Review: Zahn McClarnon shines in an otherwise drab 'Red Road'

Jason Momoa — the mountainous Khal Drogo of “Game of Thrones” — and the New Zealand actor Martin Henderson star as a Cain and Abel pair, related in the sense that they’re both sons of Walpole, their lives predictably blighted by their provincial circumstances. Mr. Momoa’s Phillip is just out of prison and looking to make some money selling prescription drugs; Mr. Henderson’s Harold, the high school football hero who hurt his back, is now a town cop.

The premiere puts an elaborate, novelistic set of circumstances into place. Connections are made among Harold’s wife’s grief over her brother’s death (in which Phillip was somehow involved); Harold’s daughter’s dalliance with a young American Indian who falls under Phillip’s sway; and the disappearance near Walpole of a New York college student. Through four episodes, these currents play out with a notable lack of menace or urgency.

Mr. Momoa and Mr. Henderson acquit themselves well without generating any heat or much of any feeling. The best work is by Julianne Nicholson as Harold’s damaged wife and Zahn McClarnon (the tribal police officer in A&E’s “Longmire”) as a foot soldier in Phillip’s drug operation.