Rutherford Falls

It all manages to leap above the high bar set by the first [season], landing on something both raucously funny and reflective. Each joke is packed full of meaning that explodes into interesting places that never fall into any tropes, pushing back against our expectations to great comedic effect.

If Reagan and Nathan’s friendship is half of the reason to watch Rutherford Falls, let the sublime co-stars be the other half.

[Producer Sierra Ornelas'] fingerprints are clearly visible — highlighted, certainly, by the work of the five other Native American writers on the show — in the complexity written into all of these characters. ... "Rutherford Falls" may not be the funniest comedy on TV, but it uses its sweetness to draw us into necessary conversations about how we might better and more honestly Iive together.

An ambitious comedy series about the lingering tensions surrounding the story of America — as we tell it, and as it really was. ... It feels a little disappointing that the show is built around a somewhat clueless, borderline-annoying white dude. This isn't to say that Nathan is a bad guy.

“Rutherford Falls” has the building blocks to become a smart comedy hit. It just needs more time to build its characters’ relationships.

The equally promising and frustrating result, which debuts on Peacock April 22, bears evidence of some significant growing pains, combining ambitious, intriguing ideas and slow, overly delicate storytelling. ... The show is at its best when it stops apologizing for Nathan’s ignorance and starts spending more time with other characters.

There’s a caustically funny show buried somewhere beneath “Rutherford Falls.” ... But by playing both sides of a very hot topic, “Rutherford Falls” fails to hum, roar or even sputter to any satisfying degree. You can feel the brakes being applied, and the consequent lurch. The one truly sympathetic character in the show is Nathan’s best friend and pariah-of-the-reservation Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding).

It's fine. I get what it's doing and sometimes it works. Ed Helms isn't great. The rest of the cast is fantastic. Hopefully season 2 is better.

There's a lot to love in Rutherford Falls. There is some great acting, a few moments of decent writing, and there are important themes that come close to getting a moment in the sun. But overall, it's a character study of an unbelievably broadly-written and shallow character (Nathan Rutherford) as portrayed by one of today's least subtle and dramatically competent actors (Ed Helms). Everything else is, tragically, set dressing. Nathan's non-binary assistant is a person of color who exists solely to buoy and support Nathan, both on a moment-to-moment basis and in Nathan's character arc. Nathan, by the way, is the only person who gets a character arc. Other people get exactly what they want, but they don't really get character arcs. The first black, female mayor exists to antagonize Nathan when narratively convenient and then have sex with him when the character needs a pick-me-up and some minority affirmation. Honestly? Rutherford Falls is pretty damn insulting to its viewer's intelligence and does a downright shameful job of handling the serious issues it chooses to take on.

Really painfully unfunny. The plot and characters seem so forced. I really wanted to like it but after forcing myself through about half of the 1st season I just couldn't keep forcing myself to watch more.