This [fourth] episode and the ones that follow prove that McClarnon is a singular performer in modern television, one who, with each season of “Dark Winds,” gives a more heart-wrenching performance than the last. .... In cracking open the emotional core of each of its characters, season three shapes up to be one of the most magnificent seasons of television released this decade.

Old school sleuthing and shootouts to character development and ambitious visuals (especially in upcoming episodes), Season Three of Dark Winds thrillingly defies expectations.

McClarnon’s magnetism has always made it difficult to look away whenever he’s onscreen, but in these eight episodes, he reveals fissures in that presence, imbuing Leaphorn with an uncertainty that makes the character feel more mortal and elevates Dark Winds’ strongest season to date.

There are grittier, hipper, more popular crime dramas coursing through the TV/streaming ecosystem – “Tulsa King,” “Presumed Innocent,” “The Rookie” — but none of those shows can match the quality of AMC’s “Dark Winds.” .... “Dark Winds” continues to feel taut and rightsized.

Season 3 maintains the same high standards from before and presents a twisty mystery and goes to darker moral places. It’s creepier too.

Chee gets a bit lost in the narrative as he travels back and forth between the two areas as a unifying element. Still, McClarnon is such an arresting screen presence, and even more so in this extra-vulnerable mode, that any structural fuzziness doesn’t much matter. [Mar 2025, p.77]

“Dark Winds” can feel somewhat airless when McClarnon isn’t on screen. It’s a performance that carries the show, especially with Leaphorn so haunted by his choices.

Life gets more complicated for the reservation law enforcement team as one of them transfers out, complicating investigations and relationships.