15 Reasons to Watch ‘Yellowstone’

With Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water) and John Linson (Sons of Anarchy) have created a testosterone-filled western tragedy that punches your gut. Kevin Costner is the patriarch John Dutton, who will go to any length to protect his Montana cattle ranch for his children to inherit.

It’s not a perfect show. I could make a list of things that I’m not so fond of, but to be honest, I can’t decide if Yellowstone is so captivating despite its flaws or because of them? What I do know is that by the end of each season, I’m stunned.

Here are 15 reasons why Yellowstone is really hard to resist.

1. The dramatic intro theme

What is the role of the intro theme, if not to set the tone of the show?

The majestic piece of music composed by Brian Tylor does just that, as the fateful tone together with its fiery images gives us distinct clues of what is to come.

We see black shades of oil pumps and cattle in the light of orange fires and sunset, a majestic landscape, and its exploitation of it. We are invited to something beautiful, but also to something dramatic and depressing. This is an intro you never want to skip.

2. The majestic landscape

No doubt is the beautiful, breathtaking landscape a character itself on the show. To the scenes at the ranch they might merely serve as a backdrop, but they help you understand John Duttons love for his place.

Yellowstone offers plenty of action out on the prairie, in the forest, down the river, and up the mountains as well. These are sites of everyday ranching as well as occasional outings to find peace, quiet and even romance sometimes. They are also those of warfare, murders, and unfortunate meetings with bears and intruders. 

The landscape is real, most scenes are filmed on location in Utah and Montana, and whether it’s calamity or calmness, they are essential to building the atmosphere.

3. The excruciating family drama

For sure, Yellowstone is a modern western drama, but as it proceeds it grows into a dark, outright tragic family drama à la Eugene O’Neill. John Dutton lives for his ranch and expects his children to do so too. Loyalty is everything, weakness is banished.

The oldest son is rancher Lee (Dave Annable). Jaime (Wes Bentley) is the ice-cold, quick-thinking, ambitious lawyer, who wants to break free from his father. Kayce (Luke Grimes) is the headstrong, ex-military, now horse tamer, who is afraid to be drawn back to the ranch.

Beth (Kelly Reilly) is the meanest man of them all, the ruthless businesswoman, who will break anyone who stands in her father’s way. And what John Dutton doesn’t ask his children to do, he tells his ranch manager, Rip (Cole Hauser).

Together they form a most dysfunctional family, which does its best to thrive in the cold-hearted, corrupt, and lawless land they have helped create. There is no happiness at Yellowstone, no joyousness, and no room to show feelings, even if there is an abundance of them floating around of course.

This family saga is dark, sad, and ugly, yet it undeniably grabs your heart and attention.

4. The framework of opposites 

The storytelling is choppy and raw, but it’s refreshing with a show that doesn’t try to be slick and clever. Sheridan doesn’t strive to please and in a way the narration fits those blunt, aggressive men we get to know during this ride.

Rather than a straight thread of events, we get a set of scenes that happens within a framework of opposites – city vs countryside, ranch vs reservation, parents vs children, the new Montana vs the old – which make for interesting conflicts. 

The ranch that has been in the Dutton family for seven generations is constantly attacked. The story quickly dives into the heart of the USA – the American constitution – and we get arguments about individual rights in relation to the state as new developers want land from the Dutton ranch to expand.

Can a city survive without growing and developing? Can an old way of life continue forever?

Between the cowboy ranch and the neighboring Indian reservation, another conflict arises, involving cattle. It escalates as Kayce’s living on the reservation with his wife gives him dual loyalties and the new reservation chief, Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), has no intention of playing nice. 

Hovering above all these conflicts is one regarding new versus old ways of doing things. The older generation, John Dutton and Rainwater, are men with enormous egos stuck in their old ways. They think violence is the only way to solve conflicts, while the younger ones – at least in the beginning – have other ideas.

5. The indulgence in machismo

Sheridan starts it off with a beautiful opening scene between a man and a horse, but before long brutality follows and macho versus soft becomes another opposite explored.

That Yellowstone is no country for weak men is clear from the beginning. There are fights that start for no reason, the body count soon becomes uncountable, and the war between ranch, reservation, and developers gets more brutal by the episode. Undoubtedly a reason to watch is how magnificently, uninhibitedly macho it is.

The show grapples with men and manhood, and it becomes interesting to see how softness sneaks up on those cowboys. How they manage to find a place for it, where it isn’t seen or heard. For John himself, it’s with his grandson Tate, with whom he gets to be the kind of parent he never was for his own children.

There is a scene at the end of Season 2 that says so much about this family. After a horrible turn of events, John exits the house to the porch, where he starts crying of relief and perhaps of fear of what is to happen. When Beth sees him she immediately turns away, out of respect but also out of discomfort.

The Duttons are not a family that comforts each other. You don’t want to see signs of weakness, and if you do, you just pretend you didn’t.

6. Brutal Beth

I admit, I hated Beth in Season 1. I thought Sheridan had created the worst female character ever, a hopeless caricature of a tough yet broken woman. But not only do I start loving her in Season 2, but I also see how her earlier ridiculously stereotypical behavior could be explained. 

Already at the end of Season 1, Beth becomes more of a person than the caricature and it starts by John asking her to ”man up”, explaining she is the only child he could say that to. Agreed, she is more macho than any of his sons, and her infinite love for and loyalty to her father makes her listen and make some changes in her life.

She stays the same tough, fearless, ruthless woman – she’s never lost for words and she never gives in –  but the dampened craziness actually makes her more human. It’s no easy character to play, with so many fleeting feelings to balance, but Kelly Reilly does it really well, making Beth the most fascinating, and scary, character to watch.

