Welcome to my Television Critiques Page! This is where you will find all the Critiques from the Featured Television Blog of the month! It is organized in a television poster Table of Contents, so you can scroll down for the television critique your looking for easily!
AUGUST 2022:
This critique contains spoilers and detailed episode information , do not read further if you have not watched ‘1883’ in its entirety!!!
HOW THE WEST WAS WON BY A DUTTON…
1883 is a television dramatization series of the American West created by Taylor Sheridan that made its premiere on Paramount+ on December 19, 2021. The limited series included ten episodes and concluded on February 27, 2022. The series is a prequel the Paramount Network series Yellowstone. The prequel series stars Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliott, Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett, Marc Rissmann, Audie Rick, Eric Nelsen, James Landry Hébert and Noah Le Gros. The series takes place in 1883, when the post-civil war generation Dutton family leave Tennessee and journey to Fort Worth, Texas where the family joins a European immigrant wagon train undertaking the difficult journey west to Oregon, before settling in Montana and establishing what would eventually become the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch run by John Dutton III, who is played by Kevin Costner on the Paramount Network series.
THE CAST OUT WEST…
Fade in to the first scene, we meet Shea Brennan, played by Sam Elliott. Brennan is a former captain who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is a Pinkerton Agent in 1883. His wife Helen and their daughter have just died from smallpox, Brennan decides to cremate them by setting fire to their house while in agony over his grief. Flashforward from the memory of that day to 1883, Brennan is mourning their deaths, and contemplating suicide on an open countryside at dusk. He decides not to commit when he’s interrupted by the arrival of Thomas. Brennan is the rugged leader in command of the wagon train. He is tasked with frequently and frustratingly reminding the European immigrants of the danger and tragedy that they will no doubt come across on their journey.
A TRUSTED FRIEND WHEN MOST NEEDED…
Thomas is played by LaMonica Garrett, he is a Pinkerton Agent and Shea’s partner. Thomas is a veteran U.S. Army Sergeant from a Buffalo Soldier regiment. He and Brennan try to help guide the European immigrant wagon train to Oregon. His arrival and constant companionship on the journey dissuades Shea from committing suicide. Thomas is a skilled frontiersman and helps a widowed Romani woman named Noemi and her two young boys on the wagon train, left helpless by her husbands’ death. He later begins a relationship with her further down the trail and journey.
MEET THE DUTTON’S…
Brennan decides to live another day, and while him and Thomas are riding through the countryside, they come up on a horse drawn wagon chase and gun shoot out. One guy pulling the wagon appears to be holding his own against the thieves. They wait it out and approach the one guy on a horse who lives. That one guy pulling a wagon is James Dutton, played by Tim McGraw, who will eventually become John Dutton III’s great-grandfather. James will eventually establish the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in 1886 and the land it sits on in Montana will be settled in 1883. Dutton is from Tennessee and was a captain in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was wounded during the Battle of Antietam and captured. For three years, he was held in a Union prisoner-of-war camp. James Dutton is a skilled combatant and leader, and he joins the European wagon train with his family after meeting Brennan and Thomas in Fort Worth, Texas.
GUIDED BY THE STRENGTH OF HER HEART…
Dutton is waiting for his family to arrive by train in Fort Worth from Tennessee, where they will travel by wagon from there to begin their journey to claim something as their own. James doesn’t know where exactly, but he’ll know when he sees it. This is much to the annoyance of his wife, Margaret Dutton, John Dutton III’s great-grandmother and the matriarch of the family. Margaret is played by McGraw’s real wife, Faith Hill. Margaret was happy staying in Tennessee with her two children, keeping a home and raising them. But she loves her husband wholeheartedly and leaves everything she knows in Tennessee and travels by train to follow him to his dream, no matter where the expedition leads. She travels by train to Fort Worth from Tennessee with her children, Isabel and John Sr., her sister-in-law, Claire Dutton and niece, Mary Abel Dutton, and begins her new journey with her husband, James.
