“Rutherford Falls” treats Nathan as a colead, but really Reagan is its center. Rutherford Falls is a smart comedy that takes a view of indigenous people that most TV shows, even recent ones, have just not made the effort to take. A college-educated “city Indian,” as she calls herself, Reagan is an outcast among the Minishonka, though for reasons much more personal than she realizes. And because it’s hard to get invested in the show’s central friendship, the seemingly imminent rift between them is robbed of its urgency. The bond between Nathan and Reagan is supposed to be the show’s heart, but the tenuous alliance between Reagan and Terry is easily its most engaging. Ed Helms comedy. Like that earlier series, Rutherford Falls is a formally familiar show with a big, searching heart, that asks unexpectedly tough questions about how best to serve a community and foster a sense of belonging among its members. ‘Rutherford Falls’ Review: Ed Helms Confronts Racist History in a Misguided Peacock Comedy Series Jana Schmieding and Michael Greyeyes shine, while Helms reverts to … Golden Globes: Netflix “Stopping Any Activities” with HFPA Unless and Until Further Reforms Are Made, Critics’ Conversation: The Exhilarating Stupidity of Netflix’s ‘The Circle’, ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ Season 3: TV Review, "Egregious" TV Errors Fuel Native and Indigenous Groups' Calls for Better Representation, Behind Warner Bros.’ Search for a Black Superman, Andrew Garfield Breaks Silence on ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, MGM Television Teams With Korea’s SM Entertainment for U.S. K-Pop Competition Show, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Shocker: Another Longtime Star to Exit, Kris Jenner, Khloe Kardashian Paid $37M for Side-by-Side Hidden Hills Mansions, “Everyone Just Knows He’s an Absolute Monster”: Scott Rudin’s Ex-Staffers Speak Out on Abusive Behavior, Kevin Spacey’s Strange New World: From Triple Threat to Legal Challenges on Three Fronts, Ray Fisher Opens Up About ‘Justice League,’ Joss Whedon and Warners: “I Don’t Believe Some of These People Are Fit for Leadership”. For Ornelas, she loved that “Rutherford Falls” showed Native Americans as funny and real people. Rutherford Falls, on the other hand, boasts deeply flawed characters, whose flaws are not only apparent to the audience but to each other. Here, four episodes in, “Rutherford Falls” finds itself something of a thesis statement of taking back the Native American narrative from white people — … Rutherford Falls is a weird little show perfectly in line with its predecessors, Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. (Leigh is also nonbinary.). is an ambitious tale of two Americas: Review. Diversity in storytelling isn’t just about new faces; it can also lead to fresh perspectives, novel stakes and unconventional characters. Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding star in co-creator Mike Schur's Peacock comedy about a small town with a distinct historical identity and the Native American reservation next door. Rutherford Falls – Season One Review May 1, 2021 Jean Henegan Comment(0) If you’re looking for a pretty good comedy to binge this weekend, look no further than Rutherford Falls , the latest Mike Schur ( Parks and Recreation and The Good Place ) produced series that … Rutherford Falls. Rutherford Falls is a lighthearted comedy, but in giving a voice to Indigenous people, it also break barriers. And like Parks‘ Leslie Knope, the two leads here are hopelessly earnest dorks: Helms’ Nathan Rutherford spends his days giving schoolchildren tours at the museum that commemorates his family’s founding of the town in the 17th century, while Jana Schmieding’s Reagan Wells wastes away manning the empty Minishonka cultural center inside one of the (fictional) tribe’s casinos. Created by Ed Helms, Sierra Teller Ornelas, Michael Schur. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. It helps that Helms and Schmieding are appealing leads and have good chemistry as lifelong friends Nathan and Reagan. You can adjust your cookie choices in those tools at any time. Rutherford Falls Review: The Show Forgot to Be Parks and Recreation. The new Peacock comedy from Ed Helms, Sierra Teller Ornelas, and Parks and Recreation co … Rutherford Falls can’t singlehandedly correct that but it can set a standard for the future. Read full review Movie Review Archive ... Ed Helms (left) plays a descendant of the town founder on “Rutherford Falls,” alongside Dana L. Wilson as his town’s mayor and Jana Schmieding as his best friend. ‘Rutherford Falls’: Ed Helms in a Culture Clash The ‘Office’ star plays a well-meaning but bumbling white dude navigating life in a small town with strong Native American roots Rutherford Falls’ less familiar elements largely make up for its extremely low joke density, which becomes rather conspicuous when the show turns its focus on Nathan and his would-be profiler, the “centaur-hot” public radio journalist Josh (Dustin Milligan), who wants to make the titular town the subject of his next podcast about “the story of America.” Josh is so far just a tweedy archetype, but he commands the conflicted depths of Tony Soprano next to Bobbie (Jesse Leigh), Nathan’s cheeky yet inexplicably sycophantic nonbinary assistant. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. Rutherford Falls ’ biggest pitfall is its saggy pacing — the pilot, which runs a (rather unfunny) half-hour, feels twice as long. Copyright © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Its first season is imperfect, but it tries its best. Nathan is positioned for a clash with his bestie Reagan, who is taken under the wing of her scheming casino-manager boss, Terry (Michael Greyeyes, a highlight), who’s been lying in wait for the right moment to go after the Rutherford family. An even more compelling Native character is Terry, a born businessman and generous community leader who sees his monomaniacal pursuit of money and power as the most reliable way to ensure a future for his dispossessed people. There’s also both too … admin. The fourth episode, about Terry’s complicated backstory, is the best of the batch screened for press, bolstered by Greyeyes’ simmering intensity and mercurial versatility. 