7. Dearest Kayce

Every show needs its hero, and in Yellowstone it’s Kayce. He is the son that best embodies the hardness and the softness combined.

He is a cool cowboy – tough and stubborn – who knows a trick or two from his background in the army. He’s a good-hearted man, who tries to do good and when he fails, the victims usually deserve it. 

Kayce is more emotional and less afraid to show it than anyone else in the family. He is the brother who forgives and forgets as well as the only one worrying about becoming his stone-faced dad.

Kayce chose the wrong wife, because love is more important than pleasing his father. He’s a devoted husband and father, and although Monica probably would come first on my list of things I don’t like about the show, it’s hard not to ship them during their marriage problems.

Grimes makes Kayce so adoring and lovable as he suffers and pines for her.

Last, Yellowstone is not a funny show, yet Kayce once in a while actually makes us laugh with his dry sarcasm. Like when he’s driving John home after surgery hitting all the bumps in the road, and it’s impossible to know if it’s unavoidable or actually a passive-aggressive act against his father.

8. The magnificent antagonists

Just as a show needs its hero, it needs its villains. In Yellowstone there seems to be an inflation of them by the season.

To be honest season one’s Rainmaker and developer Dan Jenkins, serve more as adversaries than actual villains. Rainwater is likable and Jenkins at least you like feeling sorry for.

No wonder the second season introduced the brutal, cartoonish Beck brothers, who turn the political and psychological ranch war into a physical one. Maybe it is not always logical, but action is something Yellowstone does well, and bloody entertaining it is.

Topping that, in Season 3 none other than Josh Holloway (Lost) comes in as bilious billionaire rancher Roarke Morris to overturn the Duttons.

9. The smiling governor

Not all the women are well crafted on Yellowstone, but governor Perry, played wonderfully by Wendy Moniz-Grillo is one I just love. She is tough, professional, yet she always seems to be only seconds away from a smile. She is authentic and self-confident, never mean or power-hungry.

A lovely detail is in a scene where the whole office is full of serious people and she happily asks to be served a breakfast plate. Not only is she unfazed by the tough task ahead, she is a woman who actually happily eats. Usually on the screen, women never eat. They decline, leave a full plate, or are just never hungry.

Also, the governor’s tête-à-têtes with John are always utterly delightful.

10. The bunkhouse drama

Yellowstone is not only territorial war, it’s also everyday ranching. For ranching you need wranglers and they live in the ranch bunkhouse. Most of them have no outside lives and want nothing but to be a part of the Yellowstone family, even though it has a price.

We get to follow the wranglers horse riding, going to rodeos, and engaging in the occasional bar brawls, and believe me, these guys know how to brawl.

In the beginning, there is bullying and fighting, but along the way, there is friendship and loyalty – the good kind – among the guys. Their story within becomes rather touching and includes bittersweet drama.

11. The tenderness that comes crawling

In Season 3 it takes until Episode 4 until there is even a little fight – I kid you not. Actually, the first half of the season is soft and soapy instead of mean and macho, something the first two seasons excelled in. It’s like life has caught up with the men of Yellowstone and they are all going soft.

John cries several times and from Kayce comes an unexpected ”I love you”. Beth has removed her superwoman cape and allows herself to be vulnerable together with Rip, who in turn manages to mix cheeky into a question so tenderly asked.

Rip: We are way passed playing hard to get, don’t you think, Beth?

Macho action is slowly being exchanged for tenderness, romance, and melodrama as the Dutton family members are on a gripping journey of reconciliation and acceptance.

12. The dinner table scenes

Although not a funny show Yellowstone offers moments of comic relief and they often happen around the dinner table. 

After a sweet talk with his friend the governor, John decides that the Dutton family surely can have nice, normal dinner conversations, and it is as funny as it is tragic to watch his honest attempts that never once succeed.

Kayce: The day I have something good to say about my day, I will shout it from the rooftop.

13. The Dallas connection

The dinner table scenes are a reminder of the all-time classic ranch family drama, Dallas, and maybe there is just one set of characters available for this kind of shows, but if not there sure is inspiration drawn from the predecessor.

John Dutton is Jock Ewing of course. Beth is J.R and I honestly think J.R. wouldn’t stand a chance against her. Kayce and Monica are Bobby and Pam (the sweetest son, the wrong wife, siding with the enemy).

Jaime is Gary, the weak son, but in some ways also resembling Cliff Barnes, who was also a lawyer. Rip is obviously Ray Krebbs, the one who is (like) a son to the owner.

14. The marvelous music

Did I mention Yellowstone features a lot of good music?

For me, country music has been connected to the south and something that Nashville got me hooked on, but Yellowstone reminded me that wherever there are cowboy hats and cool boots there is great music accompanying it, like this one from Season 2: Never Be Ourselves by Savannah Conley.

15. Kevin Costner at last

Kevin Costner is Kevin Costner and he is just excellent as the patriarch who can switch from hard-boiled, stone-faced ranch owner to sweet, caring grandfather in a second. John Dutton is corrupt and brutal, a terrible parent, yet he comes off as human, albeit a very flawed one.

John is a man who doesn’t know any other way to be and Coster makes us believe, and sometimes even care about, this older man, at a point in his life where he starts dreaming about a simpler life, “living with the land and not just on it”, as he explains.

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So what is your deal? Are you watching Yellowstone already? Or are you excited to start soon? Let us know in the comments below.

Yellowstone airs on Paramount Network. You can also watch all three seasons of Yellowstone on Amazon.

 

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