Is The Lowdown based on a true story?
The new series comes from Reservation Dogs' Sterlin Harjo.
Ethan Hawke may be best known for his roles in films like Training Day, Dead Poets Society and The Black Phone but he's returning to the small screen for a new leading role.
Hawke leads new series The Lowdown, which sees the actor reunite with director Sterlin Harjo after having worked together for an episode of Reservation Dogs.
This new FX series (which comes to Disney Plus here in the UK) follows Hawke's Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed "truthstorian" intent on shining a light on what's right versus wrong.
A citizen journalist and bookstore owner, we follow Lee as he continues to dig into local matters and unearths some bubbling local corruption. But when he starts finding out a lot more than he bargained for, he must protect his family and the truth.
The new series is certainly set to get people talking, but is it based on real-life events? Read on to find out.
Is The Lowdown based on a true story?
The Lowdown has been described as a work of fiction but is loosely inspired by real-life figure, Lee Roy Chapman.
A self-taught historian himself, Chapman died in 2015 but became known for his work unearthing the facts around Tate Brady's involvement in Tulsa's 1921 race massacre. The white supremacist terrorist massacre is widely considered to be one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history.
Chapman's research into the Tulsa race massacre revealed Tulsa's very own founder, Tate Brady, was affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. Chapman published his findings in the 2011 article entitled The Nightmare of Dreamland: Tate Brady and the Battle for Greenwood for This Land Press.
As a result of his report, Brady's legacy in Tulsa was rethought, with street names, organisations and districts removing his name from their titles.
Chapman worked at This Land Press with The Lowdown series creator Sterlin Harjo. The pair became friends and Chapman subsequently inspired the character of Lee Raybon in The Lowdown.
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While the FX series is entirely fictional, speaking about his time working at TLP, Harjo told EW: “It was just an inspirational and informative time for me.
“It’s looking and trying to make a difference in your community and paying attention to what's right in your backyard. With all of the documentaries that I did for This Land, a lot of it was about telling the truth.”
Producer Chuck Foxen also said: "Lee Roy Chapman is the one who, back in the day, before people were talking about changing the whole Brady District, was writing articles about who Tate Brady was, connecting him to the KKK, and going around and educating Tulsans about what the history was ... He was on the beat."
Speaking about the real-life Lee's legacy and the series, Harjo told the Boston Herald: “Lowdown is meant to honour the spirit of who Lee Roy was. After that, it’s fiction.”
While there are similarities in the way that Chapman and Raybon go about getting to the bottom of the truth and their penchant for rare books, the TV series is very much leaning on the lighthearted nature of investigating local cases with Hawke's character getting himself into quite the complicated scenario when he unearths some long-held secrets.
Hawke also serves as executive producer on the series, which "follows the gritty exploits of citizen journalist Lee Raybon, a self-proclaimed Tulsa 'truthstorian' whose obsession with the truth is always getting him into trouble," the official synopsis states.
It continues: "When the publication of Lee’s latest exposé – a deep dive into the powerful Washberg family – is immediately followed by the suspicious suicide of Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson), Lee knows he’s stumbled onto something big."
The Lowdown premieres on Disney Plus in the UK on Wednesday 23rd September with its first two episodes, with more episodes landing weekly. You can sign up to Disney Plus from £4.99 a month now.
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Authors
Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.