THE VOICE OF 1883…
James and Margaret’s eldest child, and John Dutton III’s great-aunt, is 17-year-old daughter, the resourceful Elsa Dutton, played by Isabel May. She arrives by train, eager to see her father and begin their family journey, Elsa narrates most of the series episodes, telling the story of 1883, and of the wagon train journey and the experiences on the expedition. She arrives in Fort Worth, looking forward to the expedition as the greatest adventure of her young life. Elsa is hardened by the arduous journey west, along the way she becomes enamored with a cowboy named Ennis and later a Comanche warrior, named Sam, all of this to the dismay of her parents, who worry for her loving heart and future after the long difficult expedition west. However, the difficult journey west also allows her to become a skilled survivalist and cowgirl, which fills her father with pride and reassures him that nothing will stand in Elsa’s way in the unknown future. Margaret disagrees with James, and they often argue on the trail about Elsa’s upbringing during the journey west.
A FUTURE NOT YET HAD BUT SEEN…
James and Margaret’s youngest is a son, who goes on to become John Dutton III’s grandfather, John Dutton Sr., is played by child actor Audie Rick in the series. He is five years old at the beginning of the journey and spends most of the series safely tucked away in the wagon, under the careful eye of Margaret and at other times, his sister Elsa.
YOU DON’T PICK YOUR FAMILY…
James’ widowed sister-in-law Claire Dutton, played by Dawn Olivieri, joins him and his family on the trip to find a new home. Claire is intense and stern and her manner brings her to discipline Elsa often and always and sometimes with a slap. Her daughter, Mary Abel Dutton is like her in every way, and lets Margaret know she better get Elsa under control, for women like her never find husbands to take care of them. She feels nothing can control her wild nature and it will be her undoing. She was married to James’ brother Henry Dutton and has seven other children besides Mary Abel, but all of them died young.
THEY PICK YOU…
Claire’s daughter, Mary Abel Dutton, played by Emma Malouff, is a prim and proper young woman like her mother raised her to be. She shows disdain and absolutely no sympathy for her cousin Elsa and her less than traditional values as a young woman. She like her mother let Elsa know she will never find herself a husband to be made an honest woman if she continues to go through life so untraditionally.
THE EXPEDITION’S COMMUNICATOR…
The European immigrants are aided by a German immigrant Josef, played by Marc Rissmann in 1883. He is married to Risa, played by Anna Fiamora and worked as a carpenter before traveling to America to find land in Oregon to start a life for him and his wife. He aides the expedition by serving as an interpreter for his group and serves as a liaison between the Americans, mainly Brennan, and the other immigrants who do not understand Shea when he speaks to them along their journey west.
THE COWBOY WHO STOLE ELSA’S HEART…
Eric Nelsen plays Ennis, a young cowboy who is paid to escort the group west and tend to their cattle along the way. He becomes smitten with Elsa, and her him, a relationship develops along their wagon journey to Oregon. He also helps along with James in her teaching her how to be the cowgirl that emerges on the trail, when she aides him in tending after the cattle along the journey west.
AND THE HERD OF COWBOYS…
James Landry Hébert plays Wade, the lead cowboy in the herding of the cattle and escorting of the immigrants west. He is joined by Colton, played by Noah Le Gros, another experienced cowboy who joins the group west at the Texas-side of the Red River.
A RECURRING BUNCH…
The recurring characters of the limited series included Alex Fine as Grady, whose experience as a cowboy and the leader of a crew of six drivers leads him to agree to help the inexperienced crew herding the cattle on the expedition round up longhorns for their long journey. Gratiela Brancusi plays the character of Noemi, the Romani widow who recently lost her husband and now has to raise her two young boys on her own. She finds dependency in Thomas’ ability to help her along the journey with his frontiersman skills. A relationship develops through their feelings for each other, and Noemi sees Thomas as a man who will replace her lost husband and take care of her and her children.
