At the 2019 San Diego Comic Con preview of the pilot, Cobie Smulders confirmed that Dex's bisexuality would "definitely be addressed in the series". Smulder described Dex as "definitely attracted to women and men ... she tries to recover from her PTSD through sex. She's up for anything — it's one of the things that drew me to this character." Although set in Portland, the series is filmed in Los Angeles. However, the pilot episode, filmed mostly in Vancouver, B.C., included a few scenes shot in Portland. On May 14, 2019, ABC released the first official trailer for the series. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.57/10, based on 36 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Simple, but strong, "Stumptown" moves at a brisk pace and packs a serious punch thanks in large part to Cobie Smulders' star making performance." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Caroline Framke of "Variety" wrote: "With only one episode to go on, it’s hard to say how “Stumptown” will handle its upcoming cases of the week, or if it will shade Dex out beyond her cliched basics. But there are a couple standout elements of the show that point towards a more promising season than not." Allison Shoemaker of "The A.V. Club" reviewed the first episode and wrote: "It’s likely that this origin story will lead to Dex getting a new case/distraction of the week; hopefully, those stories will stand on their own as much as they illuminate her inner life. Even if it doesn’t, even if life for Stumptown becomes a lot less interesting after this first trip, Cobie Smulders, and Dex Parios, are well worth visiting again." Mike Hale of "The New York Times" wrote: "There's a potentially appealing mix of wisecracking humor and underplayed, credible action, though, that could blossom if it's given precedence over the melodramatic back story.