5 Reasons Why Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone Has Lost Its Way

This article contains spoilers for “Yellowstone.”

The ratings for “Yellowstone” season 5 part 2 without Kevin Costner prove that the series is still a bona fide hit. Over 16 million people tuned in to watch the premiere episode, but many of those viewers were probably curious to see how the show dealt with its leading star’s messy departure. However, while the furious response to John Dutton’s death among the fan base indicates that many viewers feel that the show has suffered in quality without Costner, the truth is that “Yellowstone” has been on a downward spiral for quite some time.

That’s not to say that Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western series is bad, mind you. “Yellowstone” boasts a strong cast of characters who are fun to hang out with under any circumstances; the show would still be entertaining if it solely centered around its main ranchers playing cards and drinking beers in the bunkhouse. Furthermore, while the plot holes are larger than the “train station” the Duttons throw their victim’s bodies into, “Yellowstone” admirably distracts viewers with fun soap opera-esque drama, action-packed mayhem, and lush scenery. Sure, it’s a mess, but it’s an entertaining and visually stunning one.

At the same time, “Yellowstone” used to be a much better show than the one it has become, and the series will go down in history as a bag of missed opportunities and unrealized potential. With that in mind, let’s explore how the hit cowboy drama lost its way.

“Yellowstone” is a story about the Dutton family fighting against powerful threats who want to end their lives. This requires them to get their hands dirty, yet the series has grown reluctant to throw any real jeopardy at its protagonists — and no, John Dutton’s controversial “Yellowstone” season 5 death doesn’t count, as Kevin Costner leaving the series forced that creative decision. With that in mind, let’s look at the facts.

In season 2, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) kills reporter Sarah Nguyen (Michaela Conlin) because she intends to publish a story about his family’s corruption — a story he initially helped her out with before backtracking. No one even investigates her suspicious death afterward, which is strange as she worked for a magazine whose editor would have been aware of the expose she was working on. “Yellowstone” clearly isn’t concerned with standard journalistic practices.

That said, the third and fourth seasons of “Yellowstone” take the cake in regard to convenience. Roarke Carter (Josh Holloway), a primary antagonist, is murdered by a rattlesnake that Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) launches at his face and his death isn’t mentioned afterward. Meanwhile, the season 3 finale sees John get shot several times while Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) gets blasted in an office explosion, but everyone is happy and healthy again in the season 4 premiere. The list goes on.

Convenient conclusions to storylines have always been an issue on “Yellowstone” to some degree. However, the early seasons had stakes, as evidenced by Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill) being kidnapped by neo-Nazis and the Beck brothers killing the family’s cows. These moments made us fear for the Duttons’ safety and livelihood, proving that “Yellowstone” is capable of delivering intense storylines when it wants to.

John Dutton and his adopted son, Jamie Dutton, butt heads throughout “Yellowstone.” The latter wants to be the governor of Montana, but his old man wants to keep him on a leash, fearing that Jamie’s political ambitions will harm their ranch. John and Jamie eventually compete for the coveted governor’s position — until the latter bows out of the race and pretends to support his dad.

A storyline about two rival family members gunning for a political position and stabbing each other in the back to get ahead could have been intriguing. There’s even a moment in season 4 where a meeting is teased between the pair to discuss how dirty they want to get, but it never materializes. This political rivalry is also why Jamie exposes his family’s dirt to Sarah Ngygen, only to kill her because God forbid this show creates messes for the Duttons that are difficult to clean up.

In the end, Jamie’s lover, Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), has John assassinated and he supports her, ultimately bringing an end to the father-son rivalry. However, it’s the payoff to a feud that “Yellowstone” brushed over until then, which lessens the impact of such a major death.

The Duttons are bad people, and that’s what makes them interesting. John Dutton is a tyrant who will stop at nothing to save his land. Jamie Dutton killed his biological father to save his own skin. Beth Dutton lets an innocent activist take the fall for doing her dirty work and bullies everyone. Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) is nice enough, but he still held a child at gunpoint while threatening her father. These are all terrible deeds, but “Yellowstone” has grown complacent in addressing its protagonists’ wickedness with any nuance.

That wasn’t always the case, though. For example, season 1 sees Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) murder a flawed-but-innocent medical examiner to stop him from publishing a report about Kayce’s wife’s brother’s real cause of death. The medical examiner was just doing his job, but the report would have drawn attention toward the Duttons’ crimes and potentially exposed Kayce as his brother-in-law’s executioner. “Yellowstone” has since backed away from even acknowledging that there are innocent skeletons in the family’s closet, which is a cop out.

The convict-turned-rancher Walker (Ryan Bingham) also used to highlight the family’s evil antics, but he fell in line after Rip tied him to a murder he didn’t commit. Since then, “Yellowstone” has felt comfortable portraying the Duttons as sympathetic antiheroes, but the series was more interesting when it occasionally made us feel bad about rooting for them.

Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) is John Dutton’s fiercest rival in “Yellowstone” season 1. He wants a piece of the Yellowstone ranch because the land originally belonged to his Native American ancestors, and he aims to develop projects that will provide more jobs for the people of the Broken Rock Reservation. Of course, John opposes this, and the pair proceed to try and sabotage each other until they stop.

John and Thomas’ rivalry isn’t violent, but it’s the most fascinating feud on “Yellowstone” as both men are ideologically motivated and want what’s best for their people. It’s more interesting than the show’s prototypical storylines about evil capitalists being dastardly in an effort to claim land that doesn’t belong to them, and it raises some thought-provoking questions about the displacement of Native Americans — a theme Taylor Sheridan claims is at the heart of “Yellowstone,” but hasn’t been explored in any great detail since the chief took a backseat.

Season 2 sees John and Thomas become frenemies who join forces to stave off greater threats, and their rivalry wasn’t rekindled in a meaningful way prior to the former’s death. Every once in a while, Thomas would remind John that he was unhappy about the situation, but his words equated to nothing more than finger wagging. Thomas has been a background character since season 2, and he deserves more than that, as the threats faced by the Duttons affect him as well.

“Yellowstone” gives any series a run for its money in the body count department, but some of the major deaths are laughable, especially in season 5. Look no further than the murder of John Dutton, who was tied up by assassins and injected with a serum to make it look like suicide. He didn’t put up a fight, which was weird as scrapping was all he knew. Granted, Kevin Costner’s “Yellowstone” departure left the show’s writers in a lurch, but a stunt double could have thrown a punch on his behalf.

However, Colby Mayfield’s (Denim Richards) in “Yellowstone” season 5, episode 12 is even more puzzling. The rancher was trampled by a horse during a work shift, with the scene aiming to highlight that ranching is a dangerous job. However, in the context of the show, Colby’s death comes across as shock value for the sake of it, especially since his romance with Teeter (Jessica Landon) was just starting to receive some focus.

Back in the day, “Yellowstone” knew how to deliver impactful deaths. Dan Jenkins’ (Danny Huston) demise in season 2 was effective as he put up a good fight following an arc that saw him almost hit rock bottom, and it established the Beck brothers as formidable villains with unpredictable tendencies. Meanwhile, the storyline in which Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and Kayce Dutton lose their newborn child was the catalyst for an emotional examination of grief. For the most part, though, “Yellowstone” treats death as throwaway and meaningless, even when it comes to its most important characters.

New episodes of “Yellowstone” premiere Sundays on Paramount Network.