Most streaming series never make it past S1 but “Dark Winds,” a murder/mystery series adapted from Tony Hillerman’s best-selling books set on the 1970s Navajo Nation, premieres S4 Sunday on AMC while S5 is in the works.

“Dark Winds” follows three Navajo Tribal Police officers, Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest.

McClarnon, 59, not only stars but produces, directs and agonizes about getting it right.

“I’m the intense guy who needs his coffee in the morning and doesn’t sleep very well. Who can be, well, they call me Grumpy Joe on the set,” McClarnon said with a smile last week in a virtual roundtable interview.

“Basically, Kiowa brings this light-heartedness to the set. He’s always got his boombox going, his music blasting. His levity helps me out quite a bit. He’s really a good heart.

“Jessica’s more like me. She can get a little of that grumpy on set. But the dynamics work between all three of us, those two will always make me laugh.”

But S4 has especially grim, murderous doings with a German assassin (Franka Potente of “Run Lola Run,” “The Bourne Identity”) determined to murder a runaway teen from the reservation school.

Leaphorn’s in a kind of existential crisis because his wife Emma, a nurse, has left him — and he’s clueless.

“As far as I don’t know why my wife left me,” McClarnon said, “the subtext is: Joe is still trying to figure out if he was right or wrong in his actions and Joe’s always struggling with that.

“It was his decisions last season with BJ Vines, letting this man out in the desert basically freeze to death and not stick a gun to his head and murder him.

“He just left him out there to survive on his own. So did Joe actually murder BJ Vines? Joe is constantly questioning that in his head.

“He thinks, Why does Emma not understand what he did? Because he found out that basically, BJ was behind the killing of his son.

“So he doesn’t understand why Emma’s left him. But in this season, Joe does what Navajo people call seeking a balance or a peace of mind.

“As human beings, we’re always searching for that balance — and Joe is definitely seeking that when he goes to his cultural ceremonies.

“Still, I don’t think Joe completely understands why Emma’s left him. Either he doesn’t understand — or he’s not willing to admit to himself that it is completely his fault that she left.

“That’s one of the complexities of Joe Leaphorn! That inner struggle.”