There are a few megaproducers working in TV who have created sprawling universes, whose names immediately come to mind: Dick Wolf, Shonda Rhimes, Greg Berlanti, Ryan Murphy, etc. Taylor Sheridan is now one of those names, with everything he touches seemingly turning to gold. With that success, Sheridan has been anointed the new king of the neo-Western genre. But while it’s fair to give him his flowers, it’s not quite fair or correct to say he’s saved the TV Western.
The Western Genre Has Been Successful In Past Decades – But Mostly In Movies
There Have Been Some Fantastic Westerns In The 21st Century
The Western genre may have been thriving on the big screen for the past few decades. Since the turn of the millennium, the genre has experienced a bit of a revival, with several Western movies, both period pieces and more modern-day retellings, seeing resounding success, whether critically, commercially, or both. Among others, those movies released since the turn of the century include
- Hostiles (2017)
- The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
- The Revenant (2015)
- True Grit (2010)
- Seraphim Falls (2006)
- The Magnificent Seven (2016)
- Brokeback Mountain (2005)
- No Country for Old Men (2007)
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
- Bone Tomahawk (2018)
The Western Genre On TV Had Been Struggling For Decades Until Yellowstone Brought It Mainstream
Western TV Shows Have Been Few And Far Between
The Western genre on TV, on the other hand, has had a much greater struggle to revitalize itself in the past few decades. It, like movies, had a golden age on TV through the ’50s and ’60s, with classic Western shows that still hold up today like Bonanza, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide, among others. Huge Western stars of older eras also transitioned to TV at that time to great success, such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. By the late 1960s, however, there were no new Western TV shows being greenlit, and by the early 1970s, they were done. A Vietnam War-era American audience just wasn’t interested in the seemingly old-fashioned genre.
Yellowstone seemingly changed that. Taylor Sheridan’s show has been a juggernaut since it premiered in 2018 and put the TV Western back on the map. Its ratings were through the roof, and it became a rare water-cooler sort of show that created buzz and conversation after each episode. Yellowstone‘s pop culture impact was so immediate that it actually created a huge influx of wealthy people moving to Montana, which in itself became a problem for the residents in and around Yellowstone (via CNBC). The Western, it appeared, was back – except it wasn’t.
Yellowstone Isn’t Really A Western – It’s A Drama
It Has Western Elements, But Not A Western Narrative At Its Core
Narratively, Yellowstone is far closer to Succession than to Longmire. It’s closer to The Godfather than to Gunsmoke.
That’s not to say that Yellowstone isn’t great, or that it doesn’t include definite elements of the Western genre. For starters, the Montana setting is classic Western iconography. The rolling plains, the mountains, the horses, the wide-open spaces; it’s the landscape we think of when we think of the classic Western. That landscape being encroached upon by increasing industrialization and a nature-based way of life being slowly pushed out by dubious progress and the advancement of the modern era is also a theme that can be found in the Western genre.
| Yellowstone Series | No. of Seasons |
|---|---|
| Yellowstone | 5 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1923 | 2 |
| The Madison | TBD |
| Kayce spinoff | TBD |
| Beth & Rip spinoff | TBD |
Thankfully, that hasn’t really been the case with Yellowstone, which has focused more on cultural preservation and battles over land rights for Native Americans. Regardless, at its core, Yellowstone is a quasi-gangster family melodrama, not a Western.
Why Yellowstone’s Success Represents Another Setback For The Western Genre
Networks & Streamers Don’t Want Westerns; They Want Taylor Sheridan
But as all Taylor Sheridan shows come from his mind, they all tend to have the same flavor – and now he’s being spread too thin.
We’re already seeing the drawbacks of that. His Yellowstone spinoffs haven’t been as well-received as the flagship show, with some of those spinoffs being canceled in development and others taking far longer to make it to screens than originally anticipated. Even so, networks and streamers aren’t known for their brave swings – they stick with what works. And Sheridan works. So they’ve been more inclined to greenlight more Taylor Sheridan shows than to greenlight other shows that might actually be truer to the classic Western genre.
While there are some excellent true Western series out there, including Godless, Billy the Kid, and American Primeval, to name a few, they haven’t received nearly the viewership numbers or the buzz of Yellowstone, and several of them are limited series only. They’re certainly not about to launch entire interconnected universes on the level of Taylor Sheridan’s world. It’s a real shame, too, as other Western shows deserve just as much attention and marketing.
