I Am All The Fuck In On The Paramount Network's "Yellowstone"
If you were wondering what happened to Spike on your channel guide lately, it recently became the Paramount Network (as its Twitter feed handily informs you). And the Paramount Network came flying out of the gate when it dropped the excellent “Waco” right in everybody’s faces.
A nearly unrecognizable Taylor Kitsch was absolutely mesmerizing as wackadoodle (that’s a technical term) David Koresh and the always exceptional Mike Shannon played FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner in a mini-series that recounted the awful events that went down in Texas in the spring of 1993. If you smushed together “Boardwalk Empire”, “True Detective”, “Fargo”, “Ozark”, and John Leguizamo, then you have the rest of the fine cast. You can stream it with a proper log-in.
But I’m really here to talk about the Paramount Network’s next major undertaking, “Yellowstone”. It’s written and directed by one of the best talents working in the film industry today, Taylor Sheridan. The uber-talented writer cranked out SICARIO, HELL OR HIGH WATER (Oscar nom for Best Original Screenplay), and WIND RIVER back-to-back-to-fucking-back. Though they’re three distinctly different tales, they have the common threads of bleakness, law breaking, acknowledgment of forgotten types, and just damn fine storytelling.
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Sheridan directed WIND RIVER and, for such tough subject matter, it’s an absolutely gorgeous movie to look at (cinematographer Ben Richardson does the same duty on an episode of “Yellowstone”). Even though you’re likely watching the trailer on your phone or laptop, you can already see that “Yellowstone” will look great. And given Sheridan’s track record, you can bet your ass that it will be great as well.
Kevin Costner looks like he’s taking a nice bite into this role as a gravelly-voiced cowboy-rancher type. The IMDb plot synopsis says simply “A ranching family in Montana face off against others encroaching on their land” and Costner plays the head of the clan. I’m 100% fine with knowing only that much going into this show. Most previews and trailers give way too much away but not this one. I prefer to let the story come to me rather than knowing all the plot points ahead of time
The rest of the cast is pretty distinguished as well. Gil Birmingham, who turned in superb work in both HELL OR HIGH WATER and WIND RIVER, Gretchen Mol, Wes Bentley, and Kelly Reilly also star in the 10 episode event. Having this mini-series follow the success of “Waco” shows that the Paramount Network is part of The Not Fucking Around Crew and they’re gonna challenge FX for those eyes that dig quality content. Which is only good news for consumers.
Regardless, set your DVR for “Yellowstone” as soon as you can. And in the meantime, catch up on the movies that Sheridan already wrote. They’re three excellent movies.
(Another great reason for the channel rebranding: it airs RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK all the fucking time. One can never get sick of the greatest action/adventure movie of all time. Because it’s RAIDERS.)