In what’s been a golden age for quality television series over the previous two decades, some shows set the bar for a pantheon of greatness: “The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men,” to name a few obvious seminal standard bearers. Aspects of how they are plotted, written, cast, shot, acted and more exemplify TV at its finest and most engrossing, ergo binge-worthy to the max.
Strangely, as Vanity Fair recently noted, one current series that scores mountainously high on all points has yet to earn its due acclaim, even though it was 2020’s most-watched cable show: the contemporary Western cowboy drama “Yellowstone.” Starring Kevin Costner as John Dutton, the noble, yet quietly-cunning patriarch of a family whose Montana ranch, Yellowstone, is the nation’s largest. Its core dramatic force is Dutton’s struggle to preserve his working patch of paradise against the forces of development, capitalist exploitation, current-day politics and certain corrosive currents of modernity. Bubbling under that are family tensions and dysfunctions, criminality and redemption, cowboys and Indians (or more respectfully, Native Americans) verging between competition and cooperation, romance, betrayal and other rather knotty subplot points.
The show’s upper-heartland red-state setting and focus on preserving a traditional if not American mythic pursuit and lifestyle prompted TV Guide to tag the it “quality television for conservatives.” But a dive below the surface reveals a show that has its progressive and leftist elements.
At first blush, “Yellowstone” does appear to be entertainment that left-of-center folks might eschew, if not find objectionable. It has violence, a lot of it. The cattle ranching and rodeos are, I am sure, anathema to many animal rights activists, vegans and environmentalists. The show dials into the core of Western cowboy culture, which tends to skew heavily MAGA.
That said, the Yellowstone ranch cows are grass fed – the better and healthier choice for those of us out here on the left of the dial who are still carnivores. And in the rodeo ring as well as on the ranch, the animals do sometimes give the riders their just deserts.
But if you can set aside what are, yes, reasonable misgivings, “Yellowstone” is one helluva lively and entertaining gallop through vividly lovely scenic settings that remind how, at least naturalistically, this nation is indeed “America The Beautiful.” Its story, plus side trails and backstories, is never a dull moment laced with lively twists and turns.
Costner’s assured and mature performance, rich with gruff yet wise horseman sense gravitas, provides a firm tentpole for a talented ensemble cast to play around and at times against. Best of the rest kudos has to go to English actress Kelly Reilly as Dutton’s daughter Beth. She’d most recently caught my attention in the UK police procedural “Above Suspicion” and has developed a seriously impressive dramatic resume. Kelly Dutton, however, feels like her breakthrough part; a tough, profane, feisty and quite striking woman with a heart and soul buried beneath her prickly exterior and deeply ingrained issues. The rest of the Dutton clan and surrounding characters all bristle with nuance and spirit.
The contrast with the near-breathless weekly media coverage given to the rather similar (and also quite dramatically rich and crackling) “Succession,” with which it shares a core thread of patriarchy and inheritance issues, is quite striking. “Succession” is a if not the show of the moment for the cognoscente and commentariat. But “Yellowstone” scores where it really counts: viewers. Other parallels also include “The Godfather” and “Bonanza.”
The series also boasts a superb soundtrack of superior contemporary Western country (as oppose to old school C&W) that further enriches the viewer experience and tends to comment on the subjects at hand.
The show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, insists that “Yellowstone” is not TV red meat for right-wingers, “The people who are calling it a red-state show have probably never watched it.” It’s conservationist rather than conservative, and does make an argument against rapacious consumer capitalism. Yeah, it’s something of a nighttime soap opera, but one that engages and crackles with action, drama, surprises and consequences galore.
Populist Picks
Film: “Don’t Look Up” – This cheeky yet deadly serious romp through the human reaction to and denial of an asteroid on path to destroy Planet Earth is brimming with profound subsurface commentary on modern ways and means, and sparked much debate within modern news and social media. Kudos go to Leonardo DiCaprio for giving fans a charming turn as as a goofy geek rather than sex object.
Film: “Being The Ricardos” – Prompting almost as much and as lively public commentary as the movie above, in this trip into early TV history the kudos here are soundly earned by how well and fully Nicole Kidman inhabits Lucille Ball, with Javier Bardem scoring a close second with his Desi Arnez.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2022
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