Stumptown Review: Forget it Dex, It’s Stumptown (Season 1 Episode 1)

Dex Parios kicks off Stumptown Season 1 Episode 1, “Forget it Dex, It’s Stumptown,” with an unforgettable entrance.

The episode wastes no time jumping into the action as we meet our hero trying to escape from the trunk of a car with her kidnappers up front having a pulp fiction-esque conversation about coffee and listening to Sweet Caroline. The sequence culminates with Dex making her move to escape, causing the car to fly off-road and then immediately cuts to three days earlier with the car still airborne.

It’s absurd and irreverent, and a pretty fantastic introduction both to the show’s style and its lead character, the two most important things about Stumptown and what makes the pilot work as well as it does. 

Stumptown’s success is more about the how than the what. The building blocks of the show are things we’ve seen before and maybe even expect from stories like this. Its plot is not charting particularly new territory.

A troubled past, a misunderstood loner, supporting characters that soften the protagonist’s hard front, they’re all the characteristics that have made up detective stories like this for decades.

But that’s ok. That’s not the point. 

These stories, going back to movies like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, or the pulp novels they’re based on have always been about telling a story through style and enigmatic characters that navigate morally grey spaces on the fringes of society. 

That’s something Stumptown understands and leans into readily. The pilot is fun, the supporting characters are intriguing, and Dex is a snarky, smart, wounded mess that viewers root for right away. 

It’s still early, and Stumptown is more potential than results at this point but the potential is definitely there. A strong first outing promises a fun season to come with all the right ingredients for an excellent series.

There are many things to look forward this season, but here are the three from the pilot I’m most excited for and one possible cliche I hope they avoid.

Sibling relationships

I am a sucker for sibling stories (hello Wynonna Earp, Supergirl, and Killjoys) so it was inevitable that I was going to be a fan of Dex’s relationship with her brother. In the series, Dex lives with and takes care of her brother, Ansel, who also has down syndrome.

There is a sweetness to their relationship that makes you want to protect it and, as with so many onscreen sibling relationships, Ansel is a grounding force in Dex’s life (as is her best friend Grey, played Jake Johnson). Their relationship is poised to be the heart of the show and the lens viewers see Dex’s character through even when she makes mistakes or makes choices we don’t like. 

It’s also wonderful to see a character with down syndrome (played by an actor with down syndrome) be such a central part of the story. This type of representation is rare. You can count on one hand the other characters we’ve seen like this on TV or Film. 

There is always a risk that characters like Ansel will be written in a way that is patronizing or as caricatures defined solely by their difference, but if the writers of Stumptown avoid that trap there is potential for a rich story and an important character in Ansel. 

Sue Lynn Blackbird

The most interesting relationship established on the pilot was the contentious one Dex has with the mother of her high school sweetheart, Benny.

The show reveals that Benny’s mother, Sue Lynn, was the reason Benny left Dex and married someone else. It’s also clear that Sue Lynn still blames Dex for her son’s death after he left his wife to be with her and enlisted in the army.

Part of what makes their dynamic so intriguing is Sue Lynn herself. She could have easily been a one-note antagonist to Dex, but she’s not. She is a character with layers to reveal and nuanced motivations to explore.

It’s not going to be as simple as Dex vs. Sue Lynn. By the end of “Forget it Dex, It’s Stumptown” it even seems like they are more allies than adversaries. But, a fraught history like theirs doesn’t resolve overnight and watching them navigate their complicated relationship is one of the major things to look forward to this season. 

Cobie Smulders

If there is only one reason to watch Stumptown, it’s Cobie Smulders as Dex. 

The success of Stumptown was always going to come down to the success of its lead. Everything else about the show rests on Dex being a character viewers want to spend time with, and Smulders knocks it out of the park. Whether she’s tossing out a sarcastic quip with practiced ease, throwing a punch, or having a breakdown in her car, she is pitch-perfect at every step.

She is the reason to tune in to the pilot, and the reason to keep coming back every week.

Love Triangle

The one thing I’m a bit wary of in the pilot is the potential for a love triangle between Dex, her best friend Grey, and Miles Hoffman, the detective she meets as she tries to find Sue Lynn’s granddaughter.

Love triangles are often dull, and while I’m not opposed to one done well or one that subverts tropes, it’s a bit disappointing to see the framework for a triangle established so quickly.

It doesn’t seem necessary. Dex is a complex character and doesn’t need to rely on romantic conflict to make her story compelling. 

I hope I’m wrong about this one. I hope the show stays away from love triangles at least for a while, but if I had to pick out one thing I’m worried about moving forward, it would be that.

Stumptown has the potential to be that show you look forward to every week. The one you watch right away even when your DVR is filling up with episodes of other shows. Let’s hope next week can build on the strong start of its first episode.

What did you think of this episode of Stumptown? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Stumptown airs Wednesdays at 10/9 c on ABC.

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