Yellowstone. Photo: Kevin Lynch/Paramount Network
Yellowstone arrives on the new Paramount Network to fanfare and high expectations.
This prestige show has a stellar cast led by Oscar-winner Kevin Costner, who’s returning to the genre he’s most associated with — the western. The show was created by Taylor Sheridan, who is also directing each of the series’ 10 episodes.
Sheridan’s made a name for himself in the last few years for writing modern-day western films, including Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, which he also directed.
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Given its pedigree, it will come as no surprise that Yellowstone nails the look and feel of the genre. There are big sweeping shots of the beautiful, wide-open landscape, a soundtrack dedicated to country and bluegrass music, and horses and cowboy hats everywhere.
Unfortunately, the story and pacing of the series’ first two episodes are uneven. Throughout there are lots of plodding, vague exchanges, punctuated by bursts of violence that don’t feel entirely earned.
This is especially true in the two-hour series premiere.
Yellowstone, Season 1, Episode 1 recap: “Daybreak”
The first episode of Yellowstone, “Daybreak,” begins by introducing viewers to the Dutton clan, who own the sprawling Yellowstone Ranch in Montana.
There’s Costner’s patriarch, John Dutton, who’s ruthlessly protective of his land and wields power over the Montana town in which he lives and his children’s lives.
John has four adult children: Lee (Dave Annable), the son who stayed to help run the ranch; Beth (Kelly Reilly), the only daughter, who escaped to the city, where she’s a take-no-prisoners corporate banker; Jamie (Wes Bentley), a lawyer who, desperate for his father’s approval, defends his interests in court; and then there’s rebel son, Kayce (Luke Grimes), a former Navy SEAL who now lives on the nearby Indian Reservation with his Native American wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and their son, Tate (Brecken Merrill).
Jamie successfully holds off a land developer’s claim of eminent domain on 30,000 acres of the Dutton ranch, but John is still unsatisfied. He wants the developer’s project to build subdivisions next to his ranch stopped entirely. He even threatens the developer, Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston), over it.
John also summons Beth home to help with the issue. However, for the first two episodes, she does little beyond sniping at pretty much anyone she comes into contact with.
Meanwhile, Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) is elected the Chairman of the local Native American tribe. He wants to right the wrongs that were done to his people by buying back the land that was stolen from them, including the Dutton ranch.
It’s this latter issue that leads to the incident that seems likely to fuel much of the plot moving forward. The Native Americans cut the barbed wire off the fence that marked the border between their land and the Duttons’. As a result, the Duttons’ cattle wander onto the Native American’s land.
When John goes to see what the trouble is, the Native Americans threaten to shoot him if he crosses the border into their land. Later, John and Rainwater meet to negotiate a resolution to the issue. Rainwater says the cows are his people’s now. John accuses him of theft but Rainwater doesn’t back down.
Without a satisfying conclusion to the dispute, John goes to the Native American reservation to retrieve his cattle. Over Jamie’s protests, John takes off in a helicopter, while Lee rides on horseback with a posse of Bureau of Land Management agents loyal to the family.
When the Duttons arrive at the reservation they find Monica’s brother and grandfather guarding the cattle. The Duttons try to herd the cattle home, while Kayce, taking the side of his in-laws, gets in the middle and attempts to herd the cattle further into the reservation.
The standoff results in a shootout that leads to Lee’s death at the hands of Kayce’s brother-in-law. Kayce witnesses the incident and kills his brother-in-law in retaliation.
The next morning Kayce brings Lee’s lifeless body back to the Dutton ranch on his horse.
Yellowstone. Photo: Kevin Lynch/Paramount Network
Yellowstone, Season 1, Episode 2 recap: “Kill the Messenger”
The deaths of Lee and Kayce’s brother-in-law are the catalyst for most of the action in Yellowstone‘s second episode “Kill the Messenger.”
As the episode begins, Jamie is summoned to the governor’s office. They’ve learned something worrisome.
Everyone was under the impression that Lee and Kayce’s brother-in-law, Robert Long, killed each other. But forensics shows that the bullet that killed Lee severed his spinal cord before he died, In other words, he wouldn’t have been able to use his hands to fire a gun. Further, Long’s death looks like an execution.
