Submitted by speberjy t3_yihw6h in television
Now that Rings of Power and House of The Dragon is over I was looking for a new show to binge and get into, was looking at Yellowstone. Are seasons 1-4 binge-able? Are people excited about season 5? What are y'alls thoughts on Yellowstone?
I agree. In your opinion, who is the show trying to appeal to?
Boomers
Boomers who were fans of Dallas or any of the other "prime-time soaps" of the era. My in-laws love it. I won't leave the room if it's on, but it's just not my thing.
I can't get with it because the red-headed daughter is such a terrible, one dimensional actor. And that the feds would have gotten involved immediately and ended the whole show.
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Middle America, moderate conservatives/centrist, individualist, don't tread on me types
Normal audiences. Not the internet.
That might sound glib but it is sort of accurate. Movie Bob has a good video on this where he talks about Yellowstone specifically about 2/3rds of the way through.
Only kind of related to that video, but I think that automatic dismissal of anybody who criticizes the show as elitist is a bit unfair. I like the show, but in large brush strokes, it has been the same story 4 years in a row about how outsiders want to take the ranch away. I also disagree heavily with this being an "unknown" show online, the Rip/Beth memes have been around for years and it's a staple of the front page of this sub during its season.
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It scratches the same itch as Sons of Anarchy, entertaining but really stupid sometimes. Season 4 dropped off a cliff I thought, half the content was back door pilots for other shows.
Binging season 4 I think was the first time I have fast forwarded through annoying scenes (Horses spinning, Jimmy in Texas, even Kayce's later scenes) in any show, ever.
Soooo much horse spinning! Taylor Sheridan uses that show to peacock around his fine riding skills, but he overdoes it. That and his wanton gruff language.
I couldn't even finish it, I read the summary of the last few episodes.
Backdoor pilots indeed, watched 1883 which was better, and then never went back to Yellowstone. I'm fine with multiple characters that I don't like, but jesus christ there has to be at least one likeable person, and with this show there is not.
I couldn't get into Yellowstone, but I am really liking 1883.
Tate is likable.
Oof, I struggle with Tate and his weird ass relationship with his bath-giving mother. I don't even know how old this kid is supposed to be in-universe, but he's old enough to take his own baths and know what an erection is.
O never watched this but I loved sons of anarchy (yes even last seasons) maybe should give a chance?
Yea for sure, the first 3 seasons are fun, it’s very broad, lots of action and Soap opera drama, very watchable.
It's like a better cowboy version of sons of anarchy. Male soap opera is a good description. It's very well done though I like it
Its better than SOA?
SoA is a great series but as an Irishman. Those Belfast episodes take the show from a 8 to 3/4 out of 10 tbh
That’s a tall ask. I love both. In fact, after I finished season 3 of Yellowstone I had to go back and binge sons.
Agree with other commenters. It's a soap opera set on Montana ranch and environs. It's perfectly enjoyable but don't expect prestige television.
One thing is prestige though: the cinematography on location. Consistently some of the best looking television, those mountain vistas are stunning.
The cinematography is gorgeous.
Binge it. The show is absurdly unrealistic, which is a dealbreaker for me. But for some reason not this show, I can’t get enough of it.
What you mean you can't have a fully automatic shootout into the middle of town, literally hang a dude, and make multiple people simply "disappear" without any investigation or blowback at all?
Even still, I agree, it's a fun show.
Lol yeah it's bloody unbelievably ridiculous but it is entertaining. I don't need it to be realistic, bit of brain dead tv
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DEFINITELY BINGE IT!!! The show is absolutely wonderful..
If you really want a binge, I am sure there are better shows out there. Have you done most of the other long prestige-y shows? Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Americans, Mr. Robot, The Expanse, Justified, The Wire, The Boys, The Sopranos are all really well-liked shows with 4+ seasons out there. Mad Men too, which I deeply love, but is paced slower than the others.
I also love and miss Battlestar Galactica, but I'm leaving it off this list because it's not universally thought to have stuck the landing the same way those other shows largely did. Although I am in the minority of fans who found the end mostly satisfying (there are dozens of us!)
