The Yellowstone Fantasy is a world evoked by dreams of a time, place, and people that never existed, in the real world. Yellowstone is a TV series (yes, I came late to) about a man, John Dutton, his family, and cattle ranch in Montana in contemporary America. (They have cell phones, etc.) The show is the most popular of dramas on TV today. I love it! However, much depicted in the series is not close to true, or the way things are.
Recently my son came here for a visit. (He spent his formative years 1983-2002 living in the mountains west of Denver.) Jake has friends who still live and work there. He reported to me, via his friend, that most of the wealthy people who now live there imagine themselves Yellowstone-like folk. Their mountain homes are now “ranches”. Moreover, the liquor stores can’t keep Coors beer on the shelves.
I get it
because I’m infected, too. I wear my cowboy boots and leather vest when I go in for a session with psych-girl. Sometimes I spin yarns about the way it used to be – back-in-the-day – when men were men and could hold their whiskey and fight their way out of any situation.
Some of which is true. Somewhat.
However, nobody ever got shot. (Animals? yes.) Additionally, there were bar fights. And yes, I was married to a woman who might be diagnosed as borderline and alcoholic. [Not Jake’s mother.]
As is Beth in Yellowstone. There is a history of women going crazy/nuts due to the isolation of living in the mountains, in the wilderness. Back-in-the-day. That is true. It’s also true that men are often attracted to ‘crazy’.
Then again, who knows what causes what? That’s a shrink question.
Which brings us back to Yellowstone. Specifically, Season Five-episode five. Wherein bi-polar Beth, John Dutton’s daughter, persuades eco-feminist, Summer, to step outside for a girl-on-girl (woman-on-woman) slug fest. Not to mention that Beth just got released from jail because of a bar fight in Bozeman, wherein she destroyed a tourist girl for hitting on her cowboy husband!
[Shit like this did happen – back-in-the-day. Trust me.]
Except for the gun play and murder. Of which the Governor of the state, John Dutton (= Kevin Costner), has committed. As well as his cowboy employees. And, he delivers some of the best lines in TV [fake] history. Of which I happen to agree with:
“It’s survival of the unfitest.”
Or, as I repeatedly say in my book, Election 2016, “Reverse Darwinism.” This is the state of affairs wherein political correctness (now known as postmodernism, intersectionality, DEI, or ‘wokeism’) dominates cultural and popular discourse and behavior. At least in “well-educated” domains.
The Yellowstone Fantasy
rejects this. Which is why, I think, the show is so popular. It portrays a way of life that many people wish the real world was. Wish they were free to do. It is a back-door way of Freud’s Id, via wish fulfillment, to find satisfaction. In other words, The Yellowstone Fantasy relieves some of the pressure from today’s insane world.
Remember the song Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? (1997) Paula Cole, the author and singer of the song, insists it was misunderstood. That the song was satire. That it was really a feminist complaint.
I don’t know. That’s really a shrink question.
In the show we have beautiful, majestic scenery joined with Celtic-like sad, mournful music. Those two film “props” enhance the feeling that we are losing something. And John Dutton, the callous, strong, independent rancher is fighting against all odds to save it. He’s fighting for us! He’s fighting for America. For freedom.
Beth, his unstable, borderline daughter whispers in his ear, “They want the land, Dad, that’s all you need to understand.” Which transfers perfectly to the real world. The way it’s always been. It’s The Territorial Imperative. That imperative is older than we are. (see Chimp Empire.)
In Conclusion.
Should you watch this show? Is always the question. It’s only on PEACOCK. And it’s not finished. Season five has been suspended. Because of COVID and other conflicts. However, it is scheduled to begin again in November 2024. I highly recommend it. The show fits my style. And to a degree – a life I used to know.
In ways it is like Ken Kesey’s novel Sometimes A Great Notion.
I think it scores high marks on five of the six elements of a story. Falling short only on “voice” – which reflects the writer’s idea of how the characters would speak. That is often over-the-top, in my opinion. There is a little too much of forced, political positions inserted into the dialogue. It borders on cringe.
However, that cringe is soon forgotten with the element of setting – the stunning vistas and music.
The characterization and acting is superb. Costner plays John Dutton III, the domineering patriarch, perfectly. And Kelly Reilly portrays the borderline personality very well, too. Cole Hauser, as loyal enforcer, Rip, perfect. Piper Perabo as young, naive eco-feminist
(and Dutton’s lover)? Nailed it.
Lilli Kay, as Clara, Governor Dutton’s “Girl Friday”? Bingo.
The plots are tense, conflict ridden, and dramatic.
The theme, or big idea, is relevant to the world today. Which is to say – in conflict over values. In other words, tradition versus modernity and progress. In fact, Dutton’s campaign slug is “Stop Progress, elect John Dutton.”
The title? Perfect. Yellowstone – Sometimes a great notion. A fantasy. A wish fulfillment.