A FEW MORE OF THE BUNCH…
Amanda Jaros plays Alina, the weary yet hopeful immigrant woman who gives Elsa her first pair of pants, her husbands. Elsa trades them and a hem of her dress to a shirt, for a piece of gold off her charm bracelet. Martin Sensmeier plays Comanche warrior Sam, Elsa becomes enamored with him, he is connected to real Native American History, through Sam being loyal to Quanah Parker, the war leader of the Kwahadi band of the Comanche Nation. And you can’t have a season’s long expedition west without a food to travel with, that is where we get, Cookie, hired by Thomas at Doan’s Crossing for the expedition to Oregon. James Jordan plays the foul-mouthed wagon train cook who causes a confrontation with a band of vengeful Lakota, due to his indecisive fear, he’s the epitome of all talk.
THE STARS SHINE IN 1883…
The first big guest star we come across in 1883, and there are quite a few, is Billy Bob Thornton as Marshal Jim Courtright, the real life famed shooter. James, Shea and Thomas come across him in a saloon in Fort Worth, TX. Also known as ‘Longhair Jim” or “Big Jim” Courtright, was a Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff in Fort Worth, Texas from 1876-1879. He was feared for his reputation as a gunslinger, and he was responsible for successfully reducing Fort Worth’s murder rate by more than half, while reportedly extracting money for protection from business owners. He died in 1887, when he was killed in a shootout with gambler and gunfighter Luke Short.
A YouTube short of Billy Bob Thornton‘s introduction scene in 1883…
HANKS, FOR DOING THIS, BESTIE…
Tom Hanks shows up in a flashback scene with Tim McGraw, his real life close friend who agreed to be on the show after McGraw asked him. He plays General George Meade, for whom the Maryland military base is named after. In the flashback to the Battle of Antietam, Meade shows up to console James Dutton after many of his fellow soldiers are killed, and before Dutton is held captive.
Here is a clip of Tom Hanks’ General George Meade consoling Tim McGraw’s James Dutton:
AND TELL YOUR WIFE HANKS, TOO…
Tim McGraw also convinced Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson to be on 1883, she plays Carolyn the storekeeper at Doan’s Crossing, at the border of Oklahoma. Doan’s Crossing was a real marker placed in Texas along the Great Western Cattle Trail used during the late 19th century for movement of cattle and horses to markets in eastern and northern states. She befriends Margaret Dutton in an episode when she visits her store, and they drink whiskey together. Wilson and Faith Hill are also close friends in real life, and the drinking scene of the women shows they were purely having fun regardless of filming. It was a great scene.
Here is a YouTube short of Rita Wilson’s Carolyn offering Faith Hill’s Margaret Dutton a Whiskey in 1883:
TO THE VALLEY OF LEGACY’S…
Graham Greene plays the indigenous Crow Tribe elder, Spotted Eagle, who tries helping Elsa and who also in talking to James points Dutton to Paradise Valley, Montana, the final destination for the Dutton family, and the valley in which John Dutton III lives on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch on Paramount Network‘s Yellowstone.
Here is a Behind the Scenes clip of The Native American Representation on 1883:
THE GOD OF THIS DUTTON WORLD…
Yellowstone and 1883 creator Taylor Sheridan makes an appearance on an episode of 1883, as Charles Goodnight, a real life rancher who hunts cattle thieves and knows Shea Brennan from chasing criminals in the same circles through the Pinkertons. He agrees to help the expedition out with their cattle crossing but declines Brennan’s offer to stay on in the expedition to Oregon and help escort the immigrants through “No Man’s Land” safely.
