Dark Winds Is Still The Best Mystery Show You Haven't Seen
The AMC neo-noir hits a new high, even while leaving the reservation with its fourth season.
If you’re a cord-cutter, it can be shocking to remember there’s a whole world of broadcast television you haven’t seen. Shows like Yellowstone and 911 are churning out new episodes across multiple spinoffs and still attracting millions of viewers. But these neo-westerns and procedurals can get repetitive, often alienating for the streaming-focused viewer.
But in 2022, a classic neo-western mystery series managed to breathe new life into the genre by telling a lush period story set in the Navajo Nation with a ingenious fantasy twist. Now, the series is gearing up for its fourth season and it’s better than ever.
Dark Winds Season 4 dials the tension up a notch by bringing its characters to Los Angeles.
Dark Winds, based on the Leaphorn and Chee novels by Tony Hillerman, is the 1970s-set story of Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), a Navajo Nation police officer, and his sidekicks Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon.) Over the first three seasons, we’ve seen them face off against crooked mining magnates, zealous cults, and border patrol conspiracies. (You can catch up on the first three seasons on Netflix.)
The end of Season 3 felt like the end of an era, though. Fed up with his obsession with his job, Joe’s wife Emma (Deanna Allison) left him and moved to Los Angeles, while Manuelito and Chee started a tenuous relationship. Now, the status quo is irreparably changed. But the series doesn’t miss a beat. In fact, its fourth may be the show’s best season yet.
When a 16-year-old boarding school student (Isabel DeRoy-Olsen) runs away, the trio is on the case, but everything is complicated when a tall blonde German woman (Franka Potente) enters a diner and shoots down almost everyone inside. When the chase for both of these characters takes them to Los Angeles, Leaphorn also attempts to reconcile with his wife.
This shot alone proves that Dark Winds is one of the best series on TV.
Dark Winds has always been acclaimed for its storytelling, boasting names like George R. R. Martin and the late Robert Redford. But this series takes things to a new level with the setting change to Los Angeles. In a move echoing Justified: City Primeval, planting the small-town cops in the big city is always exciting. But unlike that series, Dark Winds adds the twist of Navajo folklore to every episode, and in this season it’s an eerie ghost story.
But where this series really shines is in the direction. In one shot that will stay with me for a while, Leaphorn and Manuelito recover after the shooting at the diner. The “R” in the “DINER” sign is shot out, so hovering above them is the word “DINE,” as in “Diné,” the correct Navajo term for their people. It’s no coincidence that this episode was directed by Zahn McClarnon himself, who proves himself to be the beating heart of the series.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been watching from the beginning or just tuning in for this season, Dark Winds is the best hidden gem TV show of 2026 so far, and it’s hard to imagine another show unseating its traditional structure and innovative story. Thankfully, it’s already renewed for Season 5, so there’s still more time for this show to amass the audience it so clearly deserves.
