In Defense of ‘Yellowstone,’ the TV Series We Need Right Now

Talk to the hand.

Even if creator Taylor Sheridan hasn’t said this publicly, that’s precisely what comes across as the widely beloved yet critically ignored Yellowstone begins its final six episodes Sunday on Paramount Network.

The first image we saw in the January 2018 pilot of the cowboy series was the hand of star Kevin Costner, reaching up to a horse. In Sunday night’s episode, his hand is also the last we see of him. John Dutton, his character, is dead before it begins.

Deaths aren’t unexpected on Yellowstone, yet when a feud erupted between Costner and Sheridan during the show’s hiatus, John Dutton’s demise seemed inevitable. Still, it’s perfectly wrought, showing Sheridan’s skill as a storyteller and talent for imagery. Dutton’s hand was supposedly used to take his own life.

Dutton, a rancher, was also a reluctant politician. He was never made for compromise or committees but basically assumed the post, taking yet one more thing from his son, Jamie, who was walking to the podium to accept the nomination when his father’s name was called. What will likely do them all in is their hubris. Their entitlement that this—whether it be Yellowstone or the governor’s mansion—is theirs, their birthright.

And within moments of the fifth season’s final run we know that birthrights will be questioned. Some of this season needs to be about succession, at the ranch, and with the top job in Montana government.

The news of John Dutton’s death is handled efficiently in the opening scenes, alerting viewers that Dutton will no longer be rasping out his usually wise, blunt, and often autocratic lines. Beth (Kelly Reilly), Dutton’s devoted daughter, knows intuitively that he’s dead, even without seeing the police cars and yellow tape.

She and her younger brother Kayce (Luke Grimes) blast past the sheriff. Did a puffed-up lawman think a warning and some fluorescent tape would keep them out? They must see what awaits them, although Beth reflexively blames her brother, Jamie (Wes Bentley).

There’s good reason for her suspicions. Jamie and Beth’s relationship would have to improve to be considered toxic. The internecine fights in this family reach Shakespearean levels. Few are opposed to violence, guns are readily available, and they have a private makeshift cemetery nicknamed the train station, to toss bodies.

Yellowstone is about rugged cowboys, but modern topics, too as this season deals with whether pipelines will be allowed through land. This pristine land has been at the heart of this show from the beginning. So many lives have been lost over it, and while John Dutton cared for it the way his ancestors had, it was never theirs.

He was to the manor born, as was his father and sons. John Dutton’s the sort of tough-guy American venerated by John Wayne and co-opted by Donald Trump. These sorts of men were gentlemen, not pushovers; men who prefer to find a solution but will knock your teeth out if they must.

Above all, They’re supposed to be self-reliant, honorable Americans who do the right thing and stand for what the flag initially represented. Along the way, the symbols were corrupted to forment hate; now supposedly you could only believe in family values if you hated gays and liberals.

Is Yellowstone more popular in red states? Yes. But take a look at Tuesday’s results; this is a very red country. It’s also such a vast country where critical issues are regional; water concerns in the West, infrastructure worries in the East. And for the millions in the East, Yellowstone serves as a reminder of a dwindling way of life.

When Chief Thoms Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and his right-hand man, Mo Brings Plenty (whose real name is the same as his character’s), show up, Mo Brings Plenty wears a large medallion of the red handprint, used to symbolize the plight of murdered and missing Indigenous women.

Important issues are broached. What makes the show addictive, though, is that it’s soapy. It may not have the obvious campiness of Dallas, but it has melodrama and its own sense of style. What Yellowstone lacks in shoulder pads and eyelashes, it makes up for in chaps and lassoes.

The latest mystery will be, did Dutton, governor of Montana, off himself, or was it staged to look like a suicide? We learn the answer in the return episode, and the motivations and details of how this came to be will likely play out over the next five episodes. Since these are the final episodes, it’s a safe bet that loose threads will be neatly sewn.

That’s just one of Sheridan’s skills. He casts Hollywood stars in TV shows, then writes exquisitely crafted scripts with the economy of a poet. In addition to Yellowstone with Costner, there was 1883, starring Sam Elliott and country music superstars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Mayor of Kingstown stars Jeremy Renner, 1923 stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Lioness stars Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman. And Tulsa King stars Sylvester Stallone.

His shows also make stars. While Reilly had been a sought-after actor for years, Yellowstone put her on another level. When she entered a screening room at MoMA for this episode’s premiere, people noticed her. Brooke Shields, Gay Talese, Nick Pileggi, and Bethenny Frankel were in the audience.

