Bear Smallhill

Bear is the self-appointed leader of a small crew of Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma, all of them saving up—through petty theft and odd jobs—to get out and start over in California. He postures as tough and visionary, prone to daydreams of ancestral warriors, but underneath he's an anxious kid still figuring out who he's supposed to be.

The show lets Bear be genuinely uncool without ever laughing down at him, and Woon-A-Tai plays that gap between swagger and uncertainty with real tenderness. His imagined pep talks from a bumbling spirit guide are funny, but they also expose a kid straining for guidance he can't quite find, which makes him easy to root for.