While it’s short on the riotous mystery-comedy-thriller antics of the past couple of weeks, this episode has plenty of laughs. Hawkes’s sinister Judge Jed provides some of the funniest moments, whether he’s declaring “I’m the law!” like an Oklahoman Judge Dredd, showing off the “Dances with Wolves” poster on his wall (“Now that was a movie,” he declares) or lowering his home movie screen at a glacially slow, cringe-comedy pace. By the time it completes its descent, Governor Washberg seems on the verge of asking the judge to grab a gun and put him out of his misery.
Elsewhere, Austin Amelio and Shane McRae have terrific comedic chemistry as Lonnie and McMann, the rogue-cop Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the piece. And the inventively obscene way the sardonic Deidra (Siena East) rebuffs a teenager’s romantic advances takes more twists and turns than, well, the plot of “The Lowdown.” Finally, there’s something charmingly cheeky about putting a bowling ball in the hands of the most Dude-like character on television.
I reviewed tonight’s episode of The Lowdown for the New York Times. (Gift link!)
Tags: new york times, the lowdown, TV, TV reviews