Why you should be watching Yellowstone
Chris Bryant | On 16, Oct 2022
With the full fourth season now available to stream, we say howdy to newcomers to the show, and explain why it’s worth catching up.
Paramount’s juggernaut cowboy drama manages non-stop excitement from the very beginning. Kevin Costner stars as John Dutton, a generational land-owner in Montana who contends with land developers, an ambitious Native tribal leader and his own family. The fast pacing, quick wit and gallery of hat-tipping anti-heroes has made Yellowstone a record breaking phenom, boasting some of the most watched episodes in cable TV history.
Blending the roguish thrills of Sons of Anarchy with the business-world legacy-building of Succession, Yellowstone crafts a strikingly romantic world of hard labour, boundless passion and frontier justice. Dutton is supported by his three children: Casey (a brooding, heroic Luke Grimes), fan-favourite Beth (a force-of-nature hedge fund manager, blisteringly portrayed by Kelly Reilly), and Wes Bentley’s Jamie (a lawyer desperate to prove himself worthy to his father). They’re supported by Cole Hauser as Dutton’s enforcer-with-a-heart-of-gold, and Jefferson White as a newbie to the ranch who might not be cut out for the rough life, and flanked by a plethora of brilliant character actors – including Gil Birmingham, Danny Huston, Neal McDonough, Josh Holloway, and Jackie Weaver. In short, Yellowstone is bursting with colourful, driven characters, all with an agenda surrounding the Duttons’ land.
The series is helmed, written, and often directed by Taylor Sheridan, who grew up on a ranch and went on to pen Sicario, Wind River, Hell or High Water, as well as limited series Mayor of Kingstown. Yellowstone fits into his filmography perfectly as a show that, that, in lesser hands, could be sorely two-dimensional and formulaic. But Sheridan’s first-hand knowledge, and determination to avoid exposition in his work, means each episode is brimming with thoughtfulness, adventure, brutally sharp quotes, and a real care for the subject matter, resulting in a show more addictive than and enjoyable than nearly anything else currently on air.
While shootouts, witty threats and dysfunctional family drama are classic primetime TV offerings, the drama’s real success is managing to turn the desires of a billionaire land-hoarder into a story a modern audience wants to hear. Facing off against Gil Birmingham’s tribal leader – whose sole aim is to reclaim stolen land – it’s tough to imagine Costner’s ageing cowboy as a hero of any kind. Yet, while half the show deals with the gun-toting badlands his son Casey faces, Beth and Jamie Dutton are more comfortable in a boardroom than on horseback. Fending off land developers, casino owners and the Montana State government (which would love nothing more than to turn the land into a bustling city and bask in tax dollars), it quickly becomes clear that Yellowstone’s cowboy outlaw morals are significantly more complicated than could be expected from a smash-hit show.
A fantastic spiritual successor to Sheridan’s breakthrough on Sons of Anarchy, it’s as appealing to those looking to enjoy the gruff poetry of cowboy life as those who want a gritty legacy drama – or those who simply wish to watch Costner deliver moody one-liners. Much like the calloused and whisky-fuelled workers of the titular ranch, Yellowstone won’t give viewers a seconds’ rest from the rough and heart-pounding life they find there.
