It’s Actually Pretty Weird That a Show as Batshit Insane as 'Yellowstone' Is So Popular
Sheridanverse #4
If you don’t watch Yellowstone, I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s not the show you think it is. You might think it’s like a CBS show, but it’s actually more like if Terrence Malick got really into populist politics and bodybuilding. There’s nothing else like it on TV, and you won’t fully understand unless you experience it for yourself. It’s not very good, especially not anymore, but it’s still fun to watch, because it’s completely insane. There’s always something over-the-top and bizarre happening. At least once per scene, I say “What am I even watching? I feel like I’m having a stroke.”
Yellowstone is cognitively dissonant. Its main characters are bad people whose crimes start at being assholes all the time and go up to cold-blooded murder, but the show frames them as cool and heroic. At least, I think it does. It’s hard to tell if Yellowstone wants you to feel a prescribed way about its characters and events or if it leaves them open to interpretation. Its dialogue consists almost entirely of bloviating monologues about The Way Things Are that feel like the characters are just mouthpieces for creator and sole writer Taylor Sheridan’s personal philosophy. It’s frequently boring, with stretches of time where nothing of consequence happens that can last for multiple episodes. About five minutes of every episode are devoted to loving footage of cowboys doing cowboy shit. It’s all vibe. Most of the time, it feels more like an abstract, emotionally volatile indie film than the most-watched thing on TV outside of football.
Usually shows that achieve this level of normie1 popularity are procedurals like NCIS and sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory, which are formulaic and easily digestible2. Yellowstone is not either of those things. Or maybe it is formulaic — every episode has at least one scene where Beth Dutton excessively hates on her sniveling but actually fairly reasonable brother Jamie and another where she and her husband Rip express their all-consuming love for each other — but its formula is of Taylor Sheridan’s own creation. “My stories have a very simple plot that is driven by the characters as opposed to characters driven by a plot — the antithesis of the way television is normally modeled,” he once told The Hollywood Reporter. The most popular show on TV is borderline experimental in its approach to story.
Sheridan’s character-over-plot style means that characters pretty much do whatever they want at any given moment. Traditional TV cause-and-effect is boring to him. This sounds cooler than it actually is. In practice, it can be challenging to watch. Scenes will happen that have little connection to the larger story, which is confusing, as my TV-trained brain expects them to matter in some way later on, but they don’t. Plotlines get introduced and discarded at the drop of a Stetson. There are no consequences for any character except Jamie, who will probably get drowned in an outhouse in the finale. The plot is incoherent in a way that’s almost psychedelic to experience. When are we? Who are these people? Why is this happening? Have I died and gone to Cowboy Hell?
Yellowstone didn’t used to be quite as messy as it is now. It was always weird, but its first few seasons were capable of focusing when necessary, and Sheridan was prioritizing it. But now Taylor Sheridan is writing eight shows at once and taking no notes from anyone, so things are really out of hand. Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk had the definitive reaction to the most recent episode of Yellowstone, the show’s nadir, but it bears repeating just how completely bazonkers the show’s second-to-last episode was (though it is getting a sequel spinoff). Taylor Sheridan wrote an episode spotlighting his own recurring character where he’s dating supermodel Bella Hadid3 because she’s so attracted to how good he is at riding horses. (If he comes through in cowboy boots and spurs, homeboy’s gonna like…get it.) Later on, the show’s coolest character says the most words he’s ever said at once while telling a story about how cool Taylor Sheridan is. Almost nothing happened to set up the imminent end of the show, except in the last scene Kayce went “I’ve got it! A plan to save the ranch once and for all!” Taylor Sheridan’s ego trip is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen on Yellowstone, and Yellowstone had this scene where Rip digs up his mother’s grave:
It’s interesting that Yellowstone got as popular as it did being as unusual as it is, and it’s also interesting that it stayed popular after people stopped liking it when it started getting borderline unwatchable in Season 4 (Real ‘Stoners know Carter ruined the show). Fans are watching it now just because at this point we’re too invested to not see how it ends. We don’t think it’s good. Ordinary Americans are crazy, not stupid. I have never been more certain going into a series finale that everyone is going to hate it. Yellowstone is about to be the most unpopular show in America. It’s going to be so fun. I can’t wait.
I reviewed Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…, his Netflix special where he reveals the story of his medical emergency last year, for TheWrap. Jamie Foxx is extraordinarily talented, and somewhat of an enigma.
The production and Foxx’s performance are so high-quality that you might feel like he’s totally bared his soul. But even though he’s more vulnerable in “What Had Happened Was” than he’s ever been before, Foxx is still only showing you what he wants you to see. “I didn’t want you to see me like that,” — that is, weak and sick – “I wanted you to see me like this;” fully recovered, strong and impressive once again. He talks about his stroke like it’s something he’s already defeated, not something he might still have lingering physical and emotional symptoms of. He was weak in the past, but he’s not anymore, and everything is back to normal, neatly resolved with a happy ending.
Not an insult, just a descriptor of mainstream popularity.
The other cable dramas that have been this popular are The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, but they both had different demographic coalitions than Yellowstone that weren’t entirely composed of normies.
Not the actual Bella Hadid, to be clear, but a character played by her. The real Bella Hadid’s boyfriend is a rodeo star named Adan Banuelos, which explains how Bella Hadid ended up on Yellowstone. Apparently she’s doing rodeo herself now and is pretty good at it. That’s fun, good for her.
My favorite/least favorite thing about Yellowstone (only watched into the second season and my paramount sub ran out) is how Beth is basically Samantha Jones on a ranch. She's so catty and vampy, but as a character on this ultra red blooded macho tv show
A less than masteful series of cartoonish wierdness from the very queer mind of Taylor Sheridan. Who prefers to appear shirtless in painful cameso. An aged beefcake - who looks like he was broiled until a queer shade of orange. His use of HGH and other chemical enhancements make him look like a giant tumescent sausage. As for his shows. Dialogue is a string of vapid, right-wing, Anon cliches churning thru a totalitarian dreamworld presented as some manner of hardened reality. The pretense it is nuanced and an inside look at power is absurdist. Looks as to be written by a third generation John Bircher on bad acid.