> Justified
if OP is looking for a show that isn't quite "prestige" television but also isn't the soap opera of Yellowstone, you can't miss with Justified. It's fun but it's also smart. I think Justified gets that it's primary purpose is to entertain, not try and be a great TV show, but by focusing on entertaining, meaning having great characters, witty dialogue, interesting stories, and lots of excitement, it became one of the all time great TV shows.
Does that make sense or am I just rambling? It's like a lot of shows today, it's clear they started out to make some great emmy winning TV show, but what you get are these goddamn 64 minute episodes that they say is a "slow burn" but really it's bad auteur schlock that doesn't entertain and doesn't even have that much original to say.
Justified on the other hand just set out to tell a good story, and behind that good story are all kinds of lessons about the human experience. Also you get Boyd Crowder. I fucking love Boyd Crowder.
Did The Americans get an actual ending?
Yes. The finale is fantastic.
Very cool. Thank you.
I enjoyed the show, season 4 wasn’t that great though.. not too hyped for season 5 now. I hope that changes
This is me right now. With how crazy season 3 ended to pretty much go nowhere was baffling. Hopefully 5 gets back on track.
Depends on what you like, I think its enjoyable a man's soap opera. Expect nothing groundbreaking but the characters are good and so are the performances. Yes, you need to watch 1-4 before 5. To each their own
You could watch maybe the first season, or maybe just a few episodes to know who the characters are, and be fine.
Pretty much every season follows the same format.
Ranchers are the heroes. Some interest wants to take their ranch away. The inevitable solution is always absurd violence.
Rinse. Repeat.
It gets shit on a lot but it really is a fun show especially if you like the western atmosphere, I binged all 4 seasons within a month and it was great, season 4 is pretty boring but still watchable if you binge it.
The show has a lot of good and a lot of bad going for it. I would say it's a product of the "Golden Era" television - it's got the care and talent that makes it clearly stand out as a well-put-together piece of media.
All of its issues fall with its massively inconsistent writing:
the pacing is completely out of wack. Some seasons lead to nothing, some seasons ignore the conflict until they easily solve the issue in the end
the characters are so dramatic with how they speak it gets compared to a soap opera, and for good reason, you want to make a scene more compelling? Why not have someone tell another character to kill themselves
the Dutton's will face a season of battering from the antagonist to have Rip or Kayce go kill them in 30 seconds
Beth despite being written like a psychopathic idiot, always ends up on top, even when she's literally telling people what she's going to do
one of the more compelling characters, Jamie is supposed to be this genius lawyer who is feared for his savant level knowledge of the law, but is constantly being a bumbling idiot
Jimmy takes up a lot of the storyline but adds nothing, ironically is one of the more interesting parts of the story as he's a bit more grounded
Monica starts off being the voice of reason in season 1 to being a complete idiot
Taylor Sheridan subjects us to Travis way too often in the later seasons
EDIT: That made it seem like the show is worse than it is. Everything else is great in the show: acting, character dynamics, setting, directing, and while the pacing, logic, and dialogue are hit-or-miss the storylines presented are very compelling.
I see SoA getting brought up a lot, and I think that's kind of the inverse of Yellowstone - it feels like a pre-golden era tv show - bogged down by cable tv shlockyness, it had strong pacing and storytelling to prop it up
> What are y'alls thoughts on Yellowstone?
It is a SOAP Opera and not my thing.
Big, dumb and sometimes fun with amazing scenery.
For me, the show got real old real fast. I tapped out midway through season 1. It's just a cowboy soap opera with the occasional titty and some violence
I thought it was okay the first season- enough to watch the second, stunning visuals, awesome concept but someone pointed out that it was a cowboy soap opera and now I can't 'un-think' that whenever I watch it. Stopped after season 2.
The first few seasons are good enough. Unfortunately the producers are now using it to advertise their spinoffs and a horse ranch they bought with some investors called the 6's. It seemed like every single season 4 episode had an overly long montage of cowboys doing quick stops and in place 360's on their horses as if it's the coolest thing one could ever do. I forced myself to finish the season hoping for a playoff that never came. They need to stop trying to glorify the horse riding competitions. Making a horse stop quickly is not that visually cool after the third time, let alone the fiftieth.
> Unfortunately the producers are now using it to advertise their spinoffs
To be fair, 1883 was actually really solid with a good cast and a great story. I'm kind of looking forward to 1923 too. Harrison Ford, Timothy Dalton, and Robert Patrick? Yes please.
