Ed Harris Complaining About 'Dutton Ranch' Is the Funniest Thing I've Ever Seen
Stop making Ed Harris feel underused and inconsequential
I’m tragically late to the party writing about Dutton Ranch, the Yellowstone sequel series about Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler’s new life in Texas1. The totally bonkers finale debuted weeks ago, too long ago for me to write the review of the season I was planning to write. Fortunately for me, star Ed Harris gave the crankiest, funniest red carpet interview I’ve ever seen complaining about how he didn’t get enough to do in Season 1, providing me with a news hook to reenter the Sheridanverse. Thanks for not giving a fuck, Ed.
Do yourself a favor and watch this incredible video. I’ll wait.
It’s rare for an actor to publicly complain in specific detail about a show they’re currently on, and extremely rare to do it basically unprompted in a red carpet interview meant to promote a different show. The interviewer is like, “So, Dutton Ranch,” and Ed is like “Fuck Dutton Ranch. I almost quit. They won’t let me be great.” My favorite part is at the end, when the publicist says to the interviewer, “We’ll text,” as in, “We need to discuss the terms in which you can publish this.” The interviewer is like “I can’t believe I just got such incredible content,” and the publicist is like “Oh shit.” But what’s he gonna do? Tell 75-year-old four-time Academy Award nominee Ed Harris that he shouldn’t say that he was so mad about his song getting cut from Dutton Ranch that he wanted to walk away from the show? He’s the greatest bald actor of all time. He’s been taking roles meant for actors with hair for decades. You can’t tell him shit.
I understand why he’s so mad about his song getting cut from Dutton Ranch. The way it happens in the episode is insane. There’s all this buildup as his character, veterinarian and Vietnam veteran Everett McKinney (that’s right, he’s a vet vet) gets up onstage to sing, and then they just…don’t show it. Or rather, you see him singing, but you don’t hear him. Non-diegetic music gets played over him. It’s really strange and nonsensical and bad. And it’s one of many strange and nonsensical and bad things that happen on Dutton Ranch, a show I had more fun watching than any Yellowstone franchise show since 1923 Season 1.
I get why creator/showrunner Chad Feehan got fired. I’m not endorsing him losing his job, just observing that I understand why the other producers decided it’s not working out. He really tried to capture the spirit of Taylor Sheridan, and he got close enough to nailing it at times that it underscores how inimitable Sheridan actually is. It’s a real “so close, but so far” situation. Marshals creator Spencer Hudnut doesn’t try to be like Sheridan and doesn’t have to, so he isn’t judged and found lacking. Feehan, on the other hand, actually made a valiant attempt to write in the Sheridan style where the story is so character-driven that plot rarely happens. Characters just talk to each other about whatever in scenes that only occasionally connect back to the larger story. I totally see why Harris felt like he was being underused. The actual story of Dutton Ranch doesn’t start until the Season 1 finale. Feehan was doing the trademark Sheridan thing of just letting the characters meander around until something interesting happens, but he’s not Sheridan, and he lost track of them until it was too late for the season to end in a comprehensible way. Sheridan’s approach to drama is too abstract for anyone else to copy.
Feehan also had Rip and Beth behave in ways they never would have on Yellowstone. Dutton Ranch makes Rip and Beth unambiguously the good guys, which isn’t true to the spirit of the more morally complicated Yellowstone. On Yellowstone, Rip is a cold-blooded killer and Beth is a double-barreled bitch. On Dutton Ranch, Rip risks his life to save a single baby cow from the wildfire that burned down his and Beth’s Montana ranch, and Beth makes her adopted son Carter breakfast every morning and apologizes to him when she wrongs him. Beth Dutton. Apologizing. I get that motherhood has changed Beth, but that’s like the Hulk learning to not be green. And while there’s animal death on every Sheridan show, the cow massacre in Episode 4 was the most over-the-top depressing things I’ve ever seen on TV. Yellowstone famously opened with John Dutton shooting a wounded horse in the head, but there’s never been anything like Rip — the hero of the show —herding hundreds of his cows into a mass grave and then shooting them in the head one by one until the only one remaining is the one cute little cow he saved in the premiere, and then he shoots that one too as it trustingly looks into his eyes. Dutton Ranch is a truly crazy show.
In spite of all the things I couldn’t believe I was seeing — or maybe because of them — I had a lot of fun watching Dutton Ranch. I really enjoyed Jai Courtney’s performance as the sociopathic nepo baby Rob-Will. Courtney is great at playing charismatic psychos (for a really good time, check him out in the shark attack/serial killer hybrid horror movie Dangerous Animals, also starring Yellowstone’s Hassie Harrison). I also enjoyed Marc Menchaca as an ex-con who’s found redemption in Jesus and cowboying. I thought Ray McKinnon having a leopard in a cage in his backyard was depicted in the “I’m not sure how the show wants me to feel about this” way that gave me the cognitive dissonance I enjoyed so much when I watched Yellowstone. And Ed Harris may have been underutilized, but he was great whenever he stiffly walked onscreen. I’m looking forward to Season 2 under new showrunner Benjamin Cavell. He’s no Chad Feehan, but I’m sure he’ll do fine.
I reviewed The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe for TV Guide. I respect The Big Bang Theory, and respect what SFTSTU is trying to do, but I can’t get onboard with it. Check it out.
As a rule, this type of quest-based story requires characters to change by the end of their journey — which is the opposite of supporting characters on a traditional sitcom, who as a rule don't change. That tension — static side characters suddenly find themselves in a story arc — should be the engine that drives Stuart Fails, but the writers can't help but go for gags and familiar banter whenever possible, which undercuts the opportunity for change. No matter what's happening to them — falling in love, turning into centaurs, etc. — these nerds still feel like sitcom characters.
Dutton Ranch one of two current Yellowstone spinoffs along with Marshals, but Marshals is a CBS procedural. Dutton Ranch is more in the style and spirit of Yellowstone, so I consider it to be the true successor.
Sheridan is responsible for some good writing. Sheridan is responsible for some of the worst writing ever.
I love Ed Harris. But I know he can read a script, and I know he knows the nature of the biz.