Genre: Drama
Cast: Wyatt Russell, Brent Jennings, Sonya Cassidy, Linda Emond, David Pasquesi, Eric Allen Kramer
Announced as a modern fable, Lodge 49 hails from creator Jim Gavin and is executive produced by Paul Giamatti. The series takes a distinct pleasure in the mix of the ordinary and the extraordinary, without leaning too heavily on either. Like its protagonist, the series keeps finding beauty and splendor in the mundane.
Wyatt Russell stars as Sean “Dud” Dudley, an aimless surfer bro recovering from the disappearance of his father and an injury sustained from a snakebite in Nicaragua. Dud wanders the beaches of Long Beach, metal detector in hand looking for something, anything to pay the bills or perhaps even provide some direction.
He discovers a ring on the beach and that sets him down a path that eventually leads him to the mysterious Lodge 49 – a chapter of the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx, where men and women gather to offer one another fellowship or drink lots of beer.
The characters’ struggles and their dialogue, which gets sharper and more quotable in later episodes, both point to their desire to understand the meaning of life. That aimlessness is reflected in interesting ways by members of the lodge and the lodge itself.
At first glance, the fraternal organization seems to exist primarily as a reason to drink with friends. But, as Dud soon discovers, membership brings purpose and order into his life. And, as things slowly get weirder as the season progresses, Dud and his fraternal brethren begin to find new meaning in their lives.
While the titular Lodge is open to women and there are several fascinating female characters, the show’s is mostly interesting in its lost men. But the lodge’s better storylines don’t belong to Dud at all, but to Ernie, Ernie’s off-and-on romantic interest Connie (Linda Emond), and eventually Blaise (David Pasquesi), the lodge’s resident “alchemist”. All three characters, mostly thanks to the actors portraying them, manage to dig a little deeper and convey more pathos than the words they’re given.
The most fruitful relationship is between Dud and his twin sister Liz (Sonya Cassidy), who’s the more responsible sibling, working a thankless job at a restaurant so she can pay off the debt that their father left after dying under suspicious circumstances. The differing ways that Dud and Liz deal with their father’s death form the emotional core of the show, and their dynamic is very strong.
Lodge 49 is funny, occasionally dark, and very unique, but beyond that, it’s hard to define. Whatever it is, it’s certainly different. The key to watch the series is to just let go. It moves at its own pace, it does what it wants when it wants, and it’s never rushed. Lodge 49 works on its own terms, and even when those terms aren’t particularly clear, it does so with enough charm to see it through.
> Mar Martínez