Agreed with the rest of your comment. I feel like most of the rodeo stuff is nothing but masterbatory filler on Taylor Sheridan's part.
I was looking forward to 1883, but got turned off by season 4. I might have to give it a try, but I'm not hopeful that the spinoffs won't also jump the shark after a few seasons. There's another spinoff named '6666' which will hopefully take all the worst stuff and contain it to a single show. Masterbatory filler is the correct description. I'd love to see a count of how many quick stops we saw last season. It probably hit triple digits.
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There is so many good shows out right now, and probably a lot you havent seen before. You can easily skip this show and not miss much.
I like Yellowstone, it gets pretty soap opera-y though. I really liked the prequel though.
The first time through it's fun. I watched it again and the testosterone leaked off the screen.
First of all, I like Yellowstone.
Second of all, the people who think the show isn't EXTREMELY conservative are the other side of the coin as the people who were surprised Homelander is a bad guy.
I actually just caught up on Seasons 3 and 4 after previously having binged 1/2. I think the latter two seasons spin their wheels a bit much that is amplified by a binge, but I still think they are worth watching.
Its pretty divisive on Reddit, because everyone here is a professional critic lol. Its a cowboy soap opera, so if you take it at face value for what it is, you'll have a great time. Just don't expect Breaking Bad level of writing lol. I enjoy it quite a lot, and look forward to the next season. In my opinion its very binge-able. Especially if you like Westerns.
Yellowstone is a highly entertaining show. Great stuff.
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It's an over-the-top drama where the plot takes the most insanely explosive path possible at every juncture. If that's your thing, then this show certainly delivers.
The first episode pretty much lays out what you're in for so you don't have to wait long to make your own judgement.
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Watch 1883 and then binge yellowstone
I’m 36 male. It’s not a good show, really. But it’s entertaining. I enjoy the characters. The plot is sooo sloppy at times. Big plot holes or just entirely abandoned storylines. But it has a great setting, memorable moments and performances, and I usually find the episodes more entertaining than not. Season 4 was a step down though, if I remember. Just felt aimless. I often say it’s either the best bad show or the worst good show on tv. It’s right in that sweet spot.
It's not good. I loved Taylor Sheridans previous work. I was so excited for the show. I think S1 is fine, but my god...
It's just a big silly soap opera. If that's your thing then maybe you'll enjoy it. But it baffles my mind how people have convinced themselves it's amazing and is now the biggest show on tv
If watch season 1 and 2 then stop there.
The shows changes from a show showing the harsh reality of how hard it is to be a cowboy to owning a cattle ranch.
To being a show glorifying cowboys, no matter the age as getting all the girls and gun fights left and right. It basically becomes an action show from a drama.
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As a resident of Montana I am contractually obligated to hate this show.
I watched episode 1 like a week or two ago to see if it would be my next thing.
I barely got through the episode. It was also nearly 2 fucking hours long.
Yellowstone makes my home look silly
Really depends on your preferences. If you enjoy dramas like this, absolutely. I think it's fantastic, but you will find others that can't stand it. You really need to watch a few episodes to see if it appeals to you. But I would say, season 5 will make no sense without the back story of the previous 4 seasons.
I just watched Season one, it's both awful and entertaining.
It's got some great views and scratches a cowboy itch if you like that kinda story. But it's truly a soap opera. There's a character who kills 4 people in the first 3 episodes and never ends up in custody, it breaks so many levels of realism and yet you want to keep watching.
It's oftentimes ridiculous but also incredibly watchable and has a lot of beautiful scenery, I think I watched the whole four seasons in about three weeks earlier this year.
Also Rip Wheeler is one of my current favourite characters in television - "There's no fighting on this ranch!"
You'll hate that you love it
It's decent but it drags a bit. But it's fine, I would however recommend you break it up into chunks and mix it with say Mayor of East town later on in the series.
Same developer and in the same wheel house so you can easily go back and forth during that time. Except if you are nearing the end of season 1 of Mayor of East town. It's gets... Intense.
Do you also start reading books at, like, page 200?
The fact that you used y'all in the title tells me you're the type that will enjoy the show.