Here is a clip briefly discussing Taylor Sheridan and his film history:
You can can watch the Official Trailer for Yellowstone, Season 1 here:
THE WHOLE EPISODIC STORY…
The limited series consisted of ten episodes. All ten episodes were written by creator Taylor Sheridan, and he also directed the first episode of the series. All of the episodes premiered on Paramount+, with the first two episodes previewing on both CMT and Paramount Network. The first two episodes of the series previewed after episodes of Yellowstone’s fourth season to promote the subscription video on-demand service owned by Paramount Global. But not before, real life husband and wife, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill were debuted in their roles as James and Margaret Dutton, the patriarch and Matriarch of the Montana Dutton Legacy, in flashback scenes during the fourth season premiere and episode 8, as a way to introduce the new Yellowstone origin series 1883 to Yellowstone Viewers. The short scenes showed what life was like on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in 1893, taking place ten years after the new series and after the Dutton’s arrived in Paradise Valley, Montana and settled the land and established what became Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
FLASHBACKS TO A PREQUEL…
The crossover flashback introductory 1883 scenes took place during during two episodes of Yellowstone, Season 4. The first crossover flashback introductory scene was in Episode 1 titled “Half the Money”, where James Dutton and his preteen sons John Sr. and Spencer, portrayed by actors Jack Michael Doke and Charlie Stover in 1893, encounter starving Native American, named Red Bear, who had left the local reservation to bury their father on their former land that had since become a part of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. The second crossover flashback introductory scene occurs during, Episode 8 titled “No Kindness for the Coward”, where Margaret Dutton and her sons John Sr. and Spenser (Doke and Stover), are sitting at the dinner table in the Ranch home waiting for her husband and their father, James Dutton, to return from a dangerous manhunt of horse thieves that were plaguing Paradise Valley. In the next shot of the scene, we see James handling those thieves with his crew and then returning home to his wife and children.
You can watch the 1893 Flashback scene from Episode 1 of Yellowstone here:
You can watch a clip feat. Faith Hill from the 1893 Flashback scene from Episode 8 of Yellowstone here:
You can watch a Behind The Story Yellowstone featuring the filming of the 1893 Flashback scene here:
THE EPISODIC DETAILS…
- Episode Title: “1883” Director: Taylor Sheridan Airdate: December 19, 2021
It is 1883, and in a flash-forward, Elsa Dutton watches as a group of pioneers on the expedition are slaughtered by a band of Native Americans on the Great Plains. And they set all the wagons on fire along the way. Elsa ready’s herself for the fight of her life. Meanwhile, in present 1883, James’ family, The Dutton‘s, wife Margaret, daughter Elsa, son John Sr., sister-in-law Claire and Niece Mary Abel are traveling to Fort Worth from Tennessee by Railroad Train. Shea and Thomas meet the German and Slavic immigrants, who include Josef and Risa, in Fort Worth who all wish to pay Shea and Thomas to escort them to Oregon safely. While James and his family are staying in the same hotel as Brennan and Thomas, convince Dutton to accompany them and the wagon train to Oregon, all while a crazed drunk mistakes Elsa‘s bed in the hotel for his own, with dad James in the next room, pistol still hot.
- Episode Title: “Behind Us, a Cliff” Director: Ben Richardson Airdate: December 19, 2021
The episode begins with a flashback to 1862, where James Dutton is confronted by General George Meade (Tom Hanks) following the loss for the Confederate Army at the Battle of Antietam. In the present 1883, Shea, James and Thomas prepare the wagon train for the journey west. Shea hires two experienced cowboys, Wade and Ennis, to escort the wagon train and catch the cattle the expedition will need for food. Tensions rise between James, Shea, Josef, and the immigrants as too how to get the inexperienced wagon train through to the west. Brennan, Thomas and Dutton team up with Jim Courtright (Billy Bob Thornton) to track some killers from a crowded saloon.
- Episode Title: “River” Director: Christina Voros Airdate: December 26, 2021
Josef and the inexperienced immigrants are at the mercy of nature when the wagon train must cross a river. Plus, dysentery and rattlesnake bites plague the wagon train expedition and lives are lost. James and Shea are at a disagreement of how to cross the Brazos River, Shea leaning towards caution with the inexperienced can’t swim immigrants while James believes moving quickly is the only way to tackle the river, and at night would be best. The newly widowed, Romani Immigrant Noemi makes advances on Shea to which he rebuffs, and Thomas makes a joke she is better off. Elsa begins assisting the cowboys with the cattle and takes a liking to cowboy Ennis. James takes John hunting, and after lets Ennis know it is with his permission, he can court Elsa.
