CNN
–
“Yellowstone” is one of the mysteries of the TV business, a series that produces great ratings but like the late comic Rodney Dangerfield, is not always respected. This power was summed up last year by a Vanity Fair headline that read, “Here’s to Yellowstone, The Most Spectacular Show Everyone Isn’t Talking About.”
Success is often the best revenge in television, even if an Emmy nomination doesn’t come with it. However, the new season of the Paramount Network series arrives at what feels like a little more important by making a sharp transition into politics, going with every soap made around John Dutton, the character played by Kevin Costner, and his large farm. .
In fact, Montana politics has been part of the series since the beginning. Yet last season Dutton threw his hat in the ring in the gubernatorial race, putting him in a position that, as he said in his acceptance speech in the fifth season premiere, “was never my plan.”
Already considered a modern western, “Yellowstone” never strays far from its cowboy roots, and Dutton is clear in expressing his suspicions about the desires of big cities and wealthy vacationers seeking to turn Montana and its pristine mountains into a playground. at home.
Indeed, Dutton brings the same taciturn, square-jawed attitude to politics that he does to business and dealing with his family, saying bluntly, “I fight for what’s right. I don’t care who supports it.”
There’s more to the series than that, of course, but this new role for Dutton as the kind of decent, no-nonsense public figure anyone can hope to have on the ballot regardless of political preference may help differentiate the latest. dramatic arc between Paramount’s onslaught of related spinoffs. In addition to “1883,” launched last year with Sam Elliott in the chair, another prequel with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, “1932,” will begin in December on the streaming service Paramount +.
“Yellowstone” legend Taylor Sheridan is behind another new Paramount+ thriller, “Tulsa King,” with yet another movie star, Sylvester Stallone, playing a New York mobster sent to Oklahoma after getting out of prison.
In a way, “Yellowstone” and its various leaves seem to show that no matter how the entertainment industry changes, some things never go out of style – in this case, the star power, which Costner (who has done more to save the west. alive than any other actor today) provides a lot; and traditional soap-opera plot lines.
Throw in a dollop of “The West Wing”-style patriotism, and who knows? The new season of “Yellowstone” might even get a few people talking about it.
“Yellowstone” begins its fifth season Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