Perhaps it seems incongruous, screening this in midtown Manhattan where some New Yorkers in the crowd sported virgin cowboy boots and the stars who live in dust-caked boots onscreen were in heels. It’s not as odd as it seems. The show connects with millions. It can even make a small laptop screen feel expansive with lingering shots of Montana at night, of a place that just looks as if it smells good.

Yellowstone was always a cinematic valentine to the land.

It’s also been a series highlighting issues that don’t always make news east of the Mississippi. Central to it is the question of whose land is Yellowstone. In 1883, it was foretold that Yellowstone would revert to its rightful stewards, and Indigenous People would once again live on the Dutton’s ranch, roughly the size of Rhode Island.

Honoring the cowboys' tradition, safeguarding the land, and taking care of the animals are all woven into the show’s DNA, as is the disgusting treatment Indigenous People suffered.

Generations of Duttons living in Montana eventually intertwined with Indigenous People. Kayce married Monica (Kelsey Asbille) of a fictional tribe. On Yellowstone, Monica had racist slurs flung at her. When a boutique owner accused her of shoplifting, Monica took the smartest tact: she called her sister-in-law, Beth. Beth did what she does best: Destroyed the joint.

Beth’s zingers rate with the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey. Those arch lines do make for great merch, including Beth’s most famous: “I am the rock therapists break themselves against.” As delicious as that is, Beth is so much more.

On a show of tough men, she is the toughest character. These guys can take down a steer with a piece of rope. They ooze machismo and competence. Beth has all that and more; she has a brilliant business mind. (Yes, she has daddy issues.) Beth should be a feminist hero; she knows her worth and intellect and owns her sexuality. She also has a true partner in Rip (Cole Hauser).

The women on Sheridan’s shows are consistently brave. Monica served as the bait to catch a serial rapist and killer of Indigenous women. That hour of television, Episode 8 of the third season, was fraught and perfectly delivered.

It was also mostly ignored by Hollywood award shows and critic groups. Full disclosure: I am the president of one of those, the Television Critics Association. I’ve listened to my colleagues; some have never watched an episode, and others hated it. They likely cannot understand why I happily rewatch this series.

Like every actor who responds to the cliched question of, “What drew you to the project?” with the honest response of “It starts on the page,” so, too, does it for most viewers. I quickly became enchanted by Sheridan as a cowboy poet. Maybe that’s why this New Yorker, at home on a subway and a menace on a horse, has loved Yellowstone from the beginning. Granted, harboring a decades-long crush on Costner did not hurt. (Watch Bull Durham if you need a quick explanation.)

The first time I interviewed him over a dozen years ago, he was climbing off a horse in Romania, shooting the TV miniseries Hatfields & McCoys. Over beers, he thoughtfully reflected on the feuding West Virginia patriarch he portrayed. Years later, discussing Sheridan and the appeal of Yellowstone, Costner said he admired Sheridan’s depiction of cowboys, a disappearing force in America, and how they fit in modern life.

The series doesn‘t focus on colonizing and genocide. Those chapters of the Duttons’ history were covered in 1883 and 1923. Yellowstone is where the family, the ranch, and America are now.

Much of its appeal derives from characters in tune with the land and mostly at ease with themselves. Still, some, like Jamie, wrestle with inner demons. Kayce’s connection to wolves and his visions are not to be discounted. It all adds to an intricate tapestry that makes for great drama.

Ultimately, that is what Yellowstone is—great TV. The panoramas help explain why this show gained so many fans during the pandemic. When locked down in a small apartment, gazing at scrubby land, mountains, and horses fosters a sense of peace.

Nothing is perfect, and this opening episode feels a bit like an ad for Sheridan’s latest venture, the famed 6666 Ranch in Texas. And, the ongoing gag about ranch hand Teeter (Jen Landon) and her strangling of English has passed its sell-by date. By this episode, her Texarkana twang is so unintelligible that it cries out for closed captioning.

Other elements, however, feel headed toward more satisfying conclusions. The series seems poised to have the vast Yellowstone Ranch transfer back to those from whom the land was taken. Given what’s come before, we can expect an examination of corporate greed and Indigenous rights as the fight unfolds over laying pipes beneath water sources and sacred land.

Yet, with the show drawing to its close, fans who have invested so much time and interest in these characters need to see them find their endings. It’s a Sheridan series, and we know more are coming.

Landman, about roughnecks and billionaires, premiers next week. The Madison, following a rich family that moves near Yellowstone, stars Michelle Pfeiffer, and is slated for next year. So is 6666, about the ranch and with Yellowstone ties because the character Jimmy (Jefferson White) is in it.

Will we see Beth Dutton reappear at some point in some spinoff? It seems likely. For now, it’s six weeks of the original cast, except for its star, who’s already been shown the hand.

And even some of us who can’t handle a horse are very happy to be back in the saddle again.