- Episode Title: “The Crossing” Director: Christina Voros Airdate: January 9, 2022
Elsa breaks in the cowgirl lifestyle, while helping the cowboys herd the cattle along the expedition. Noemi struggles along the expedition due to her inexperience and dependency on her dead husband, to which Thomas offers his help and protection, but refuses her immediate offer of marriage, telling her that marrying a Black Man will bring her different problems. James and the Dutton family plan to cross the river at night with the hope of helping the immigrants cross in the morning. Not without its perils, the expedition crosses the river, and the group continues west.
- Episode Title: “The Fangs of Freedom” Director: Christina Voros Airdate: January 16, 2022
Josef discovers immigrants hoarding food after a food wagon loss crossing the river, Shea and Thomas confront the thieves and banish them from the group for the remainder of the expedition. Cowboy Wade informs Brennan of bandits in the area, while Ennis and Elsa grow closer intimately. Margaret is weary of Elsa pursuing the cowboy and gives her some harsh words about brash decisions along the expedition that could have a lasting outcome for Elsa. James confronts Ennis about his true intentions with his daughter Elsa. The group of bandits reach the area of the expedition and come upon the banished settlers first before reaching the wagon train of immigrants and Americans.
- Episode Title: “Boring the Devil” Director: Ben Richardson Airdate: January 30, 2022
Shea and Elsa make a sympathetic connection along the journey. The group stops at Doan’s Crossing, which sits on the border of Indian Territory. It is there, that Shea employs Colton, another experienced cowboy and Thomas hires wagon train cook named Cookie. Thomas gifts Noemi a mirror, to which she professes her love to him and that she hopes the gift means he loves her too. James defuses a situation with a pair of catcallers who have come upon Elsa, which causes a standoff. And Margaret who has gone shopping to gather supplies, gets drunk with the storekeeper, Carolyn (Rita Wilson), and argues with James about how this journey is changing their daughter Elsa.
- Episode Title: “Lightning Yellow Hair” Director: Christina Voros Airdate: February 6, 2022
The expedition reaches Comancheria, a region occupied by the Comanche Nation in the late 1800’s. The expedition must pay a tax to the Comanche to cross their territory. One of the Comanche introduces himself to Elsa as Sam, the name he took from the killer of his wife. They have a horse race, to which Elsa wins and Sam nicknames her “Lightening With The Yellow Hair”. Tornadoes threaten the wagon train of immigrants as a storm approaches; Sam and Elsa take shelter together while the tornado devastates the expedition’s wagons and forces their cattle to scatter. The cattle are spotted with some rustlers, so Shea, Thomas, James and Elsa confront them. When the rustlers attack Elsa, Sam and his partner save her life. Meanwhile, Shea asks for the assistance of cattleman Charles Goodnight (Taylor Sheridan) in dealing with the rustlers and retrieving the groups cattle.
- Episode Title: “The Weep of Surrender” Director: Ben Richardson Airdate: February 14, 2022
Shea recommends that the expedition cut their journey short and find land in Denver, Colorado due to supplies running low and wagon’s being destroyed in the storm. James insists the Dutton family will continue on to Oregon despite the circumstances, and openly challenges Shea’s leadership. He invites the immigrant pioneers to continue on to the Oregon Trail with him and his family instead of settling in Colorado. Elsa is introduced to Camanche culture, when she kills a bison with Sam. Elsa remains defiant despite her mother’s growing concern for her daughter. The wagon train continues west through the Oregon Trail fully aware of Brennan’s concerns.
- Episode Title: “Racing Clouds” Director: Ben Richardson Airdate: February 20, 2022
The members of the expedition are shrinking due to the long hard journey west, when Josef suffers tragedy after he receives a rattlesnake bite in Lakota Territory, while his wife is also thrown from a horse during the attack. Shea, Thomas and James come across a tribe of murdered Lakota women and children, realizing they will be blamed for the massacre. Fearing being hunted by the Lakota warriors, they attempt to find and catch the murderers. The men tell the remainder of the expedition, to stay and explain the situation to any returning Lakota to the area. However, Cookie insists the remaining settlers leave for a nearby U.S. Army fort, and not remain sitting targets for a vengeful Lakota. They leave Margaret and Elsa behind, who refuse to leave and wait for James, Shea and Thomas to return. The scattered settlers are found by the Lakota, and it is up to Elsa to defuse the situation by speaking a few words in Comanche that Sam taught her. However, this occurs after the Lakota have sought revenge for whom they think killed their women and children.
