WTOP film critic Jason Fraley revisits Season 1 of “Yellowstone” before the network TV premiere this Sunday on CBS.
Television networks are running out of new material for the fall season due to the writers and actors strikes, so they’re forced to find creative ways to program existing cable/streaming content to a wider national audience.
The smash neo-western hit “Yellowstone,” which premiered on premium cable’s Paramount Network in 2018, will make its network television premiere Sunday night on CBS in a two-hour block starting at 8:30 p.m. The series will then air weekly in two-hour blocks every Sunday night for folks to watch on their couch after the football games.
“Yellowstone” is currently on pause in its fifth and final season, with six episodes remaining after a midseason hiatus on Jan. 1, but CBS will now air Season 1 starting over from the very beginning. It’s the perfect chance for die-hard fans to watch it again — or for first-time viewers to catch up. Let’s face it, the different platforms have made it confusing to find, first airing on Paramount Network, but streaming on Peacock instead of Paramount+.
Set in present-day Montana, the series follows the dynasty drama of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, the state’s largest cattle ranch, bordering Yellowstone National Park and the Broken Rock Indian Reservation. Kevin Costner returns to the genre three decades after directing himself in the Best Picture Oscar winner “Dances with Wolves” (1990), only this time he’s on the other side of progress with a gravelly voice as the aging patriarch John Dutton III.
While his political puppeteering echoes Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” (1972), Dutton also recalls Rock Hudson clinging to the traditions of his Texas cattle ranch Reata in “Giant” (1956), but this time there’s no Elizabeth Taylor to push him toward progress. Dutton is widowed and alone, battling a life-threatening illness like Brian Cox’s Logan Roy in “Succession” (2018-2023), wrangling three potential heirs to his empire.
Rather than Kendall, Roman and Shiv, “Yellowstone” gives us Jamie (Wes Bentley), the family lawyer and aspiring politician with anger issues; Beth (Kelly Reilly), who blames herself for the horseback death of their mother and now drinks the pain away between sarcastic zingers; and Kayce (Luke Grimes), who left the family ranch to marry a Native American named Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and lives in a rusty trailer with their son, Tate (Brecken Merrill).
This makes business personal for Native American Chief Thomas Rainwater, played by Gil Birmingham of real-life Comanche descent. The Duttons must also contend with shady land developer Dan Jenkins, fittingly played by Danny Huston, the son of John Huston, who directed the Western classic “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) and played the ruthless Noah Cross, diverting the L.A. water supply in “Chinatown” (1974).
Fittingly, Episode 1 of “Yellowstone” finds Costner using dynamite to reroute the water on his property to stop a developer’s dam, one of the coolest moves of any TV pilot. His trusty enforcer is Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), who leads a gang of cowboys branded with the letter “Y,” including ex-con ranch hand Jimmy Hurdstram (Jefferson White). In the shadows, Dutton’s henchmen whack rivals with the regularity of “The Sopranos” (1999-2007).
Violence amid Western landscapes has become the brand of creator Taylor Sheridan, who starred on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” (2008-2014) before penning “Sicario” (2015) and the Oscar-nominated “Hell or High Water” (2016), which stars Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges in a brilliant Texas Western for our time. He followed up by directing the underrated “Wind River” (2017), starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen in Wyoming.
After teaming with “Sons of “Anarchy” producer John Linson to create “Yellowstone,” Sheridan has returned to the well for prequels, including “1883” (2021-2022), starring Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliott, and “1923” (2022-present), starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. In this way, Sheridan has transcended timelines as a TV kingmaker like Vince Gilligan in “Breaking Bad” (2008-2013) and its prequel “Better Call Saul” (2015-2022).
By repeatedly returning to the genre, Sheridan is quickly stamping his name on the Western in a way that we haven’t seen since such pioneer predecessors as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood. The reason we crack a beer to enjoy “Yellowstone” is to take in the beautiful landscapes, from the mountains to the rivers, providing natural beauty in contrast to the bloody, human-made crimes.
The most beautiful moment comes in Episode 6 as Kayce walks across the field at sunrise to Stanley Myers’ “Cavatina” from “The Deer Hunter” (1978). Sheridan nails bittersweet quiet moments with a finale like the end of “The Godfather: Part II” (1974), as Costner sits at the head of a mostly empty dinner table. “I remember a time when all these chairs were filled,” he says, to which his heir replies, “That wasn’t a memory. That was a dream.”
American audiences have eaten it up, more than the critical darling “Succession,” both dynastic dramas that premiered in June of 2018. In 2023, “Yellowstone” was the only non-sports show to average over 10 million viewers a week (11.6 million), behind only “NFL Sunday Night Football” (18.1 million). By comparison, “Succession” averaged 8.7 million viewers per episode in its final season, drawing only 2.9 million for its series finale.
And yet, some cinephiles on social media proudly hail “Succession” but roll their eyes at “Yellowstone” — despite never having watched it. It’s unfair to paint “Yellowstone” as merely a favorite of the flyover states, just as it’s unfair to say that only coastal elites watch “Succession.” I personally know hardworking families who love both shows, creating a puzzling pandemic phenomenon of renowned critics ignoring the most popular show on TV.
Now that “Yellowstone” is streaming on Peacock and airing weekly on CBS, there’s no excuse not to watch.
