Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Dark Winds season 3.Though Dark Winds season 3 is over, fans of Zahn McClarnon’s Joe Leaphorn already have the perfect, six-season replacement show to watch while waiting for season 4. Dark Winds season 4 was confirmed before the third season even began. However, after the ending of Dark Winds season 3, there’s still a long time to wait until Leaphorn, Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and Bernadette (Jessica Matten) are back. There are also plenty of storylines to look forward to in Dark Winds season 4, like Bernadette and Chee’s long-awaited romance and Joe’s quest to earn Emma’s (Deanna Allison) forgiveness, so the wait may be too long for some viewers.
Dark Winds is certainly a unique show, so there’s not a perfect replacement for it out there. No other series highlights Navajo culture and tradition as well as Dark Winds does, and very few crime thrillers are as well-written and surprising. There is one show, however, that bears an almost eerie similarity to Dark Winds, and it can definitely help fans pass the time until season 4. It even features Zahn McClarnon and A Martinez (Sheriff Gordo Sena) much earlier in their careers, and all six seasons of it are available to stream right now.
Dark Winds Fans Will Love Longmire (& Zahn McClarnon Plays Another Tribal Police Officer In It)
McClarnon Played Mathias In Longmire A Decade Before He Played Leaphorn In Dark Winds
Possibly the best replacement for Dark Winds while waiting for season 4 is Longmire, which has six seasons available to stream on Paramount+. Longmire follows the titular Sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) and his small police department as they solve murders and other crimes in rural Wyoming. It’s a detective procedural in the same vein as Dark Winds, but Longmire features a new mystery with each episode, rather than overarching stories lasting entire seasons. It also features a similar focus on Indigenous peoples: Walt’s county is directly adjacent to the Cheyenne reservation, and his cases often spill onto the reservation.
There are so many parallels that Dark Winds almost feels like a spiritual successor to Longmire.
Structurally, Longmire is very similar to Dark Winds, but the similarities go much deeper than that. Zahn McClarnon had a recurring role in all six seasons of Longmire as Mathias, another tribal police officer like Joe Leaphorn. Another Dark Winds star – A Martinez, who plays Gordo – also had a recurring role in Longmire as Jacob Nighthorse. Even Walt himself seems reminiscent of Dark Winds: he’s another leader of an understaffed police force, and his wife’s unsolved murder bears a lot of similarities to Joe Junior’s death. There are so many parallels that Dark Winds almost feels like a spiritual successor to Longmire.
Zahn McClarnon Was Great In Longmire, But He’s So Much Better In Dark Winds
McClarnon Stood Out In Longmire, But Dark Winds Proved He’s An Emmy Contender
As previously mentioned, Zahn McClarnon had a recurring role in Longmire. His character, Mathias, got more important as the show progressed, and McClarnon was great in the relatively little screen time he had. As good as he was in Longmire, Zahn McClarnon is even better in Dark Winds. McClarnon is perfectly cast as Joe Leaphorn, and he acts as the most central part of the show’s emotional core. For instance, Joe’s dream sequence in Dark Winds season 3, episode 6 wouldn’t have been possible if McClarnon wasn’t as fantastic as he is. He’s been so good that many people even think McClarnon should earn an Emmy.
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McClarnon’s performance in Dark Winds has been an absolute acting tour de force, but Longmire is still more than worth watching for fans of the show. McClarnon doesn’t have the same prominence as he does in Dark Winds, but he managed to turn a relatively simple character into a highlight of Longmire. Mathias starts out as a foil to Walt, but by the ending of Longmire, he becomes a complex ally and a righteous man. At the very least, if Dark Winds does end up securing Zahn McClarnon an Emmy, then Longmire will serve as proof that his talent has been there all along.