- Episode Title: “This Is Not Your Heaven” Director: Ben Richardson Airdate: February 27, 2022
The wagon train arrives at Fort Casper in the Wyoming Territory, which is in the possession of Joseph Maull Carey, the leader of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. Meanwhile, Josef’s rattlesnake bitten leg turns gangrenous and must be amputated by James, Thomas and Shea. The remainder of the wagon train come across a Crow tribe near Fort Laramie, to which the Crow leader, Spotted Eagle makes a recommendation to James about a “valley called ‘Paradise’“ in the Montana Territory for the Dutton’s to settle as their land, but promises that in seven generations his people will reclaim the land. This is another ongoing storyline of Yellowstone involving Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III, and Thomas Rainwater, played by indigenous actor Gil Birmingham. James and Elsa ride to Paradise Valley, while Margaret and John Sr. remain with the wagon train and will join James in a few days. Shea finally fulfills a promise to his late wife by a Pacific Ocean Beach. While Josef begins to build a life, and home for himself in Oregon, minus a leg. Thomas, Noemi and her two young boys find land near a river in Oregon and decide to settle there and build a home for themselves.
PRODUCING A WORLD…
The development of the limited series is from a five-year deal Taylor Sheridan signed in February 2021, with ViacomCBS and MTV Entertainment Group following the success of his Paramount Network series Yellowstone. Under that deal, he would create new series for both of the studios. One of those was 1883, originally titled Yellowstone: 1883. Sheridan is also producing the next Yellowstone prequel 1932, featuring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. And the Yellowstone spin-off series “6666“ about the legendary Texas working Ranch and the continuation of Yellowstone‘s Jimmy Hurdstram’s story. Jimmy is played by Jefferson White. While Sheridan sold the concept to the studio, he admitted to suffering writer’s block while developing and creating the series. He managed to overcome it while working on another series for the studio, Mayor of Kingstown. Taylor is also producing the 1883 spin-off series Bass Reeves with David Oyelowo, and Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone.
You can watch the Official Trailer for Mayor of Kingstown here:
You can watch Coming Soon from Taylor Sheridan Here:
You can watch the Official Teaser Trailer for Tulsa King here:
A PIVOTAL CASTING…
Sheridan decided he needed Isabel May to make 1883 work, the night she auditioned for the series. He went on to making Paramount hire her or told them there could be no prequel series. May was hired as a relative unknown actress, before he was even done writing the ten episode series. It was then announced on August 4, 2021, that Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliott would be joining the limited series. A further announcement came weeks later on August 21, 2021, that confirmed both Isabel May and LaMonica Garrett would be joining the cast. On September 10, 2021, it was announced by Paramount and Sheridan that Billy Bob Thornton would be joining the cast as a guest star, along with another announcement on December 6, 2021, and December 10, 2021, that Graham Greene and Tom Hanks would also be appearing in 1883 as guest stars as well.
A WORLD COME TO LIFE…
Filming of the limited series began in August 2021 in Texas and finished January 2021 in Montana. Many of the actors talked about the filming being uncomfortable due to the cold weather in Montana during the winter. Faith Hill said of the filming that: “it was the most physically and mentally challenging thing we have ever done.” And while Sam Elliott found the filming difficult, he knew the end result was worth it, saying: “We’re getting it onscreen, and in the end that’s what matters. This is really going to be something special.” Isabel May talked about the authenticity that Sheridan was trying to achieve with the series, noting that there were no cosmetics nor shaving of underarm hair for the women in the cast. Taylor Sheridan looked to achieve the real history of 1883 while filming noting that women didn’t begin shaving until the 1920’s, and that it was an important aspect of the series to carry that authenticity throughout filming of the series. The cast was happy to accommodate his vision of 1883.
