TV

The still and powerful type: "Yellowstone" is a fun combination of western and soapy

Although her writing suffers from quite a few weaknesses and her developments are at times melodramatic, "Yellowstone" manages to conquer in her beauty and love for a way of life that is disappearing.

Like her protagonist, played by Kevin Costner, she's determined enough to make it work

Ido Yeshayahu

01/04/2022

Friday, 01 April 2022, 00:00

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Trailer for the "Yellowstone" series (Paramount)

As the world around us changes, so do television patterns adapt to the new reality.

In the past month alone, no less than three series have aired, centered on high-tech antagonists.

It's happening right now in the grim "Disconnect" and before that in both "Heirs" and "The Squid Game."

In a cold digital world where the powerful people and organizations are "disruptors", whose great victory is to change the way a certain area of ​​our lives is run - it only makes sense that creators would find interest in its darker parts.

In a sense "Yellowstone" (whose first season aired yesterday, Thursday on Cellcom TV, and the next three will come in the coming month), is the antithesis to all of these.

A series from an old genre about a family with deep roots, trying to protect an old-fashioned lifestyle by old-fashioned means.

Or in short: she's a westerner, or at least very much wants to be one.

"Yellowstone" was created by Taylor Sheridan ("Sicario", "Fire and Water"), a creator who lives and breathes the wild prairies of America and everything that goes on inside.

Even his picture on IMDB looks like a tough character from an old western.

At the center of the series is the giant Yellowstone Farm, an area where one of the characters in the series parallels that of the entire Rhode Island state.

The farm belongs to the Dutton family, whose previous generations established and expanded its boundaries (more on that in the excellent spin-off "1883", which can also be viewed completely detached from the mother series).

It is headed by John Dutton (Kevin Costner), a tough middle-aged widower who guarded the farm and what it symbolizes is the mission of his life.

This commitment comes at the expense of his extended family, and especially his three children, whose life in his great shadow shapes their lives reluctantly.

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She and her characters grow up on us.

"Yellowstone" (Photo: Paramount)

Alongside the family drama, Yellowstone's main occupation is, as mentioned, the old white lifestyle and the threats against it.

In a slightly more cynical look, this is a series that connects very much to the sentiment of a particular party in American politics, to the dream of freedom of laws and regulation, to the responsibility of protecting your home by all means at your disposal, and more and more.

But we did not come to engage in politics, so it is this aspect of "Yellowstone" that makes it interesting and different from most of what is seen on our screens today.

She indulges in old values ​​on which the classic American dream is built: hard work, toughness, family and home.

Maybe that's why it's a huge hit in the US. Although in the Dutton family's case it's a huge mansion with a private chef, and an entire pavilion full of cowboys repairing its fences, grazing its cattle and doing the dirty and deadly work of keeping its borders - but why be petty.

This great love of Sheridan's for this lifestyle and for Montana in general (the series was filmed in the state, even though it's high costs because of its taxation policies), is constantly blowing from what's seen on screen.

"Yellowstone" is truly a spectacular series in that sense, and even after four seasons it's hard to stop admiring it.

Huge herds of buffalo and herds of horses flock across lush fields, the camera gallops with the cowboys, positioned at angles that will allow it to capture the wild beauty, indulging in picturesque sunsets and beautiful lakes.

This beauty is an integral part of the Yellowstone Farm message.

It's not just a huge area, but a worldview, a connection to land and land, a counter-movement to greedy urbanization and slippery real estate entrepreneurs whose entire plot turns out to be a potential profit.

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A masculine cliché about female characters.

Kelly Riley as Beth Dutton, "Yellowstone" (Photo: Paramount)

On the face of it, Yellowstone has all the basics to become a kind of Western "heirs."

It also has a family business threatened from the outside, intrigues and power struggles of extensive circles, all of which drain into the family territory and its facilities.

But writing is where it falls.

It should be noted that this matter improves relatively with the progress of the seasons, but the main weakness of "Yellowstone" is its inability to go into the depths of a large part of its characters.

Unlike successful dramas, here they have a hard time growing over time.

The most notable example of this is Beth (Kelly Riley, "The Flight"), the only daughter of John Dutton and a kind of outsider, who returns to her after spending years in giant corporations.

If this comparison is reminiscent of Shiv from "Heirs," it is no coincidence, though the difference between the two is also the difference between the two series.

Beth seemed to come out of masculine clichés about female characters.

She is blunt, wild, talks dirty and "does not knock an account."

But none of this seems like a real person.

A scene where she decides to go out and bathe naked in the courtyard of the mansion in protest of some random insult, is something that was supposed to go out of the world about two decades ago.

But it's not just Beth who suffers from this problem.

This imbalance is also evident in Jamie (Wes Bentley, "American Beauty"), Dutton's second and most estranged son.

A kind of volatile but ambitious leaf, which does not really manage to establish itself as something beyond the punching bag of the other characters in the family.

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Inhales all the required power.

Kevin Costner, "Yellowstone" (Photo: Paramount)

The good news is that not everyone is like that.

Costner, who has made a career out of thoughtful characters who speak slowly and menacingly at a glance, breathes in Dutton all the power needed for an aging white anti-hero of his kind.

He is ruthless, but also full of regrets, exploits his children but also worries about what will happen to them when he dies, and Costner knows how to make these contradictory parts of his character work.

Even his youngest son, Casey (Luke Grimes, "50 Shades of Gray"), who tries to escape the big shadow of his father and the family business, but is dragged into the "Godfather" model, is a character that "Yellowstone" knows and manages to make exciting and interesting.

On the other side of the farm stands Chief Thomas Rainwater, the head of the Native American tribe, whose farm lands belong to his ancestors, and is interested in doing everything to win them back.

It is also the only way in which the series momentarily undermines the righteousness of Dutton's way and way of life, and mentions that his connection to the land was made at the expense of others.

Another thing that stands to her credit is the fine line that runs between loyalty and property.

The cowboys that live on Daton Farms are stamped on their skin, just like cattle, to mark their belonging to something bigger than them.

On the one hand, for most of them this is the first time they belong to something: a roof over their heads, a hot meal and decent work that respects them.

On the other hand, they are the proof of the lie that Dutton makes in his mind when he paints the utopian vision of the free morning, that he does justice to himself and conducts his life without making an account of anyone.

Hidden in this seam are several sub-stories that develop over the seasons, producing surprising heroes.

Despite her penchant for soap operas and her mediocre writing, there is something captivating about Yellowstone whose influence is noticeable over time.

She and her characters grow up on us.

It may be the almost Sisyphean struggle for a vanishing way of life that gives it a human and vulnerable touch.

From time to time she also manages to bring up reflections on human nature, the true meaning of freedom and the power of family.

But for most of the time she is just spectacular looking, and often also fun enough to underestimate her weaknesses.

And while it will never rise to the rank of truly great westerns, certainly not to prestigious dramas, watching it manages to evoke sympathy and longing for a life most of us have never experienced - and it is certainly a worthy achievement.

All episodes of the first season of "Yellowstone" are available on Cellcom TV.

Seasons 2 and 3 will air in full on April 6 and 20, respectively.

The fourth season will begin on April 27 with a weekly broadcast.

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