Yellowstone is a Paramount+ show (also available on Amazon Video), now on its fifth series, about a large ranch in Montana owned by Kevin Costner and the problems he has fighting off the multitude of total bastards who want to take the land from him in order to build, (variously), casinos, airports and ski-resorts.
It’s not actually Kevin Costner, it’s Kevin Costner playing “John Dutton”. But it might as well be Kevin Costner. Anyway Kevin Costner is also getting old and he has four children, of varying nightmarishness, to deal with.
Yellowstone is Succession with cowboys and while it is overblown, far-fetched and ridiculous at times, it sucks you in and holds you tight and in the dead days of late winter and early Spring, when the cupboard is bare and the tank is empty, distraction like this is essential.
Push past the slightly dodgy pilot episode and try to suspend your disbelief, just generally, when it comes to Kelly Reilly’s cringe performance as Beth Dutton, John’s crazy, drunk, foul-mouthed daughter. (I do like Kelly Reilly but’s she’s been terribly miscast here... either that or the part is very badly written.)
There is a tremendous amount of casual gun and physical violence and if you don’t have a soft spot for our American cousins, you won’t like John Dutton says things like “This is America. We don’t share land.” They dish out beats to entitled Californian bikers, punch literally everyone and e.g. let angry bulls loose in bars to make a point.
But it is also a total lifestyle show, with creaking leather saddles and homesteads and Andirondack chairs and Cherokee blankets everywhere you look. Characters spend hours, days, sitting on porches wrapped in fringed shawls holding cups of coffee with both hands. It’s worth watching for Kevin Costner’s range of cosy, fawn-coloured sports outerwear alone. And the denim, oh my god. You will have a favourite cowboy: will it be army vet Kayce? Strong, silent Rip? You will cry when good things happen to helpless newbie Jimmy.
There is also something quite basic, too, in the appeal of this show, the deep-down get-off-my-land thing. We are on John Dutton’s side as he angrily defends his insane land-hoarding because, well, we’d possibly be the same? We are the same, maybe, even if our land extends to only a 4 square foot front “garden” and a window box. Anyone who has done a small sick at neighbours’ plans to build a shoffice will relate.
One bum note was when I realised that one of the visiting cowboys in the show, a massively unlikeable jerk, (and I have a high tolerance for jerks), turns out to be a cameo from Taylor Sheridan who actually wrote the show!! Alas, alas. In later series there are quite a few self-indulgent cameos from famous rodeo riders and cowboys etc and you can tell they are cameos because they deliver their lines with the stiffness of a hostage in a ransom demand video. The actual actors stand about with frozen grins as they humour this very, very bad idea from, presumably, Sheridan.
Anyway, this show is not genius on a par with I Hate Suzie but it is genius on a par with frozen parathas, Ugg boots and those self-heating eyemasks. Much-needed succour for cold weather, boredom with winter clothes, cooking fatigue.
How about you? Are you deep into Yellowstone yet? Do you have a favourite cowboy from the show? Please leave a comment in the handy box below.
1883, the prequel to Yellowstone. Unfortunately I watched it first, then tried Yellowstone. Bleeeaaaartgggh.
So, please watch 1883. You'll cry.
OK - it’s definitely RIP for me…also Kasey would have def appealed to 20-something me. Now I’m firmly middle-aged I agree with Margaret! I like Yellowstone but I found the violence a bit much, esp. when it involves the horses. Controversial - I love Beth…
I think they did an excellent job portraying this part of the world. I’ve lived in Colorado for 22 years and I still love the whole Western vibe that the show does so well. I just got back from a lovely place called Devil’s Thumb Ranch last night! Really gorgeous if any readers ever looking for somewhere you can ski from with a Western vibe and also stunning in the summer! Also outstanding cross country skiing which is my new thing as I am sick of the high costs and crowds of alpine skiing here. 2 hours from Denver! Anyhoo my other recommendation is SEVERANCE which is on Apple+ here and it’s brilliant and original..am drooling at the mouth for the second series (also of course Slow Horses just for Gary Oldman alone).