Seasons 1-4 are very bingeable but I don't think you'll have to binge them before season 5. I would binge it. I have and I've watched a couple of seasons more than once. It's pretty good and there are some jaw dropping moments and double crosses and then double back double double crosses that you miss by not binging but the show catches you up on the high points pretty well.
I was hesitant to watch it because I assumed it would be some sort of conservative circle-jerk based on who I noticed talking about it.
We binged the first three seasons before the 4th aired.
It is definitely worth it. The writing is up there with some of the best shows in TV. The characters are very well cast and portrayed. And the politics (what little there are) are more to do with locally regional fictitious politics and nothing that really seemed off-putting to me.
I would highly recommend.
For reference, I am a huge GoT fan, BB fan, etc. I would confidently say that Yellowstone is easily a top 10 modern television show and would even rank some episodes/moments as top five.
> The writing is up there with some of the best shows in TV.
What? There have been dozens of storylines that have been completely dropped. Every single person has like two characteristics at most. And this is from someone who likes the show.
Okay that's your opinion. But you're coming off as just a contrarian without providing a lot of evidence.
The bunkhouse guys' stories and development are just as interesting as the main characters, and their performances are endearing.
Beth, Rip, etc. are some of the better written characters on modern TV.
> But you're coming off as just a contrarian without providing a lot of evidence.
Helicopter (Edit: Airplane Bomb)
Dinosaur bones
People bones
Jamie's child for like 2 whole seasons
Tate's varying issues with PTSD
Jimmy being paralyzed....twice...for like two episodes.
Edit: The California boy whose mom had a flat tire and was then gunned down.
>Beth, Rip, etc. are some of the better written characters on modern TV.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Didn't they also plant a bomb on a plane that was rigged to go off at a certain altitude then never mention it again?
Oh was it a plane? That's what I meant by the helicopter.
I thought you were referring to the ranch helicopter that they had in the pilot episode to highlight that the ranch was so big you had to fly to get to the other side.
I guess it was too expensive because now it seems they can easily get to any point of the ranch on horseback with ease, and I don't think the helicopter has been seen or mentioned since.
LOL, Beth is a walking cliche "bad boss bitch." Her scenes are nigh unwatchable. There are a lot of great actors and interesting characters but so many of the storylines are convoluted or the dialogue driving them is BARELY above a soap opera.
I enjoyed the first 3 seasons to an extent, but season 4 was a total shit show. I would NOT watch this show unless you want to spend 5 minutes every other episode listening to country music watching some worthless rodeo/horse montage.
> LOL, Beth is a walking cliche "bad boss bitch." Her scenes are nigh unwatchable.
Ugh, so much this. She has a couple of good scenes in the earlier seasons, but later everything she says is straight out of the cesspit. I literally started cringing when she came on screen by season 4.
I feel like they made their point with her character and then just ran it right into the ground.
Beth could easily be such a great character and Kelly Reilly could absolute kill some more rounded traits. They just cannot seem to write her as anything other than absolutely as vile as possible.
One of the most unintentionally funny scenes in Season 4 was when Jackie Weaver's CEO character fires Beth, tells her how she broke her contracts, had contact with both the environmentalists and the media, and how they have a slam dunk case for corporate espionage and Beth was like "Good luck".
Good luck with what? She just explicitly outlined the exact ways that you broke the law, all of which are exceedingly easy to prove, and how your ass would realistically be in prison in a few weeks. Of course it won't happen, but I just thought it was funny.
Depends on what your looking for in a show. It has a decent storyline & solid characters. Might wanna look into 1883 first tho.
I'll probably get my head chopped off for saying this but here goes. Its not Woke.
So there's that.
It's odd that 8 out of 9 of your comment history has been awarded in some way or another.
I really liked it. Takes a few episodes to get into the world. Pseudo-intellectuals on Reddit and liberal critics act as if they are too good for it, because it’s about people on the political right and their way of life.
> because it’s about people on the political right and their way of life.
The show isn't about anybody's way of life, it's complete fantasy.
The characters’ way of life. It’s called fiction.
It absolutely is not about people on the political right.
Are there some right leaning things like guns, etc. Sure. Sure, there's a big family with big money from doing cowboy/rancher things.
But the politics in this show are very neutral and aren't a huge part of the story.
