries Lee investigates. “Reservation Dogs,” by contrast, is a show about people, about being from a place, and about the specific cultural dynamics in Oklahoma’s Indigenous community. It’s also deeply funny and incredibly powerful in equal measure.

If your favorite parts of “The Lowdown” are the quiet moments, you need to watch “Reservation Dogs.” But if you like the later show at all, really, it’s an easy recommendation. It’s also worth noting that the two shows take place in the same continuity, though in Season 1 that doesn’t play too big of a role. You’ll even get a bit of Ethan Hawke if you stay through to the end of “Reservation Dogs.”

The Killing

Before “True Detective” laid a claim as the de facto comparison point for all long-form murder mystery shows, “The Killing” was doing it on AMC. Premiering in 2011, three years before the first season of the HBO series, “The Killing” follows the investigation into the murder of a high school girl in Seattle — an investigation that quickly gets tangled up in a tense mayoral campaign. While decidedly darker in tone than “The Lowdown,” with more of a focus on the actual police investigation, there’s a lot of shared DNA here, from the show’s focus on the larger community impact of the murder, to the political corruption storyline that runs parallel.

Like Lee in “The Lowdown,” Detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is an obsessive, often to the detriment of her family and personal relationships. She is joined in her investigation by new partner Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman), while other parts of the show focus on the aforementioned mayoral race and the family of the victim. Like “The Lowdown,” “The Killing” is very much a show about a specific place, though its vision of Seattle fits much more cleanly into the noir genre than the more balanced tone of the FX series. If political conspiracy mixed with mystery is why you come to “The Lowdown,” you should absolutely give “The Killing” a shot.

Fargo

A mystery that balances darkness and comedy? This could be describing “The Lowdown,” or it could be describing another FX series. “Fargo” has been one of the network’s biggest hits over the last decade, and if you haven’t checked it out but love “The Lowdown,” it’s a great next watch.

Loosely based on the 1996 Coen Brothers film, the show takes an anthology approach, with each season featuring a new main cast and taking place in a different time period. The core beats, though, tend to be the same — petty criminals skirmishing with law enforcement, tangled up relationships, dark comedy, and occasionally, pandemonium. While it may lack the specific blend of comedy and drama that makes Sterlin Harjo’s shows so great, “Fargo” hits many of the same beats, and it’s fantastic.

In five seasons, the show has racked up 70 Emmy Award nominations and taken home seven wins, including for Outstanding Miniseries in 2014 for Season 1. All five seasons of “Fargo” are worth checking out, with star turns that include everyone from Billy Bob Thornton and Kirsten Dunst to Ewan McGregor, Chris Rock, Jon Hamm, and many more.

Justified

Staying on-network for a minute, “Justified” is one of the greatest FX series of all time, and while it’s more of a proper crime series than “The Lowdown” is, there are a lot of similarities. If you love Ethan Hawke’s performance as Lee Raybon, you will likely also have a great time with Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan Givens, and not just because their names sound kind of similar.

The series is based on stories by legendary American crime writer Elmore Leonard, whose penchant for dark comedy and quirky characters adds a bit more flair and levity to the show than you’d expect from a typical procedural. Those embellishments also make “Justified” a great choice for fans of “The Lowdown.” Both shows tackle the intersections of crime, politics, and culture in more rural parts of the country (despite “The Lowdown” taking place largely in Tulsa itself), and both are often as funny as they are tense.

The other good news is that if you give “Justified” a shot and like it, there’s a bunch of it to watch. The original show ran for six seasons between 2010-2015, and the 2023 sequel series “Justified: City Primeval” is also well worth checking out if you get that far.

A Man on the Inside

For something lower-stakes than “The Lowdown,” but still built around mystery, human relationships, and an investigative protagonist, Netflix’s “A Man on the Inside” is a great pick. Ted Danson stars as Charles Nieuwendyk, a retired professor and widower who takes a job working for a private investigator. Season 1 follows Charles as he goes undercover at a retirement community to investigate a robbery. Season 2 features a blackmailing case set on a university campus. A third and final season is currently on the way.

While the mysteries of both seasons are central and fun, they are both very lighthearted, with more of the focus being on intergenerational relationships, life transitions, and getting older. Danson has starred in a lot of great shows over the years, and he’s as good as always here, bringing a tenderness to the part that’s hard not to love.

It’s a bit saccharine at times, without some of the bite that “The Lowdown” brings, but that’s also the point. In between the more intense material of “Justified” or “The Killing,” this is a great watch that keeps the intrigue high but never gets your blood pressure up.