Rutherford Falls Review: An Imperfect Comedy With An Important Message
Warning: this review contains spoilers for the entirety of Rutherford Falls Season 1.
Rutherford Falls is a weird little show perfectly in line with its predecessors, Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. Its first season is imperfect, but it tries its best. The highlights of the show are its supporting characters, not its main character.
Nathan Rutherford is a fairly pathetic protagonist, especially once the secret of his true heritage is revealed — he’s not even a Rutherford.
It is a dumb twist because the entire core of the show is built around him being a Rutherford. What’s the point of having your protagonist stand up for his heritage when it’s not truly what he is? Will the entire show’s purpose shift post-Season 1?
Reagan Wells, on the other hand, is competent without being too pathetic.
However, she’s treated so poorly by those around her that you have to wonder — why is this show so hellbent on portraying its leads as losers and outsiders? Terry Thomas, the ebullient owner of the casino, is not pathetic, but rather the strongest character on the show, especially comedically.
The show deals heavily with a fictional Indigenous tribe, the Minishonka, and they’re easily the most interesting part.
Nathan’s storyline of a white man trying to stand up for his historical family feels done to death, and not relevant to this cultural moment in the slightest. The Minishonka characters, including Terry and Reagan, are colorful and diverse in thought and opinion.
This is unlike the white characters, who, for the most part, follow the same lines as the townspeople of Pawnee, constantly complaining and asking for things that don’t need to be asked for, at all. The white characters are the most problematic aspect of the show, with the exception of the reporter Josh Carter, who is searching for the truth.
Josh is one of the most skillfully handled characters. He investigates exactly what’s going on with the Rutherford legacy and what happened between the family and the Minishonka people in the 18th century, which is an important story and deserves to be told.
Of course, this is all fictional, but it reflects the realities of the histories of Indigenous people in this country. There’s a lot to be said about how they were abused by white settlers, and are abused to this day, but Rutherford Falls tries to shed a more positive light on the situation.
For example, Terry is an honest businessman who’s built a massively successful casino, seemingly from nothing. At the same time, he badgers his children into being successful, especially his daughter, who makes some of the most beautiful beadwork.
Terry is imperfect, and he’s scary to some extent, a reminder of characters like Ron Swanson and his “I do what I want” memo. However, Terry doesn’t have the privilege of doing what he wants; he’s still a leader in his community, in an always precarious position.
Nathan, on the other hand, has all the oblivious privilege a guy can ask for, and that grates easily because he really should know better. This man in his 40s learns for the first time, from a fairly old book, that the ancestor whose recognition he’s fighting for was fairly terrible to the Minishonka.
How he’s learning that for the first time is questionable at best.
If you have an interest in great supporting characters and occasionally good humor with a good message behind it, you might enjoy Rutherford Falls. But if you’re looking for something that probes deeper or something that’s genuinely funny most of the time, this might not be the show for you.
Stray Thoughts
- Nathan and Reagan starting as friends when other shows would have made them enemies is nice to see.
- Nathan losing his mind on the crowd reminded me of The Newsroom and not in a good way.
- Paul F. Tompkins’s guest star role is a pleasant surprise — him being a white supremacist isn’t great, though.
- Realizing Josh is Ted from Schitt’s Creek is awesome.
- There’s a lot of Reagan is clumsy, Reagan is a nerd, Reagan is hated by her community, which both ring true to me but also sting a bit.
- Rutherford Inc. landing the helicopter is pretty frightening but funny.
- Terry’s origin story is great — lemonade stands!
- “You’re a Mark Ruffalo!”
- Part of me wonders what this show would’ve looked like on a network…not that different, I feel.
What did you think of this season of Rutherford Falls? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Rutherford Falls is now streaming on Peacock.
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Ruth Johnson
Ruth Johnson is a screenwriter, scholar, and cultural critic who enjoys discussing TV, film, and fandom.