Yellowstone

I got tired of it at the end of Season 2. I read over what happened in Season 3, and I don’t feel like I missed anything.

And it is a little woke with it comes to the Native stuff, at least in S01 and S02 from my pov.

It’s watchable, it’s good, but when you realize there’s not a lot of effort having a compelling story push the series forward other than “muh land” it becomes clear it’s just a modern day spiritual successor to Dallas as it’s pretty much a soap opera affair and not anywhere on the level of Cormac McCarthy’s films (No Country For Old Men, Wind River). I spent way too long pointing out stupid moments, plot holes, or week to week elements seemingly dropped like a discarded wrestling angle making many early episodes a frustrating watch as I expected better. I can’t tell if McCarthy wasn’t comfortable writing an episodic story or was just patterning things on westerns of old as early installments had the same framework to them, kid gets himself in a dangerous situation, his dad kills a guy, or both! It was so lousy I questioned if McCarthy was even writing the show.

Eventually the series found its groove in season two, but you can tell they are holding back with the Native American aspect as the casino owner/land developer character teeters way too closely to that of one of the leads in Longmire (great show) with Costner’s character’s daughter in law picking up the slack with her clumsily written Native American Histories professor role which culminates in one of the show’s most cringeworthy moments during season two of her left crying at a rap concert. The show’s integration of Native characters just doesn’t feel as natural as Longmire’s, they feel like side elements for the most part or only exist to remind us how bad the white man treated them, they’re not fully fleshed out and it wasn’t until the end of season three did they introduce someone that was compelling enough to warrant a response of “I wanna see more of that one.”

But yeah it’s good, not great and could be a whole lot better as it coasts on strong performances and wonderfully shot scenes, but doesn’t live up to the cinematic efforts of its creator thus far despite coming off its best season which hopefully will be the real turning point for the show easing off its typically slow burn nature and finally tries to do something interesting with the Native American element.

This is a good show. I have no complaints because they always have different sides, different types of people, different narratives, so it’s fine if some characters promote different values.

Rip is the best, hands down.

Season 3 ended with a big cliffhanger.