Dark Winds

[Robert Zwilling]

Any thoughts about the new rendition of the Tony Hillerman Navaho police series, as envisioned by grandmaster RR Martin and AMC. After the first episode, I fully expect the cops at some point to be battling CW supernatural demon warriors, or witches, whatever. Maybe not. Isn't AMC the home of the never dying undead dead?

I like the 4 movies that have come out so far, 1 real movie theater movie sort of, 3 made for PBS TV mystery series. Apparently Robert Redford thought the first movie, with Lou Diamond Phillips was a real bomb, but which I really like, but was not something enough, and anyway, no further Tony Hillerman stories were put on the big screen. So Redford started a Tony Hillerman series, which could have produced quite a few movies, if you stick to the books, of which there are many. His daughter also continued the series. With modern day adaptations, all you need is a title and the names of the characters and you can go on for years.

The second attempt to bring the series to the big little screen, or giant humongous wall decorations, ended after only 3 movies, all of which were good. But apparently not something enough again. When there is a possibility that a series won't go the full distance, and serious characters get added latter in the series, it is common practice to scramble up parts of several stories and remake characters so you get everything in the first go round.

Getting back on track, so I'm watching the program, which is very good, even more of whatever was missing before in the earlier renditions. No idea yet that it is going to cost see how it plays out. I'm watching, I'm watching, I've read most of the books. I know they remade a character who comes into the series later, so okay. Except it seems like they switched out one of the main characters to do this. Its beginning to look like Christmas, no wait, I mean Twin Peaks, or the feeling of twined peaks. Viewing further, it now seems like the series has become a remake of the Val Kilmer movie, Thunderheart. Okay, mystery solved, I'm watching, I'm watching and...
Spoiler alert, the first episode is free, to see how it ends up or maybe how season 1 wraps up, you have to be a AMC subscriber, or pay per episode. For older series where a few seasons exist, the standard practice is to screen the first season for free, then the additional series are not free. I might have to wait until next year to finish watching series 1.

Its a very good series, it just isn't Tony Hillerman.

 

[BAYLOR]

This is a terrific series .

 

[CupofJoe]

Tony Hillerman's daughter Anne [who has carried on writing the Hillerman series] has been explaining why some changes had to be made from the book characters to the film characters. Apparently, there has been some dissension about the changes made [and liberties taken].
The books constantly weaved a fine line between accommodating the Navajo beliefs and modern policing.
It isn't likely to come to the UK so I may never see it.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

The other movies all made it to DVD. I don't see why this series won't make it there also.

In the books, the settings, descriptions, Navaho beliefs, and the plot all fit together very nicely. The liberties were probably needed to make a suitable story for the streaming audience which has more people who aren't going to read the books.

The lady cop gets knocked back by a "spell", my question is, do the guys also get knocked back by spells or just the lady cop.

 

[Droflet]

Such great potential, great cast but it just didn't work for me.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

After reading reviews and press releases and general back ground I now see what happened. Tony Hillerman originally received advice about his Navajo mysteries, drop the Indians to make commercially viable. He went on to receive several rewards for the accuracy of his stories. The first movie lost its Hollywood financial backing because it featured too much material that was Native American.

The first hero of the stories, Lieutenant Leaphorn, Hillerman sold the character rights to hollowood in such a manner that he couldn't use the character for several years. He only got the character back after hollowood couldn't make any money off of the character. Meanwhile, he creates the Jim Chee character, and continues on as if nothing had happened.

The second go round, sort of went better, but it was more of a case of Hollywood renting locations, bringing in mainstream hollywood writers, hiring actors, and then everything disappears after the film shooting is done. The subject matter deemed the series not be wildly commercially viable by hollowwood.

The third go round was originally shopped to hobo tv but they thought it was too much like True Detectives, which is a compliment. So on it went to AMC, who figured they could elevate the characters in the books to gold status. The real difference this time around is that the entire effort is a product of Native Americans. The actors were always there, though they have played other ethnicities in hollowood productions. For the most part, the writers pool is Native American, the crew is Native American, and the studio is on the Tesuque Pueblo reservation. They have converted their 1950s-era gambling destination into Camel Rock Studios, booking AMC’s 'Dark Winds' as their first high-profile project.

Season 2 just got the go ahead signal.

The writers are having a lot of fun writing their own ticket in their own words. This time around, the personal touches are from the heart, not from the pocketbook. One review said it was pulpy in a good way. The life experiences of Native Americans supply the personal touches to make the program extremely realistic. This type of material hollowood usually dreams up according to their own personal beliefs, based on what they believe will make big profits.

I haven't bought any Hillerman books in awhile, so I will pay to watch the series play out.

On the matter of people getting knocked back by spirits, another woman got a spirit knock in the head, though not as vicious as the first one. Still haven't seen a man get one.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

All that effort to make something that was not going to carry on the missteps of the past. There is a English comedy movies series called Carry on. And so here it goes. There are plenty of Native Americans working on the writing, the cast, the crew, and the studio. However, they are not all Navajo. Apparently there was no quality control by qualified Navajo personnel. The verbal pronunciation gaffes are off the charts. Fluent Navajo speakers have to use the subtitles to understand what is being said. But who is going to notice something like that. On a minor note, there are some props handled in such a way that they probably wouldn't be handled the way they are.

There are some very important lessons to be learned here. Perhaps there are no regular rules for stories that get converted into modern day physiological thrillers made for TV.

I would put the link to the website where I got this information but it has or had a malicious web link at the end of the article with the unflattering comments about cultural appropriation for profit. Imagine the coincidence. Its the Navajo Times website. Took a while to find the comments it had about Dark Winds because there are tons of articles, reviews, postings, which google has gathered up for our convenience to sort through. Perhaps the articles written by Navajos should have been given top billing.

So far only the female characters are getting spirit knocks to the head.

 

[BAYLOR]

I Finally got see the entire first season . Superb.

 

[BAYLOR]

Seasons 2 excellent and its been renewed for a 3rd season.

 

[KiraAnn]

I quit watching it. The show's characters did not match the books and quite frankly, the ending wasn't right.

Very disappointing.