The case has already made the national news and is being framed as a racially motivated killing. So when the forensic details are discovered, it’ll look like a cover-up on John’s part. And that will lead investigators to start looking for the person John’s covering for. The governor promises to hold back the forensic report for a week to give Jamie time to make the problem go away.
Jamie and John quickly deduce that Kayce had something to do with Long’s murder, although Kayce refuses to admit to anything. Jamie wants to dig up Lee’s body and cremate it in order to eliminate some of the evidence.
In addition, they need to make sure no witnesses will speak out about Kayce riding to the ranch with Lee’s body. Through some elaborate machinations, John reaches both the Bureau of Land Management agents who witnessed the return of Lee’s body. They agree to keep their mouths shut about what they saw.
Then, the medical examiner unexpectedly releases Long’s forensic report to the tribal police. With the news that Long was killed execution style, Rainwater sees an opportunity — if Lee wasn’t the shooter, the killing could be the end of John Dutton and his pesky ranch. Unfortunately, the only person Rainwater and the chief of police know was nearby when Long was gunned down is Kayce and they suspect Kayce won’t take their side against his family.
In order to protect Kayce from further issues stemming from the medical examiner’s actions, John dispatches his ranch hand and heavy, Rip (Cole Hauser), to take care of him. Rip deletes the forensic reports about the killings off of the ME’s computer, chokes him until he’s unconscious, and then starts a fire to make it look like the ME killed himself.
Meanwhile, Kayce calls his former SEALs commander and tells him he’s thinking about rejoining. The man tells him to get his bags packed and get ready to go.
Monica overhears the conversation and as they drive to pick up Tate, she asks him why he wants to leave them. Kayce says he needs to provide for the family. but Monica calls BS. After all, he was fine being a broke horse trainer until both of their brothers were killed a week ago. She demands the truth, but as Kayce starts to tell her, a trailer explodes as they drive by and they skid off the road.
A badly burned and injured man begs Kayce to kill him. When Kayce hesitates, Monica tells him to do it and turns away.
Later, the tribal police and Rainwater arrive. They agree Kayce did the right thing and cover up the mercy killing.
Afterward, Kayce and Rainwater go to a sweat lodge together. When Kayce returns home, Monica asks him if he’ll stay if she lets him keep whatever he’s hiding from her a secret. Kayce claims that if he stays she’ll learn what he’s hiding. Monica swears there’s nothing he could do that she won’t forgive him for, but he disagrees. Then Tate calls for Kayce and Kayce goes to spend time with him.
The episode ends with John scattering Lee’s newly cremated ashes at John’s wife’s grave.
Yellowstone. Photo: Kevin Lynch/Paramount Network
An Assessment of Episodes 1 and 2
While Yellowstone‘s second episode is better than its first, the show is still bogged down by uneven pacing in which some events get too much detail and some don’t receive nearly enough. Sheridan’s movies are tense and absorbing, but he seems to be having some difficulty translating the suspense and narrative momentum he managed to generate in them to television.
Furthermore, some events seem to come out of left-field. The shootout over the cattle at the end of the first episode seems like something that should have happened after several episodes once John and Rainwater had the opportunity for several more verbal altercations.
Also, Rip’s murder of the ME on John’s orders was unexpected. John may want to protect his home and family at all costs, but murder didn’t seem like one of the first options he’d pursue to get what he wants.
Moreover, the focus on John and Kayce throughout the two episodes sidelined the other characters. Beth may be the most interesting character in the show, but so far she’s only gotten a chance to gripe and verbally attack. The two episodes make it clear that she has an interesting career and an on-again-off-again relationship with Rip but so far these things are inconsequential to the larger story. Hopefully, we’ll see more of her in the next eight episodes.
In addition, both episodes feature manly men pontificating about the nature of life, manhood, fatherhood, etc. While this dialogue is meant to seem insightful, it often comes across as indulgent, grandiose, and eye-roll-worthy.
Next: Yellowstone season 1, episode 3 recap
Yellowstone has many things going for it. Hopefully, in the coming weeks, it’ll learn to juggle those things more effectively.
The show is off next week for the July 4th holiday, so our recaps will return when the show resumes on July 11. In the meantime, you can catch up on the first two episodes on the Paramount Network.