The politics on the show absolutely are right leaning. The two main antagonists of season 1 are a California Liberal Elite and a Native American leader taking advantage of reservation laws to try and steal the Dutton's land. In season 2, it's the Texas brothers who want to develop the land. In season 3 and 4 it's the New York liberal elite developers with a minor thread of a Berkeley-led environmentalist who literally has her world rocked by the lead cowboy's dicking. Every season has multiple Californian minor antagonists or comically stupid tourists who often die for their mistakes and the entire point of every season so far has been the Duttons accumulating political power to, in John Dutton's winning governor's speech "be the wall progression bashes against".
That might be a slight facade, because the dynamics of the family itself, which the show revolves around, are not conservative.
Surface level viewers will see the things you mentioned because that is as far as they want to go. Those things are only plot devices meant to reflect the real issues people in that region experience while push along the underlying story of the family.
Kevin Costner is behind this, and he's probably politically diverse. I've seen him as more of a classic libertarian (read pre-Gadsden Trump cultists) than anything. That's why you see him using things like private property rights as plot devices.
People that paint this as right leaning or pandering are the ones that almost pushed me away from watching. I am glad I didn't listen to them.
> That might be a slight facade, because the dynamics of the family itself, which the show revolves around, are not conservative.
I don't even know what this means.
>Surface level viewers will see the things you mentioned because that is as far as they want to go.
I mean...I just gave you the overarching plot of every season? Not really sure how they are surface level.
>Kevin Costner is behind this, and he's probably politically diverse.
His speech literally used the phrase "the wall that progression bashes against". A speech that is then in the next episode called "prophetic". I don't know how much more clear that can be.
>People that paint this as right leaning or pandering
It is right leaning. Every single main antagonist so far has been some sort of liberal coastal elite, with the exception of the Texas brothers who then end up being white supremacist elites. The antagonists for season 1 magically see the errors of their ways after understanding the Montana way of life and teaming up with the Duttons in season 2. Monica has multiple scenes showing her as a screechy liberal shrew pulling Kayce from his family legacy while still happily spending the family's money. The entire Yellowstone brand plotline is a literal cult/gang that you have to kill to get into and have to die to get out of. Jamie is repeatedly shown to be a spinless, cowardly pussy because of his elite coastal education to the point where he cries multiple times on screen begging for his family's acceptance. And then, he's actually SUCH a pussy, it's genetic and he was never really part of the family anyway. Because that makes sense. Every problem is solved with Beth walking in bitchily or Rip punching the issue and multiple women who stand in the way of John succumb to his magical cowboy dick.
Talk about a surface level understanding of a show, I could easily go on and on.
Wow. "liberal coastal elite" "screechy liberal shrew" "elite coastal education"
It seems to me that you're one of the ones taking it on surface level to stroke some sort of underlying irrational worldview of "coastal liberal elites."
This show is basically Sopranos with cowboys instead of cliche Italian mobsters. If you see anything more than that, then you have a bias that you can't get past to see the bigger picture.
I can't wait for this "conservative, right wing" show to drop a "liberal progress" bombshell at some point and force apparently half or more of the viewers to stop watching because Joe Rogan or Kanye West told them to.
You: Give me examples.
Me: Okay, here's ten.
You: LALALALALALALA
It’s about the defence of a way of life, landowners against the forces of modernity. That is the overarching plot of each season.
Somewhat. But that doesn't make it right leaning. These people are definitely not religious (nor do they even fake it,) they only care about politics in that they want to preserve their own empire (okay, this might SLIGHTLY be conservative,) and centers moreso around the complicated family dynamics that come with power.
It is more Sopranos than anything conservative or right-wing.
The roots of conservatism lie in agriculture and ownership of land. That’s the way of life focused on in the show. And there is no “somewhat” about it. That is literally the plot of each season.
I disagree. The roots of modern conservatism lie in capitalism, Christianity, and white privilege.
I'll give you maybe one of those three that could play a big part on this show.
I've maintained this whole time that there are surface level aspects of this show that are conservative, yes.
But the main story and writing revolves around the family structure and the preservation of it.
Even if your assertion is true (which it isn’t) the conservatism being explored in the show is a pre-modern one.
LovingTurtle69 t1_iuisvqs wrote
reddit is not the shows demographic, chances are you won't get good answers.