7 Min Read. Add Comment. Here’s hoping the remaining six chapters are a little less hopeless in their earnestness. But other than their dedication to their respective ancestors’ legacies, it’s not really clear why the overconfident Nathan and the mousy Reagan are friends at all — her amusingly snide coworkers (Julia Jones and Bobby Wilson, both hilarious) compare them to Tony Stark and Hawkeye. April 28, 2021. In comedy "Rutherford Falls," Ed Helms is a nice guy who prefers the myth of his whitewashed history The creatives behind "The Good Place," "Parks … Rutherford Falls is a smart comedy that takes a view of indigenous people that most TV shows, even recent ones, have just not made the effort to take. In a misguided attempt at historic preservation, Nathan is determined to fight the mayor’s intentions to move a statue of one of his forefathers so it no longer stands in the middle of the street where drivers keep crashing into it. It’s more that in its first four episodes, "Rutherford Falls" can be underwhelming with the comedy that usually takes a saga like this over the top. Where Rutherford Falls shines is in its ability to do so many things at once. “When you do, it’s one guy and he has to transform into a wolf or something.” Given the historical invisibility of Native Americans in media and entertainment, Rutherford Falls is the kind of show one immediately wants to root for — not only because of its representational aims, but because of its excellent Native supporting cast, its intellectual ambitions and its character-driven storylines. Rutherford Falls’ biggest pitfall is its saggy pacing — the pilot, which runs a (rather unfunny) half-hour, feels twice as long. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. A small town in the Northeast is turned upside down when local legend and town namesake, Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms) fights the moving of a historical statue. It helps that Helms and Schmieding are appealing leads and have good chemistry as lifelong friends Nathan and Reagan. NBC sitcom parks and Recreation It is mocked by how even Panty’s fictional city, Indiana, had a long, horrifying history against the fictional-leftover tribe who lived on the land before the white settlers claimed them. Rutherford Falls is a potential TV series with an interesting topic about indigenous people live in America. This is really fresh for me. Review: Rutherford Falls : Pop Culture Happy Hour The Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls, which follows a conflict over a historical statue in a small town, … Helms and Schur brought on eventual showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas, a Navajo and Mexican American Brooklyn Nine-Nine alum, to create Rutherford Falls with them, and the trio assembled a writers room in which half the staff are Indigenous. With Ed Helms, Michael Greyeyes, Jana Schmieding, Jesse Leigh. There’s also both too … The highlights of the show are its supporting characters, not its main character. Nathan isn’t quite a white entry-point character into a Native world — he’s much too flawed for that — but his more traditional storylines, like dealing with the foreboding board of his family’s company, do feel like unwelcome intrusions on a show that’s largely breaking new ground. Here is a series with has an incredibly strong concept, especially for a story that also proves to be a workplace comedy of sorts where everyone mostly likes each other despite their clashing goals. 'Rutherford Falls' review: Genial charmer that quietly makes TV history "Rutherford Falls" cast (l-r): Ed Helms as Nathan Rutherford, Dana L. Wilson as … “You just never see Indians on TV,” said Ornelas at the 2020 Television Critics Association press tour. Conversely, Rutherford Falls is at its weakest when it’s leery of conflict. See details. Like Nathan, Reagan isn’t particularly liked by the people she wants to serve, while Terry enjoys a deftness around people but might not realize his ego is getting in the way of his leadership. But based on the first four episodes (the portion sent to critics), the series isn’t quite root-worthy yet. The seed of Peacock’s new sitcom Rutherford Falls — set in a Northeastern town next door to a Native American reservation — emerged from conversations between Ed Helms and Michael Schur, but its spiritual origins may well have come from the comedy hitmaker’s Parks and Recreation, too. Rutherford Falls ’ biggest pitfall is its saggy pacing — the pilot, which runs a (rather unfunny) half-hour, feels twice as long. Art is often the strongest when pointing a mirror at our face, forcing us to look at ourselves in ways that we are too afraid or unaware of what we face.The delicacy that this mirror consistently shines on our face throughout the first season Rutherford Falls, One of the first native comedies on television, the creators of the show Edhelms, Mike Sure, Sierra Teller Orneras (the first native … Teller Ornelas is Navajo and Mexican-American (and, like Reagan, has a … All Rights reserved. That’s the promise — but not yet the reality — of Rutherford Falls, which offers a portrait of a Native community, with all the heterogeneity that entails. “We had five native writers on-staff…which I think is a first,” she said. It was created by Ed Helms, Michael Schur, and Sierra Teller Ornelas Premise. Helms doesn’t bring much charisma or dimension to his character, either, though the themes Nathan is forced to contend with — e.g., how much pride he should take in everything his family has built, given their foundation in colonial exploitation — are certainly pressing and timely. Rutherford Falls is a smart comedy that takes a view of indigenous people that most TV shows, even recent ones, have just not made the effort to take. She’s at the fulcrum of all the tensions, and Schmieding is an out-of-the-box charismatic star. Cast: Ed Helms, Jana Schmieding, Michael Greyeyes, Jesse Leigh, Dustin Milligan, Creators: Ed Helms, Michael Schur, Sierra Teller Ornelas, Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. It’s a show about history and friendship and capitalism and identity … This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers. Rutherford Falls is an American sitcom television series that premiered on the streaming service Peacock on April 22, 2021. This review contains no spoilers and is based on the first four episodes of Rutherford Falls.. Rutherford Falls, the new Peacock comedy from Ed … There’s already more dimension given to these characters than was the case in early episodes of P&R or The Office — the famously rocky starts those shows had … There’s also both too much and not enough table-setting in these early installments. Leery of conflict can set a standard for the future at the fulcrum of all the tensions and. 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