Yellowstone - Taylor Sheridan, Kevin Costner - Paramount Network

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

Figured this needed it's own thread to contain my gushing.

Taylor Sheridan who wrote SICARIO, HELL OR HIGH WATER and WIND RIVER, writes and directs the entire first season of YELLOWSTONE for Paramount Network. Kind of a cross between DALLAS and THE GODFATHER. It's a melodrama following the Dutton family who own the largest ranch in the US with Costner playing the patriarch of the family John Dutton who leads the fight against land developers, the local Tribal Council, cattle ranchers and Yellowstone Park. It's gritty and gripping and full of incredible scenery. In addition to Kevin Costner it also stars Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Danny Huston, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly and Gil Birmingham, among others. Season 2 has Taylor Sheridan becoming a co-writer and letting others take over the directing duties but it hasn't missed a beat and IMO, is even stronger than the first season. Season 3 is filming right now.

Andrew mentioned in another thread that the series has an underlying sense of sadness and regret and that is pretty spot on. There's a dark sense of inevitability that permeates all of Taylor's work, IMO, and this show is consistent with that. If you like his other work you will love this. Plenty of Taylor's bit players show up here too.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

Season 2 trailer. IMO it doesn't give anything away in relation to season 1. Also for those of you who have yet to start season 2 the Paramount network has done a bunch of great videos for each episode of sit downs with the cast discussing their character and motivation. It gives some great insight into things that have yet to show up in the actual series. They also have a fun series called STORIES FROM THE BUNKHOUSE that's kind of a short 10 minute re-cap of each episode with Jimmy and a couple of the bunkhouse boys discussing and joking around while drinking and playing cards. It's a fun coda to watch after some of the more stressful episodes.

I'm always looking out for good contemporary westerns. Or westerns in spirit. Before this show I fell madly in love with LONGMIRE which shares a lot of tonal and atmospheric similarities with YELLOWSTONE. But LONGMIRE was more of a callback to older episodic television. YELLOWSTONE is very polished and contemporary in it's production, much more like a movie than a television show. IMO, it even makes many of the HBO shows that are held in high esteem look cheap. I got so into LONGMIRE I started reading the books they were based on by Craig Johnson. I even went to a book signing in Scottsdale when he showed up here in the Phoenix valley. I was taken aback by the blue haired crowd. It was 99% older women. I was one of 3 guys there and by far the youngest (I was 40 at the time!). When I look at YELLOWSTONE's social media accounts it paints a similar crowd. Older, and lots of ladies. In both cases they are gushing over Kevin Costner and Robert Taylor (Australian actor who plays Longmire). But man if these shows aren't 100% tailor-made for men.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

There's a wonderful raw sincerity to Sheridan's work that I find very appealing. His stories involve characters who follow old-fashioned codes of honour and believe in chivalry, integrity and other (unfortunately) dying traits. I think that's why he's so fascinated with Native American culture and race relations between whites and the indigenous people; they have their own mysterious and fascinating beliefs that are so very interesting and worth exploring. There's an underlying anger in his work, that really comes out in the often vicious dialogue exchanges; when someone gets insulted in a Sheridan film it cuts fucking deep, because it's usually brutally honest and delivered with real passion. I look forward to everything the man puts out. He's the real deal.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

I completely agree, Matt. I don't feel like I'm being bullshitted when I watch it. Everything is in service of the story and the characters.

I am a little leery about his next film, THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD. Taylor's writing and adapting it from a novel. It's in post-production now and it stars Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Tyler Perry and Jon Bernthal. Bernthal is a Sheridan regular having parts in SICARIO and WIND RIVER. But Jolie and Perry aren't names I get excited about. Although they must like his work so there's that. I didn't think much of Elizabeth Olsen until I saw WIND RIVER but she is a less defined star than Perry and Jolie. Per wiki it's "A female-driven neo-Western set against a wildfire in the Montana wilderness." A longer synopsis I read made it sound like Jolie's character was going to be hunted or chased with the wildfires happening in the background. Sounds neat. Just wish it had a different female lead. I'll definitely be checking it out either way.

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

I'm excited to watch this, as I downloaded every episode so far, and am just finishing The Alienist before we rematch the pilot with our daughter and go through the series. I love the dialog and cinematography. Costner is a great actor when he's engaged with the material, and he definitely is invested in this.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Yes, Costner is fantastic in this. His interactions with his children are stunningly powerful, and then you get to see a completely different side of him when he's with his grandson. As I get farther along in S1 (I'm 7 episodes in), the storylines just get more and more compelling with new twists and characters being added. I get the feeling a love triangle is being set up with Beth, Rip, and the new ex-con cowhand. The writing is so spot-on, very natural dialogue and some hilarious insults - "I bet you suck a cock like there's a prize inside" - haha.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

The scenes between Tate and John Dutton are wonderful. It's a nice contrast to everything else and shows that he is capable of being a good kind father but somehow his children got away from him. The actor who plays Tate is fantastic and he seemed to grow up a lot between seasons as kid actors tend to do.

