FX’s Breakout Hit Is Back: Season 2 Confirmed

FX is sticking with one of its newer crime-comedy hits. The Lowdown is officially coming back for Season 2, with production starting this spring in Tulsa. The timing tracks: the renewal lands about two months after the Season 1 finale aired. Good call.

Lee Raybon calls himself a Tulsa 'truthstorian' — a citizen journalist whose obsession with digging up the real story tends to blow up his life.

If you missed it, the show follows Lee (Ethan Hawke), who is less crusading idealist and more relentless muckraker. He goes after the local rot and the people who profit from it, and he does not mind getting his hands dirty. Season 1 kicked off with Lee dropping a big expose on the powerful Washberg family. Right after that hits, Dale Washberg turns up dead in what looks like a suicide — emphasis on 'looks like.' Dale leaves behind a trail of clues basically begging someone to dig deeper, so Lee does exactly that and tumbles into something much bigger.

Deadline reports the Season 2 pickup and the spring start date in Tulsa, which is exactly where the show is set — always nice when the backdrop feels lived-in because it literally is.

The Lowdown comes from creator and executive producer Sterlin Harjo, who just ran FX's Reservation Dogs for three seasons and clearly knows how to build a city and its characters from the inside out. He is joined by executive producers Garrett Basch, Ethan Hawke, Ryan Hawke, and Duffy Boudreau. The series is produced by FX Productions.

Season 1 pulled in a stacked roster, with a mix of regulars and memorable drop-ins:

• Keith David
• Kaniehtiio Horn
• Ryan Kiera Armstrong
• Jeanne Tripplehorn
• Macon Blair
• Tim Blake Nelson
• Tracy Letts
• Kyle MacLachlan
• Rafael Casal
• Peter Dinklage (guest)
• Tisha Campbell (guest)
• Graham Greene (guest)

There was also a nifty crossover touch: Paulina Alexis and Devery Jacobs popped in as their Reservation Dogs characters — a little wink for Harjo fans.

No Season 2 plot details yet, but with the show staying in Tulsa and Harjo steering, expect more thorny local power games and Hawke doing dog-with-a-bone investigative chaos. I am in.