THE SOUND AND RELEASE OF SHERIDAN’S WORLD…
The music of 1883 was composed by Brian Tyler and Breton Vivian, both of whom scored the series Yellowstone for Paramount Network. The limited series premiered on CMT on Christmas night 2021. The first episode ran the next day on Paramount Network after Yellowstone, the network had ordered the series before it was moved by the studio to its streaming affiliate Paramount+ during its development, this was part of promoting the series, much like the studio had done with Sheridan’s other original series for the streamer, Mayor of Kingstown, which also aired the first two episodes after Yellowstone in November 2021.
A HISTORIC RECEPTION…
The limited series received generally favorable reviews by critics. Rotten Tomatoes gave the series an approval rating of 86% based on 21 reviews of the series with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. The consensus of the critics on its website deemed the series worthy of watching for Sam Elliott’s casting but that the series seems a little over done to sell it as a western. 1883 received a 69 out of 100 with Metacritic based on 12 reviews of the series. But the series delivered big, none the less, and broke all records in the process. It managed to be the number 1 most watched original series premiere ever on Paramount+ and the biggest new cable premiere since 2015, with nearly five million viewers watching on the Paramount Network Sunday airing.
A WORLD NOT SO LIMITED…
Originally the series was presented as a limited series, Paramount had communicated several iterations of their plans for more episodes. In February 2022, Paramount confirmed there would be more episodes of the series, but then they announced there would be no second season. Paramount announced that instead of a second season, the additional episodes would be a sequel series titled 1923, later renamed 1932. In May 2022, it was announced that Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren have signed on to star in the sequel series 1932. The series title follows the pattern of 1883, in which the Yellowstone prequels are named after the year in which they take place. 1932 will look at how The Dutton family made it through the Western Expansion, Prohibition and The Great Depression. The new generation of Dutton’s will mainly follow John Dutton III‘s grandfather, John Dutton Sr., a child in 1883, now grown. It will also show John’s father, John Dutton II, as a child. Dabney Coleman has plays him in flashback scenes on Yellowstone.
My Worldly Critique…
Overall, I disagree with Rotten Tomatoes critics that 1883 was a little overdone to pull off being a Western. I thought of John Ford and the Western films he was renowned for with all of Taylor Sheridan‘s work. With Yellowstone and 1883 under his belt, I am getting the feeling that Taylor Sheridan is quickly becoming the John Ford of the modern film and Television era. He has also wrote the script for the 2016 film, Hell or High Water, starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster and Chris Pine. It told the story of a divorced father and his ex-con older brother, who resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family’s ranch in West Texas. The film was directed by David Mackenzie and was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture of the Year, for producers Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn. The other nominations at 2017 ceremony were for, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Jeff Bridges, Best Original Screenplay for Taylor Sheridan, and Best Achievement in Film Editing for Jake Roberts.
You can watch the 2016 Official Trailer for Hell or High Water here:
Looking FORDward….
Taylor Sheridan is looking to create work that tells the stories of the modern day American Frontier and the men and women responsible for making it what it is today, as well as how it came to be. This is very much like John Ford, who told the same stories but from the lens of the 1930’s, 1950’s and 1960’s. We know a lot more now than we did when Ford told his stories. Sheridan looks to update those histories and portray them with historical accuracy and inclusivity. But Ford’s westerns were always known for being an undertaking of a production and could have easily been deemed overdone to sell as a Western today. Sheridan like Ford, also tends to use a-lot of the same cast in different stories he tells. Ford was most famous for using John Wayne in most of his Westerns, where as with Sheridan you will find quite a few cast members reappearing in different productions he is on. You can see Yellowstone cast members in both Hell or High Water, 1883, and The Mayor of Kingstown. I am looking forward to what Sheridan has in store and am loving his recreation of the Western in Film and Television. It seemed Hollywood had all but stopped making them, thinking they had died out with a generation of viewers that preferred them. But the success of Yellowstone, 1883 and Hell or High Water, have proven that the there is a demand for western stories now, when told the right way. And it appears viewers have deemed Taylor Sheridan worthy of the job.
The limited series is scheduled to release all ten episodes on August 30, 2022, under the title: 1883: A Yellowstone Origin Story.
