[Spoilers for the latest season of Yellowstone below]
If you aren’t familiar with the name “Taylor Sheridan,” you’re either one of those charming types who brags about not owning a TV or you actually have a fulfilling personal life. To sum up: Sheridan is the lead writer/showrunner for the following programs: Yellowstone and it’s prequels (1883, 1923), Lioness, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown and now Landman. He also serves as director for several of these shows, and was the screenwriter for movies like Sicario (and its sequel), Hell or High Water, Wind River (also director), and Without Remorse.
In short, the dude has come a long way in a relatively short time (Sicario came out in 2015), earning Oscar, DGA, and WGA nominations, breathing new life into the careers of Kevin Costner and Sylvester Stallone, and building an impressive media empire. Not bad for someone who got his start playing a cop on Sons of Anarchy.
The rise hasn’t been without some hiccups. Sheridan’s been criticized for the way he writes female characters, for his spin on indigenous storylines, and his, we’ll call it “unwillingness to collaborate.” This last one is perhaps the most telling, because one of the issues with Sheridan’s TV shows has been the growing preponderance of the man himself.
At the risk of making a too on-the-nose reference about a guy who scripts the occasional cartel storyline, Sheridan is getting high on his own supply. Or in this case, his own accolades. Yellowstone was a hit out of the gate, with particular attention given to Costner’s portrayal of Yellowstone Ranch owner John Dutton and the relationship between his daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) and ranch boss Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
For a while Sheridan seemed content to keep his viewpoints — political or otherwise — within the confines of the show’s narrative. His politics have always been hard to pin down: anti-corporate, yet mocking so-called “woke” characters (Piper Perabo’s vegan environmental activist seemed to exist solely for John and Beth to verbally abuse, when the former wasn’t sleeping with her, that is); or expressing distrust of bureaucracy while supporting the industries propping them up (trumpeting the feats of military personnel while acknowledging the futility of most interventions).
Most of this was forgivable, or at least easier to overlook, before Sheridan started letting offscreen events affect his product. First was a highly publicized falling-out with Costner over the actor’s unhappiness with the show’s erratic production schedule (as well as hints that Sheridan “borrowed” elements of Costner’s film Horizon for his own show). Then there was a lawsuit Sheridan filed against Hauser’s Free Rein Coffee for alleged similarities between its logo and that of Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch production company.
But then Costner came back and the lawsuit was dropped. Done and done, right?
Not so fast. The second half of Yellowstone’s fifth season kicked off last month with the death of now-Governor John Dutton, not in the “cowboy” fashion of Emmett a few episodes prior, but ignominiously on the floor of his bathroom. In his underwear. Rip has also been unceremoniously emasculated this go-round: over his head in managing the sale of ranch assets and forced to rely on the assistance of his good friend, rancher Travis Wheatley.
Wheatley is played, of course, by Sheridan himself. A minor character in past seasons, Wheatley has been a constant presence these last few episodes, offering his horse trading acumen when not outmaneuvering Beth(!) in a game of strip poker(!!) and baring his massive chest and biceps in a gratuitous pool party scene where we’re introduced to Wheatley’s girlfriend, played (of course) by supermodel Bella Hadid.
And Yellowstone isn’t the only show graced with his presence. Sheridan also plays Delta Force operator Cody Spears in Lioness, who’s latest appearance on that show finds him single-handedly fighting off a battalion of Iranian soldiers before listening to a tired speech about the pointlessness of the whole endeavor from tough but damaged (sound familiar?) Cruz Manuelos (Laysla de Oliveira). A speech written, unsurprisingly, by Sheridan himself.
Sheridan wouldn’t be the first creative to insert himself into his properties (a phenomenon I call “Shyamalan-ization”), but what’s the damage? Well, in Yellowstone, it’s pretty much any subplot not related to Travis Wheatley himself. I was one of the few who defended Sheridan’s handling of Native storylines, bathed in blood as they often were, because at least he was writing about them. But this half of the season has limited the presence of Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), once a worthy nemesis of John Dutton’s, to maybe 10 minutes of screen time.
Though we’re led to understand he’ll play a key role in the season (series?) finale.
Where does it end? How soon before Dwight Manfredi gets a rival for Margaret Devereaux’s (Dana Delany) affections on Tulsa King? Will Mike McClusky get a new law enforcement ally in the form of a bulked-up out of town Marshall? Why do I know so much about these goddamn shows?
I’ll give Sheridan credit for one thing; he does a great job showcasing up-and-coming Americana artists, to the point of having them perform onscreen and even casting them (Ryan Bingham, Lainey Wilson) in his shows. Though even now I’m half-convinced he’s going to have Travis Wheatley whip out a guitar in the Yellowstone finale and woo Beth away from his old buddy Rip once and for all.
Sheridan is, in industry euphemisms, difficult to work with. Alienating the likes of Kevin Costner may pay dividends in the short term (the most recent episode of Yellowstone was among the highest rated in the show’s history), but behavior like this could possibly threaten to send his shows to the Hollywood equivalent of the Dutton ranch’s Train Station, if the Paramount Network gave a damn.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
