Yellowstone Didn't Revive The Western Genre On TV, It Killed It Completely

While plenty of people have praised Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone for reviving the Western genre on TV, the truth is, it didn't revive it at all – it may have actually killed it. With the glut of content across network, cable, and the myriad number of streaming platforms out there, it's hard for any show to truly break out in a big way. Plenty of shows are temporary flashes in the pan, but have little lasting impact. It's even rarer that that show spawns multiple spinoffs, as Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone did, becoming an entire universe.

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 list is far longer, but those films are just a smattering of modern movies that have successfully reinvigorated and, in some cases, reinvented the Western genre on the big screen. While the genre may not be the powerhouse it was in the glorious Golden Age of Westerns of the '50s and '60s, it's hardly disappeared. And when a movie in the genre is released, whether theatrically or on streaming, it tends to do well.

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.

Since then, the Western genre has struggled to reinvent itself for the TV medium in a way the Western has never had an issue with in movies. There are far fewer pure Western offerings in that medium in this century: Deadwood, Longmire, Justified, and Hell on Wheels come to mind. Possibly a few others. The rest, however good they might be, are not true Westerns, but other genres blended with the trappings of a Western.

Robert Taylor as Walt Longmire in Longmire, Kevin Costner as John Dutton III in Yellowstone, and Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock in Deadwood

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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

Like the aforementioned shows that are Western-adjacent, Yellowstone isn't actually a Western. Instead, it's a drama. Yellowstone's story beats are firmly rooted in the family melodrama, specifically the gangster drama in the vein of the Dallas of old. A closer modern equivalent would be Succession. Narratively, Yellowstone is far closer to Succession than to Longmire. It's closer to The Godfather than to Gunsmoke: the family infighting over an empire and a legacy, with rivalries, alliances, and betrayals forming the core of the series. That's a melodrama, not a Western.

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.

John Dutton Shot By Side of Car next to Kayce Dutton Looking Worried in Yellowstone

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The inclusion of Native Americans in opposition to the white man, particularly the dubious treatment they receive, is also a theme that underpins Westerns. In the case of the classic genre, Native Americans have been maligned as the Other, as "savages," "Indians," and other pejorative terms used to frame Native American and Indigenous people of the American West as violent and primitive people standing in the way of rightful white expansion.

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

One might think that the success of Yellowstone can only be good for the Western genre on TV, but you could make a fair argument that that's not the case. The problem with Yellowstone is that it didn't re-launch the Western genre on TV; instead, it launched the Taylor Sheridan Western-ish universe. Again, that's not a slight against Sheridan, who is a machine of a writer and clearly a savvy negotiator behind closed doors. 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.

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.

Since Yellowstone premiered, there have been several excellent Western-adjacent TV series that have been greenlit - but few of them are true Westerns. Dark Winds is critically acclaimed, but it's a noir procedural thriller with Western elements. Outer Range is a sci-fi Western. The Mandalorian is a Western sci-fi. Even shows that debuted prior to Yellowstone have been a genre blend: Westworld is again Western and sci-fi; Wynonna Earp is a Western horror-fantasy, etc.

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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.

Can The Western Genre Ever Properly Return To TV After Yellowstone?

It Can - But It Needs Buy-In

That's not to say that the Western genre can never return to TV in a proper fashion in a post-Yellowstone world. It can. It has – again, there are definitely TV shows in the true classic Western mold out there right now. But audiences have to watch them and keep watching them. Networks and streamers have to greenlight them, and they have to back them. They can't, for example, do what Netflix always does, when it canceled the excellent Australian Western, Territory, after just one season. Like Yellowstone, they need and deserve the full weight of star power and a marketing budget, and they'll surely succeed.