I started a re-watch from the beginning last night. I want to see if there's anything I missed the first time around. The pilot episode is so great. It really takes its time to slowly introduce all the characters and machinations of the ranch. And the beginning of the second episode with the Rip duct taping Jimmy to the wild horse is one of my favorite scenes of the series. Watching Jimmy try and become a real cowboy has been one of my favorite things to watch. IMO, he's the heart and soul of the series. The relationship between Beth and Rip is both tragic and heartwarming. Some of the things Beth says and does is amazing in its cruelty. If Kelly Reilly isn't nominated for something for this role there is truly no justice in this world. That she's actually British blew my mind when I found out.

Walker, the cowboy that Rip picks up from prison is played by Country Music star Ryan Bingham. He plays a couple songs on the show and his music is used here and there in the end credits. I'm not normally a fan of Country Music but because of the show I've started to become a fan of his and watched an entire concert a couple nights ago. He has a great gravelly voice and is a wonderful songwriter. More Folk-Rock than modern country. He wrote the song THE WEARY KIND for the Jeff Bridges movie CRAZY HEART which won him an Oscar and a Golden Globe. He also stars in the film playing the leader of the back-up band that rousts Bridges up at the cheap motel for the gig at the beginning of the film. He's playing a concert in Flagstaff in a couple months and I'm considering going.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Yes, the actor who plays Tate is indeed great. That scene where the rattlesnake was menacing him was incredibly tense. That kid sure has more than his share of brushes with death!

Interesting to know about the guy who plays Walker. I was watching closely when he was playing guitar in the bunkhouse and you could tell he was really playing, not just faking it. I also like Jimmy, that part where he saved the calf was genuinely touching. Couldn't wait for the payoff when he got back to the ranch.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

A whopping 5.4 million viewers last episode! Holy cow! (pun intended)

https://www.cinemablend.com/televisi...-stop-climbing

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rating...12paramount01/

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

That kid sure has more than his share of brushes with death!

LONGMIRE had a similar problem. If you count the amount of deaths that happened each week then statistically Wyoming/Montana must be the murder capital of the world.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

I'm now 5 episodes into season 2 and things are certainly ramping up. Won't go into details to spare those who have yet to get there, but it's worth the continued time for sure. If I have one criticism of the show it's the character of Beth. She's so one note it's started to grate on me. I know that she feels responsible for the death of her mother (and maybe there are other skeletons from the past yet to be revealed involving Jamie), but we really need to see other sides of her. Someone like that would be insufferable if you knew them in real life. Other than that, the season is shaping up to be a corker, I sense some shocking developments coming soon...

On an ominous note, Spectrum On Demand only has 7 episodes up for this season right now. Scott mentioned in the other thread there were 10 if I recall correctly, hopefully those other 3 episodes will show up soon.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

The 8th episode only just aired last night so they might take a minute to appear elsewhere. It is weird having to wait for weekly episodes instead of bingeing (sp?) at once. It feels rather old-timey.

Beth,... I don't have the words for her. There's definitely something that happened between her and Jamie that we aren't yet privy to. They even bring it up in the behind the scenes videos so there's definitely a reason for it. She only really acts that way towards Jamie. I don't know why John puts up with it. I have some other thoughts based on what characters said but I don't wan to ruin anything. I almost skipped the show entirely early on because of Beth, now she's one of my favorite characters.

The only other character I'm not big on is Monica, Kayce's wife. She's a bit of a wet blanket. Then again she probably acts the most realistic towards all the murderous going ons. She's also probably the weakest actor too. But based on her appearance in WIND RIVER something tells me that Taylor must like her.

I'm glad you're into it Andrew! I look forward to reading the rest of your thoughts!

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

For some reason I thought the season had already aired in full. That explains why there are only 7 episodes up, 8 may be up by now. No way would they have them available on demand before they air on the network.

I agree about Monica, a bland character and the actress is pretty charisma challenged.

[Andrew Monroe Pallid Hands Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew Monroe]

Sooo, S2 Ep.7.....holeeee shitttt….one of the toughest things to watch I've ever seen. That said, what an amazing hour of television. I wasn't prepared for how dark this got - and the show has been consistently pretty damn dark - but absolutely riveting. Oh, and I've changed my mind on Beth.

Ep.8 still isn't available, I sure hope it is soon, dammit.

[Scott Intellectual Carrot Find all posts View Profile Close Scott]

Sooo, S2 Ep.7.....holeeee shitttt….one of the toughest things to watch I've ever seen. That said, what an amazing hour of television. I wasn't prepared for how dark this got - and the show has been consistently pretty damn dark - but absolutely riveting. Oh, and I've changed my mind on Beth.

Ep.8 still isn't available, I sure hope it is soon, dammit.

Yep, that's the episode that rock'd me. Absolutely riveting television. I'm still in amazement over a week later.