When
Supernatural premiered over a decade and a half ago, it asked the question “what if all the ghost stories and urban legends you told around a campfire were real and what do they look like in today’s world?” That series drew on a particular sort of American mythology, and at its best used those stories to inform the growth of their character and it was a powerful combination. But the perspective of the show was limited, and the cast, even when it expanded, was incredibly white.
Now imagine a show that draws on
different American myths: the original folklore of Indigenous and First Nations peoples, and asks how they relate to the world today. Imagine supernatural drama that tackles class, poverty, and substance abuse in a way that’s honest and insightful without being too heavy and deals directly with life in an Indigenous community. You might come up with something like
Jeffrey Nordling plays a character described as Austin’s finest string-puller.
His mom, Maggie (Crystle Lightning), is still screaming all these years later, a hot mess of a party animal whose manic conversations with unseen people may not be hallucinations. His dad, Phil (Craig Lauzon), is a comparatively forgettable sad sack on disability, and like Maggie, mooches on their responsible son to get by. Described as the high school’s “most aspiring underachiever” by a guidance counselor, Jared augments his meagre salary from a fast-food joint by peddling “happy pills” he concocts in a shed, selling them from the drive-through window.