“The Lowdown” returned to FX on Wednesday with an Oscar winner added to its cast and a new case for Ethan Hawke’s Tulsa truth-seeker. Season two opened with two episodes at 9 p.m. ET on FX and Hulu, and the eight-episode run continues weekly. Sterlin Harjo, creator of “Reservation Dogs,” built the noir around Hawke’s Lee Raybon, who calls himself a “truthstorian.”
Tommy Lee Jones supplies the biggest change. The 80-year-old plays Lee Raybon Sr., the estranged grifter father of Hawke’s character. The reunion carries a sting: Lee had told his daughter, Francis, that his father died years earlier. The trailer shows Lee Sr. arriving in a red cap that cites Psalms 107:29.
The elder Raybon complicates a fresh investigation. Betty Gilpin plays Ginger, a public defender who draws Lee into a puzzle involving one of her clients. Lee describes the stakes as “two confirmed murders and the whole sheriff’s department.” Martha Plimpton joins as Sheriff Vela Thorne, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong returns as Francis. Austin Amelio and Clifton Collins Jr. also come aboard.
The season finds Lee committed to exposing corruption, even at personal risk, with power and wealth at the center of the mystery. Season one followed his probe into the death of Dale Washberg, played by Tim Blake Nelson.
Jones drew notice a week earlier. He attended the Oct. 7 premiere in Austin, Texas, and posed with Hawke, Armstrong, rapper Killer Mike and Harjo. Public outings are rare for the actor, which made the red carpet a talking point beyond the show itself. Harjo executive produces with Garrett Basch, Hawke, Ryan Hawke, Duffy Boudreau and Scott Teems. Hawke has called working opposite Jones a privilege.
The casting gives FX a marquee draw for a series that critics embraced in its first year. A father-son conflict also lets Harjo push Lee beyond the case-of-the-week format, tying the investigation to a family wound. How the grifter’s return reshapes Lee’s relationship with his daughter may matter as much as who killed whom. New episodes arrive Wednesdays, with the third due Oct. 21.
