The drama stays on the right side of melodrama; only a few minor characters approach caricature. Though the circumstances are tragic, and not everyone will make out well in the end, “Little Bird” is on the whole hopeful, more a story about human goodness than institutional arrogance.

The first episode of Little Bird progresses a bit slowly, but sets up a powerful story about an Indigenous woman who wants to find the family she was forcibly taken from when she was a child.

It’s a fascinating, previously unexplored (as far as I know) premise for a dramatic series (with a great theme song, “I Remember You (Hey, Little Bird)” by Buffy Sainte-Marie). But stretching the story over six overly long episodes does the show no favors as it veers between taut drama and occasional lapses into obvious, stereotypical heroes and villains.