I didn’t know anything about #RutherfordFalls going into it but in one episode I was absolutely hooked.
Here are...several words to convince you not only that it is the funniest show on television right now, but that it is the perfect show for this American moment.

#RutherfordFalls navigates the dynamics of racial dialogue so artfully I was floored at the effort. For a sitcom featuring a town wrestling with its white settler history and Indigenous neighbors, it never uses words like privilege, colonization, Rep/Dem, or white fragility.

They just show you those things in action (which is more damning, since you can find yourself relating to certain characters and scenes before you realize how you’re a problem in real life). There are no brazen conservative rednecks or insipid Karens asking for folks’ managers.

Everybody is presented as well-meaning until things go south and the depth of their allyship/perfect union is questioned. It was so refreshing not to be talked to in an elementary way about my existence.

Note, I say my existence even though this show only has 1 major-ish Black character in it. (Dana L. Wilson)

RF revels in the observation that while no ethnic group is a monolith, all cultural fights against white supremacy are basically the same.

So when a group of Minishonka talk about crabs in a bucket, the only difference in that conversation and the one I have with my Black mother is that we say barrel.
Hey, Black people got a lot of crabs.

I love that not once – NOT ONCE – does #RutherfordFalls resort to a Melissa McCarthy-ism with lead actress Jana Schmieding. @janaunplgd

They don’t make any fat jokes. They don’t use any physical comedy at her expense. They don’t question her ability to attract men. They don’t show her squeezing into dresses or out of cars. She is featured in one of only two (and a possible) relationships in the show.

Even her bullies don’t resort to size jokes. Reagan simply gets to be a fiercely intelligent, attractive, hilarious woman who cares deeply about her culture and struggles with imposter syndrome. RF is batting a better average against sizeism than any family dinner I have attended

Usually a show with this much range in its diversity casting leans into one of two extremes, both of which ruin the point of diversity casting:

1) they treat every character as if they have no culture (so they’re all just flat pieces of cardboard in different colors, representation in name only) or...

2) they double-down on the Racism 101 and drop all the appropriate talking points in unnatural expository conversations, which drags the show into didactic territory.

#RutherfordFalls does neither of these things. Every character presented as a diversity hire proves to actually be a nuanced addition to the stew.

At a tight 10 episodes, the show knows the story it wants to tell and it has the crew behind the scenes to tell it. A special shout-out to co-creator and writer Sierra Teller Ornelas, @sierraornelas ...

...who has spent years writing on some of my favorite sitcoms (Brooklyn Nine Nine, Superstore and the GOAT of them all, Happy Endings) and whose comic pedigree is clear and deft on RF. She gets to write about exactly what she wants to here, and it shows.

Also, she made sure that of the 7 writers on this show, 5 of them are Indigenous writers. This also comes through in the work.

You always hear from white Hollywood (and every other industry) that they would hire more qualified POC but they can’t find them. This was part of the reason why I was a big fan of the series Longmire.

Even with its White Savior complex and a few standard issues with representation, over the course of 6 seasons they hired pretty much every Indigenous actor I'd ever seen. When I took note of Rutherford Falls’ premise, I assumed I would be seeing a lot of overlap in the casting.

[Charlie Murphy voice] WRONG. WRONG.

Despite hiring tons of Indigenous actors, Rutherford Falls has almost no overlap. I noted 1 actor, MAYBE 2 that were in Longmire.

Can't find them INDEED.

Speaking of casting, shout out to Michael Greyeyes who plays casino owner Terry Tarbell. @MichaelGreyeyes

I last saw him most notably in the horror film #QuantumBlood and it took me several minutes to catch that this was the same actor because he was so funny in Rutherford Falls.

His character would normally be a villain in a set-up like this, but he is given nuance and backstory, and his motivations are well-meaning. You may not like what he’s doing, but you get why he’s doing it. @MichaelGreyeyes is given a great character. My man is magnetic.

This show is a clinic in character development; no one is the same as when then show started, each learning and growing in various ways. The only character for whom this is less true is Bobby, played by @Jesseleighh1 and I am 100% okay with that.

@Jesseleighh1 is doing dime-turn code-switching so hard in this show that you won’t notice the whiplash because you’re laughing so hard. You don’t ever really get the sense that you know Bobby, and I love that about them.

Bobby is the one still wary of everybody in that damn town, and that in itself is a great indictment of our American Moment.

The first 3 episodes of “Rutherford Falls” are on Hulu, but if you want all 10 episodes you have to sign up for @peacockTV and let me assure you that it is 100% worth the effort. I laughed through all 5 hours of this without fail.

Correction: I thought I watched the first 3 free episodes on Hulu
Incorrect! It was Peacock.