The possibilities were as beautiful and endless as the land on which they lived. Yellowstone Season 1 made a splash when it premiered on Paramount Network in June 2018, and television has never been the same since. It wasn’t just the TV show of the summer, it was the TV show of the year as people all over America fell in love with the Dutton family. Ultimately we had a new dynasty with a new family entering our television screens every Sunday night, and we supported them every step of the way.
Season 1 was reminiscent of the golden age of television in the time of streaming, where hundreds of shows made it almost impossible for everyone to watch the same thing. The first installment offered hope, heartbreak, and hardship on the Yellowstone Ranch, and as the series progressed, it served as a form of escapism, especially during the pandemic.
Part of what made Season 1 so great was seeing the birth of complex characters within the Dutton family, so expertly crafted by series creator, writer and producer Taylor Sheridan. In the years since, he has begun to build an empire on the Yellowstone Ranch, and various spin-offs have offered more glory and praise, but at the expense of the original gem. With just a few episodes remaining in the series, Yellowstone has been reduced to a soap opera set in beautiful locations. But it can’t be denied that season 1 was the greatest, and Sheridan hasn’t written a greater season of Yellowstone since.
Taylor Sheridan did his best writing in ‘Yellowstone’ season 1
Over the past 10 years, Sheridan has established himself as the King of the Western. Initially an actor in series such as Sons of Anarchy, he then transitioned to writing. Picking up a pen to write his first story, he has never stopped since. His first big breakthrough film was the neo-Western crime drama Hell or High Water.
Starring Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges, he received Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, alongside with the film receiving various other nominations as well. Sheridan’s follow-up neo-western, Wind River, also received critical acknowledgment, and there was no doubt after its success that he was not only here to stay, but introducing a Western renaissance in film.
Then, Sheridan made the move that would change television in the years to come when he began Yellowstone, and its instant success and acknowledgment led to several other Westerns debuting on television.
But no Yellowstone character had as good an introduction in Season 1 as Beth Dutton.
Reilly served as the breakout star of the season, and her complex performance of a woman who is still mourning her mother’s death and has become her father’s fiercest warrior despite hating life on the farm, is a There was a revelation.
Sheridan gave Reilly endless monologues full of deep meaning and lots of swearing, which never failed to thrill. However, in the seasons that follow, Beth has unfortunately become the same fierce womanizer she once was. Various other characters also start to become caricatured, with Wes Bentley’s Jamie Dutton being the most likable.
As Sheridan works on his other spin-off series, he’s letting go of his characters, and playing down the complex Season 1 characters he worked so hard to create with disregard.
Yellowstone Season 1 would be a great limited series
Yellowstone Season 1 is a masterclass in pacing, character development, and acting, and it’s the crowning achievement within the long-running five-season run of Taylor Sheridan’s creation. It is a western epic about revenge with a Shakespearean family at its core, searching for meaning in a brutal landscape where meaning is often never found.
The pilot episode is a huge, movie-like introduction that clocks in at an hour and thirty minutes, and Yellowstone makes it immediately clear that it’s not like any other western on TV. Every character in Yellowstone feels like a reinvention, the villains have yet to turn into weakly conceived imitations, and each Dutton member still offers unpredictability at every turn.
Too much of any good thing will not remain good for long. A lot of television takes this a tough route, and sometimes the beginning is stronger than the end. It’s easy to wonder what Yellowstone’s impact would have been if it had been just a one-season wonder about greed, the death of the American dream, and a family drama with heartbreaking consequences, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Still, it’s always worth watching Season 1 to be reminded of why this series became the most watched series on network television as it examines broken dreams within a broken system, and a dying farm. All the heroes are trying to find a journey towards peace.