Wild Success of Yellowstone’s Best Story Arc is Something Taylor Sheridan Failed to Repeat With Both 1883 and 1923

Taylor Sheridan attained the status of Hollywood’s most popular cowboy with the success of the neo-Western TV show, Yellowstone. The show has had fans in a chokehold for years. It has concluded with the fifth season for now and fans cannot help wondering if this is truly the end or if there is something else in store for them.

The show has spawned several spinoffs, but only two have premiered so far 1883 and 1923. Although all of these projects have been helmed by Sheridan, neither of these spinoffs has been able to replicate the kind of success two episodes of the original show have due to a specific story arc that fans seem to adore.

Taylor Sheridan Absolutely Nailed These Two Episodes of Yellowstone But Has Not Been Able to Pull Something Similar for the Spinoff Shows

Yellowstone premiered in 2018 and primarily follows the story of the Dutton family led by patriarch John Dutton. The family deals with different adversaries to protect their estate from being captured by their enemies. They often face life-threatening situations in doing so but manage to be brave through it all.

Out of all 53 episodes, the ones that fans seem to be absolutely in love with are not the ones where the Dutton family is having a good time. Instead, it is two where the entire family is under threat and are literally facing life and death situations, that too at different places.

The first of these is the finale episode, The World is Purple of Season 3 which has an IMDb rating of 9.2. In this episode, Beth’s office is assaulted using a mailed explosive,  Kayce is attacked with gunfire in his office, and John Dutton is shot multiple times after stopping to help someone on the side of the road. The fate of the family remained uncertain as the season came to an end with a massive cliffhanger.

In the first episode of Season 4, Half the Money has an even higher IMDb rating of 9.3 and further explores the vulnerability of the Duttons as John fights for his life in the hospital while the rest of them struggle with threats of their own. After facing multiple murder attempts, they suspect Jamie is behind those attacks.

While the episodes of the spinoff shows, 1883 and 1923 are not too bad, they are certainly not as good as the aforementioned ones. The highest IMDb rating an 1883 episode has gotten is 9.1. Similarly, the highest rating a 1923 episode has received is 8.9. This shows that Sheridan did something in Yellowstone that he could not recreate in the spinoffs.

Taylor Sheridan Disowned This Movie He Helped in Making

Long before he became famous as the creator of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan was a jobbing actor. After starring in small roles for years, he decided to try his hand at screenwriting and it turned out that he was rather good at it. He earned nominations for several prestigious awards for the screenplays of Sicario and Hell or High Water.

Sheridan insists that he made his directorial debut with 2017’s Wind River, but he has been credited as the director of the 2011 low-budget horror film, Vile. In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, he said:

A friend of mine raised — I don’t know what he raised — 20 grand or something, and cast his buddies, and wrote this bad horror movie, that I told him not to direct. He was going to direct it and produce it, and he started and freaked out, and called and said, “Can you help me?” I said, “Yeah, I’ll try.”

He further explained that he just helped in keeping “the ship pointed straight”, and that he was not involved in the editing so he had nothing to do with the final product. He also claimed that he believed that it was “generous” to call him the director and that his friend was only trying to express his gratitude. Either way, he admitted that making the horror film was a learning experience for him.

Yellowstone is available for streaming on Peacock.