Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding also star in the sitcom premiering April 22 on Peacock.
And now for something completely different: C&I reader favorite Michael Greyeyes, an actor heretofore best known for his dramatic roles in films (Woman Walks Ahead, Wild Indian) and television (I Know This Much is True, Fear the Walking Dead), gets to demonstrate his deft touch with dry comedy on Rutherford Falls, the new sitcom premiering Thursday, April 22, on Peacock.
Greyeyes plays Terry Thomas, a prominent businessman in the (fictional) Minishonka Nation reservation that borders the town of Rutherford Falls (also fictional) in upstate New York. As he operates the tribe’s Rolling Thunder Casino, he hatches plans to better the lives of his people. Those plans, however, often place him at odds with Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms of The Office and The Hangover), a leading citizen of Rutherford Falls who just happens to be a direct descendant of the town’s founder — and who’s waging a battle to stop the removal of that descendant’s statue from the town square.
Co-created by Ed Helms, Mike Schur (The Good Place, Parks and Recreation) and Sierra Teller Ornelas (Superstore), Rutherford Falls focuses on the connections, divisions and day-to-day interactions between the townspeople and their Indigenous neighbors. The series boasts the largest number of Native American writers for any show in the history of American television, features several indigenous people in its supporting cast, and showcases Jana Schmieding, a Lakota Sioux performer, in the key role of Reagan Wells, Nathan’s best friend, who dreams of transforming her tribe’s modest Cultural Center into a world-renowned museum.
“Very often,” Greyeyes recently told Shea Vassar of RogerEbert.com, “I’m the only Native person on the set or in a narrative and I’m very used to that. With this show, that was not the case. I was part of a community. And there was an immediacy and a joy to that kind of work experience that I won’t soon forget.”
Here is a guide to what viewers can expect in Rutherford Falls.
And here is an interview with Michael Greyeyes and other creative talents involved with Rutherford Falls, conducted by Vincent Schilling of Indian Country Today.
To get started, find or download the Peacock application on your device or head directly to PeacockTV.com and enter your email address to create a Peacock account.
Then, you’re ready to watch!
For a list of supported devices, please click here and then select the to app download!
App Store
Google Play
