AMC’s Dark Winds is presented as a noir Western drama combining crime investigation with the setting and themes of the American Southwest. The series follows Navajo Tribal Police officer Joe Leaphorn as he investigates cases while dealing with the continuing grief of his teenage son’s death, giving the procedural story a personal dimension.

Based on Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee novels, which began in 1970, the programme premiered in 2022 and has run for four seasons. Zahn McClarnon plays Leaphorn, with the story set on a reservation in the south-western United States during the 1970s; George R. R. Martin and the late Robert Redford are among its executive producers.