No one can accuse The Lowdown of clearing its throat. Its cold open features a hidden suicide note, a gun that goes off moments after appearing, and some jazzy hat choreo; there’s an abduction, an affair, and a double-murder before the episode is out. Sterlin Harjo’s comic noir is chaotic, but it’s tethered to Tulsa’s sun-baked streets by a stellar Ethan Hawke. Mysteries are unraveled at the pace of the person doing the unraveling, and Hawke’s showy performance as Lee Raybon — a down-on-his-luck writer whose default setting is “go” — makes sense of the show’s urgency. It’s perhaps the most fully realized pilot I’ve seen all year.

We first meet Lee as he steals a Joe Brainard painting from a private members club where the rolls overfloweth with Bible Belt businessmen in Ariat vests in li

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