As Yellowstone’s fifth season premieres, the series, which has been championed by some conservative influencers as a ‘red state show’ is going out of its way to reject any conservative identity.
Anyone who thinks Yellowstone is a conservative show probably never watched it, creator Taylor Sheridan says.
Sheridan made his comment in an interview with The Atlantic on the eve of the show’s fifth-season premiere on Paramount this Sunday. “They refer to it as ‘the conservative show’ or ‘the Republican show’ or ‘the red-state Game of Thrones, and I just sit back laughing,” he said.
“I’m like, ‘Really?’ The show’s talking about the displacement of Native Americans and the way Native American women were treated and about corporate greed and the gentrification of the West, and land-grabbing. That’s a red-state show?”
Expressions of contempt for conservative audiences are now de rigueur in an entertainment industry which managed to hit Peak TV by spending billions on over 500 shows, virtually none of them aimed at conservatives, and where Stephen Colbert holds down the leading network late night slot.
It’s no coincidence that key Yellowstone figures are promoting their political bona fides in time for the premiere.
Actor Kevin Costner said he was “OK” with losing fans over his political views, saying he “didn’t really care how the cookie crumbles” when he backed Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) earlier this year.
In a new interview with USA Today upon the season five premiere of his hit Paramount show “Yellowstone,” Costner said he has no regrets for supporting Cheney in her primary this year, as well as former presidential candidate and current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in 2020.
Costner earned some criticism for his political views, but that wasn’t a chief concern for him.
“I didn’t really care how the cookie crumbles, that people that liked me now don’t like me,” he told USA Today. “That’s OK.”
It would be if he endorsed Trump or DeSantis, just ask far more talented folks like screenwriter Robert Avrech, playwright David Mamet, actor James Woods, and so many others.
None of this will protect mediocrities like Costner or Taylor Sheridan from getting canceled when they get their own #MeToo movement or are accused of something by a minority collaborator who turns on them. But they imagine that expressing contempt for conservatives will protect them from the culture war.
Yellowstone is a truly boring reincarnation of Dallas or Falcon Crest, with even less interesting actors.
exactly
Costner has a formula: Create a massively violent Western, then make his character the romantic hero. His character is always a flawed man, but with perfect justification for his psychotic nature, the poor victim. He knows women fall for this formula.
Some women might. Most snort derisively and move on to more compelling things, like solving old crossword puzzles found in out-of-date newspapers, or cleaning the litter box.
I should have specified Democrat women.
Good psychological insights.
I suffered through several episodes of Yellowstone several months ago. The endless violence, among other horrible behavior, had me wondering what Costner has been smoking. Whatever it was or still is, it is a concoction that simultaneously generates delusions of grandeur, rabid dishonesty, and a strong tendency to romanticize gratuitous violence.
Costner’s psychotic vision of Montana is a lie. purpose? He is using drama to attack a bastion of a nearly expired moral America. Pure propaganda,
Here are couple of facts that destroy his pathetic attempt at a Dantean vision of Montana. Montana’s average murder rate from 1979 to 2018 is less than 4 per year. Costner eclipses that in the first 5 minutes of any episode.
Curiously, Vermont has the third lowest black population of all states…yet it is full of uber liberal, wealthy lefties. Where did all of Vermont’s Indians go? Maybe Costner plans a series about Vermonters where they torch each other’s quaint little farms or covered bridges and then machine gun each other down because they all hate hypocrites (themselves).
Agree with your comment. I only saw a clip of an interview with the female actress, but her behavior being touted as, “Southern,” is a disgrace to the real Southern women, based on all the scenes they showed of her character acting out.
From what I could tell, Costner made her incredibly immature, violent and bi-polar… why do people enjoy it? I have no idea. But it’s definitely not, “conservative.”
It probably falls more into line with what liberal people believe about conservative people.
That’s an idiotic thing to say.. Yes its an extreme right wing show. Made by a very conservative prick
I do like the pretty horses and scenery. The characters repulse me, the acting and scripts are poor.
It brought to mind how much we enjoyed “Westerns” as kids. And those old shows felt unabashedly pro-America.
We sat on our kitchen chairs which we turned backwards to pretend the chairs were horses while we watched Westerns on a black and white TV (yes, I am that old!)
Somehow, its a stretch that cowboys and rodeos are as effete as urban leftists, But hey, the left takes over everything else so why not?
I love the classic old westerns. As far as television Westerns go my favorite of all time is the early black and white Gunsmoke episodes. Great stuff. After watching them for a while it is kind of like Dodge is your hometown. There are so many good actors that got their start on Gunsmoke. We love it.
One thing we discovered relatively recently is that most of our favorite episodes were written by John Meston. He was a brilliant story teller, and had a great sense of humor.
There is nothing being produced today that I waste time watching. It is all garbage, and if it isn’t it is because someone is remaking an old classic. Modern writers wouldn’t know a character arc if it punched them in the face.
I always identified with the Indians, getting shot and falling off their horses, for some reason.
Don’t forget that the show parrots Howard Zinn’s lies about Christopher Columbus! https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02UqB6QgJFGbE8V4FzZxswdEGHq1fR7ec83QwUA4bq2JedVVSnQ6GLNyCkZFB4AKEQl&id=100040070156204
#BoycottYellowstone
Rafael Ortiz debunks these Columbophobic falsehoods here!
https://www.officialchristophercolumbus.com/
Kevin Costner doesn’t care about the truth either! That’s why he appeared in Oliver Stone’s lie fest about the JFK assassination! https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=0CAQQw7AJahcKEwjAru70v7H7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fopinions%2F2021%2F12%2F21%2Foliver-stone-just-cant-stop-spreading-lies-about-jfks-assassination%2F&psig=AOvVaw1wL__KhEfiSUvUV8NuydMe&ust=1668646809529900
I have never liked Costner. His monotone drone just grates on my nerves.
I recenty binged on Yellowstone as a way of getting away from the midterms post mortems-Try to imagine The Godfather and The Sopranos in a magnificent western setting. , with the ranch as the Family , with a lead female patterned after Lady Macbeth on steroids. and a son who is ala Fredo, It is a good study in a dysfunctional family and the threats to its way of life by bicoastal elites but it is by no means a Western .and there is far too much gratuitous violence
Kostner is a fine actor ( see The Untouchables and Open Range) but I could care less about his politics just as I could have cared less about the politics ofMarlin Brando in Godfather I and George C Scott.
Kostner;s character being elected and acting as governor was clearly inspired by Trump.
The way Indians were depicted really varied. On some shows they were portrayed as little more than easy targets for the star to shoot. The better Westerns portrayed the Indians more as they really were. In one of John Meston’s Gunsmoke episodes, “Wagon Girls”, there is a confrontation between the wagon master, who was essentially a pimp, and Marshal Dillon, over how to react to Indians coming to them for water. The wagon master wanted to start blazing away at the two Indians seeking water to treat a badly injured brave. Dillon made him put his gun away and gave the Indians the water they needed.
The injured Indian was the son of the Arapaho chief, who was, at the time, defending their turf by burning invading wagon trains. That sounds bad, but whites would have done the same to protect their land.
Matt gave them the water and told them to “Go in peace”, the Indians responded with “We go now. We remember”. And they did. A day later the chief approached the wagon train with far more warriors than the wagon train could fight. The assumption was that the Indians were going to attack and kill them. Once again, Dillon had to stop the wagon master from shooting at the Indians and instead walked out to meet them. The chief hailed Matt with a raised rifle. He had come to thank Matt for saving his son and show their respect for a warrior who had the courage to be kind.
Reminded me of “The Outlaw Josey Wales”.
Another one of our favorites.