Kevin Costner in Yellowstone Photo: Paramount Network via AP
An aging patriarch raging against the fading light. His squabbling family angrily decided to protect their legacy while stabbing each other in the back. In the distance, the growing drumbeat of changing times.
Here is the source material for one of the greatest television sensations of modern times. A show that has captivated viewers around the world and is seen as a reimagining of what the medium is capable of. And now it's coming to an end.
No, we are not talking about continuity. For all the hype surrounding the Warring Swarms saga, Jesse Armstrong's black comedy remains strikingly niche. In the US, only 2.5 million people watched the supposedly epoch-making episode «The Death of Logan». Compare those disappointing numbers to another instant cult show of the decade, Yellowstone, which drew 12 million people when it returned for its fifth season in November.
Yellowstone has quietly reimagined television in the 21st century. Now, like the critically acclaimed «Continuity,» it's coming to an end. The difference is that if the end of Legacies is a creative choice on the part of meek showrunner Jesse Armstrong, then the end of Yellowstone was accompanied by drama worthy of a daytime soap. It has warring egos, a creaky Hollywood legend, and a workaholic visionary for whom compromise is a dirty word.
Warhorse — Kevin Costner, whose career was revitalized after he landed the role of John Dutton III, the rawhide head of the Dutton clan and owner of the largest rancher in Montana (reportedly paid $1.2 million per episode — three episode). times the salary of «Legacy» star Brian Cox). Dutton and Costner are united at the hip: both are single-minded and ruthless and seem to get along badly with others. But while that makes TV exciting, in the real world it has led the star to clash with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, a former actor who started writing and directing in his 40s.
Episode 5 went on hiatus mid-season on Jan. 1 when Hutton grumpily was appointed governor of Montana and his grown children, Jamie ( Wes Bentley) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) planned to usurp him as head of the family. What happens next, no one knows, Costner least of all.
He is said to have fallen out with Sheridan, which reportedly threw the production into chaos. According to one version of events, he left Yellowstone in annoyance to focus on his new western Horizon franchise (which he would direct and co-star with Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington) — and that, such were his commitments elsewhere, he turned it down. spend more than one week on the set with Sheridan. Another believes that Sheridan, who writes all of Yellowstone in addition to a number of spin-offs (see below), is simply taking too long to put together the second half of the season, and that Costner got sick of waiting.
«It's the same as with any showrunner and big star — there's respect, but there's friction,» one insider told the New York Post. «Hopefully Kevin will return for the remaining episodes if everyone works together, but it looks like Yellowstone will end after this season.» Sheridan Verse» are far from complete. In an age when television feels increasingly out of touch with its viewers' experiences, Yellowstone has given Paramount an old-fashioned buzzword.
Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan with Angelina Jolie on the set of his film Those Who Wish Me Dead By: Emerson Miller
Golden Goose has already spawned several spin-offs. There is 1883, a chronicle of the arrival of the Duttons in the Old West after the Civil War. And 1923, starring Helen Mirren as the matriarch of a family during the Great Depression. Three more exhibitions are planned, two of which take place today, and one immediately after the Second World War.
What's particularly impressive is that Sheridan accomplished all this without the blessing of connoisseurs. Yellowstone was repeatedly snubbed during awards season, while the New York Times called it a «conservative fantasy».
However, away from bright light, it thrived. In the US, its largest audience is in «Flyover» markets such as Denver and Sunbelt cities such as Phoenix, which is roughly what it is possible to get away from the «high-end» cultural centers of New York and Los Angeles in America. In the UK, where it's assigned to Paramount+, it has a smaller but equally loyal audience, drawn by its gritty mix of soap opera and prestige drama.
Even if you can't tell a stetson from a pretzel, the appeal of this series is clear. Imagine Dynasty being crossed with The Sopranos—and shot in the style of Clint Eastwood's revisionist western Unforgiven. And then imagine the writer-director behind it is a mix of Marlboro Man, Roy Keane and Francis Ford Coppola making Apocalypse Now and pushing himself to his limit.
Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in the 1923 Yellowstone prequel Credit: James Minchin III/Paramount+
That's what Paramount and its parent company Viacom signed up for when they accepted an offer from Sheridan, who had already garnered attention by writing a dark film about the Mexican drug cartel Sicario and writing and directing a film about worker heists, Hell or High Water.
Studio bigwigs sitting next to a budding screenwriter can usually expect to chat. It wasn't like that when chief executive David Glasser convinced Sheridan to leave his West Texas ranch and move to Los Angeles (he flew back and forth, refusing to stay overnight in the city he hated). Sheridan came in and made it clear that Viacom might regret working with him.
“It will cost $90 million to $100 million,” he said. “You will write a check for horses ranging from $50 to $75,000 a week. Do you really want to do this?”
They really wanted to do it, and Yellowstone became a phenomenon. Yes, the reviews dismissed it as «soapy trash» and the series won just one Emmy for design. Compare that to the 13 glittering trophies in the Legacy closet (and there will be more this year). But older audiences who still watch cable channels like Paramount rather than Netflix are flocking to him.
Actors are also lining up to work with Sheridan. Stars who appeared in 1883 included Tom Hanks, his wife Rita Wilson, and Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton. Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone recalled how shocked he was when Sheridan asked him to play an aging gangster in the new (non-Yellowstone-related) thriller Tulsa King.
Kevin Costner at Yellowstone
“I couldn't believe it,” Stallone said. “[Sheridan and I] spoke on the phone on Monday. By Wednesday/Thursday we had a complete script. I have dedicated myself to this. It was brave.”
But behind the success was a muttering that Sheridan was hard to work with. More than difficult: impossible. In 1883, he dragged actors across America for filming in frosty Montana and hot Texas. The entire production then had to be moved to Oregon so that Sheridan could film one scene on the beach. “This guy is hard to work with,” admitted the Yellowstone veteran. “He drives everyone crazy.”
It has also been suggested that Sheridan is the television equivalent of Donald Trump: a demographic exploiting reactionary. afraid of change. True, in the past he has ranted about the absurd notion of «white privilege.» However, he also criticized Trump. “Can we bring this bastard to justice right now?” he said while promoting his film Wind River in 2017.
He later claimed he had no memory of attacking Trump. However, he constantly disagreed with the idea that he was serving raw meat to rednecks. «They call it a 'conservative show' or a 'Republican show' or 'red game of thrones',» he told The Atlantic. “And I just sit and laugh. I'm like, «Really?» The show is about Native American displacement and how Native American women were treated, corporate greed, Western gentrification, and land grabs. Is this a red show?”
The end of Legacy came as a surprise to many actors. Sarah Snook, who plays Shiv's ambitious daughter, first heard about it while reading a table. In the case of Yellowstone, the future is just as bleak. No one knows when and if Costner and Sheridan will open up about their differences — or if filming will resume for the fifth season. Whatever the future, all these spin-offs without Costner will chug. They will do so in a TV landscape that Yellowstone and its mercurial showrunner have remade in their own image.
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