This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist. “I don’t know, man. I don’t know. Last few years, life’s gotten cheap. The monsters ain’t just in the shadows, they’re in broad damn daylight. This country’s got the devil in it Joe and no one is calling him to account, which you know more than most.” Though there is a lot that happens in the second season of Dark Winds, this haunting monologue that comes about midway through serves as its driving force. Delivered to Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, played once again by a spectacular Zahn McClarnon, it is the type of moment where another show might follow with an uplifting response about how there is the possibility for good in the world. That does not happen here as Leaphorn pauses briefly before essentially reaffirming what was just conveyed to him. Just as was the case in the strong first season, Dark Winds is a show about whether a sliver of justice can be found in what remains a fundamentally unjust world.

Though this second season is defined again by the unraveling of a new mystery, with sleuthing and shootouts sprinkled throughout, this is merely window dressing for the deeper questions it poses throughout its six episodes. It feels like it is more of a neo-Western crime thriller that operates in conversation thematically with works like No Country for Old Men only to then be crossed with the sensibility of the recently canceled Three Pines. While still based on the series of novels by Tony Hillerman, this second season feels like it is taking things in a new direction as it plays around with some interesting formal flourishes and an even darker tone.

Setting this all in motion is Leaphorn and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), whose paths cross once more. The latter left behind working for the Navajo Tribal Police to instead be a private detective who is hired by clients for his investigative skills. Of course, as was perhaps inevitable, the two men find themselves brought back together when their respective cases align. Where the first season kicked off with a heist, this one does so with a deadly explosion that seems more callous, perhaps even targeted, and strikes right at the heart of all that Leaphorn still has left to care about in the precarious world he finds himself wandering.

RELATED: Personal Vendettas Run Deep in ‘Dark Winds’ Season 2 Trailer

‘Dark Winds’ Season 2 Makes the Stakes Even More Personal
Image via AMC

Though there are some new faces this time around to build out the world a bit, including Jeri Ryan of Star Trek, the main focus rightly remains on the central characters. Not only does this include Leaphorn and Chee, but Jessica Matten’s Bernadette Manuelito is also an integral part of the series, as are the rest of the Native women on the reservation. They aren’t just background for the main narrative to check in on now and again. Rather, they are a fundamental part of the fabric of the story and the world. While Leaphorn is dealing with the main threat of the killer who is on the loose and the demons from his past, there is a casual day-to-day danger of just being merely alive.

As was the case in the last season, this one also addresses how doctors were not to be trusted and often committed cruel acts against the patients under their care. This intersects with a reporter who wants to bring these horrifying stories to light though is also an outsider. She must earn their trust and, while this isn’t the main focus of this season, it is exactly what makes it all carry a greater impact. There is a texture to the way everything is constructed and, in many ways, this season is better than the first. It isn’t without its flaws, namely some occasional lines of clunky dialogue, but it remains riveting television.

Zahn McClarnon Is Still Magnificent in ‘Dark Winds’ Season 2
Image via AMC

This all comes back to McClarnon, who takes us deeper into the darkness that is threatening to swallow his character whole. We had known that Leaphorn had lost his son, but the way this season brings it to the forefront proves to be quietly shattering. Though the world he inhabits is vast, and the landscape is often beautifully shot, the swirling emotions etched in McClarnon’s face are the most arresting. Even when he is at rest and saying next to nothing, there is a mesmerizing quality to his every move. We see the weight his character carries on his shoulders that grows to be too much. Leaphorn’s response to the monologue before makes clear that he is aware of the pains of the world, but we only really begin to understand the full impact of this in everything he doesn’t say. Many of the episodes beat him down physically, mentally, and emotionally, leaving him on the edge of snapping. The search for answers is as much a fight for him to find salvation that may never come. One scene, where we see him bloodied after a brutal march through the desert and harboring a simmering rage, is the type of acting that makes most everything else fade completely away.

In moments where McClarnon is given center stage, like when the camera locks its focus on him with a ticking clock serving as the only thing cutting through the silence, it is as if entire worlds crumble in his eyes. He is truly magnificent. Even as there are structural problems to the narrative just as there were in the first season, this all melts away whenever McClarnon makes the series his own. Though he has proven to be a screen presence without compare in countless other works, seeing him in this leading role will never not be a gift. To witness a master of his craft working as he does on Dark Winds Season 2, without missing a single beat, is the type of experience that reminds you of the power a great actor can hold over you. All McClarnon needs is the room to do so and he’ll make something outstanding like no other working actor today.

Rating: A-

Dark Winds Season 2 premieres July 27 on AMC+ and July 30 on AMC with new episodes airing weekly.