Yellowstone has been described as a rightwing Succession – except that it has 12 times more viewers. It’s visually stunning, morally complex and really not very good
The most visually extraordinary, morally ambivalent, gratuitously violent, sexually confused show on TV isn’t one you hear spoken about a lot, in the UK at least. Perhaps that’s because, despite being one of the most remarkable TV programmes of recent years, Yellowstone isn’t actually very good.
Its huge success in the US has led, after a rash of terrible reviews on its launch in 2018 (“A soapy mess,” according to this paper), to it being reconsidered in the light of viewing figures that were outstripping everything else on cable. The season four finale earlier this year was the most-watched show on cable since The Walking Dead’s season eight opener five years ago. If one compares its viewing figures with Succession, there’s no contest: Yellowstone has 12 times the viewers.
