Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows.
In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O’Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA.
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Taylor Sheridan** is renowned as the creator who has helped revitalize Westerns on television, but a majority of his recurring shows are at least partially set in a different genre.* Yellowstoneis as much a drama about family infighting in the vein of Successionas it is a neo-Western, and the same could be said about The Madisonand Dutton Ranch. Mayor of Kingstown, Landman, and Tulsa King are all crime shows with Western influence, and while 1883is a truly classical frontier epic, it exists as only a short miniseries. 1923 *****is Sheridan working within a historical context that explores the end of the “frontier era,” **as it was by the end of the decade that America was consumed by the Great Depression, Prohibition, and the period of political uncertainty that led to the controversial election of President Herbert Hoover. *1923 *is set at a time in which individual states still felt isolated, making “frontier justice” the law of the land. It’s a poignant farewell to an era that also gives Sheridan an opportunity to tell an emotional, generational story that serves as a prequel to his existing universe.
*1923 *is set after the establishment of the Yellowstone Ranch that had been alluded to in 1883, and **the show picks up with members of the Dutton family when their domain is under threat. **Cara (Helen Mirren) and Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) do not have any children, but they have raised their nephew John Sr. (James Badge Dale) and protected his wife Emma (Marley Shelton) and son Jack (Darren Mann). John’s brother, Spender (Brandon Sklenar), is a veteran of World War I who aims to return home to Montana, but falls in love with the British woman Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer). While a traditional Western might be focused on settlement or manifest destiny, *1923 *charts the Duttons as they preserve the last remnants of individualism through their land, which represents an old-fashioned symbol of idealism and honor. *1923 *isn’t only the Sheridan show that is the most thematically layered and ambitious in scope, but the one that becomes the most satisfying because of how well it works as an ensemble piece.
Sheridan has been accused of hijacking current political or social controversies for the sake of creating inflammatory content, but ***1923 *succeeds because it is completely committed to its historical context. The series captures the unusual place that a family like the Duttons were in during an era in which America had been exposed to the terrors of a world war and seen a revolution in the development of technology, despite not being afforded protection from the rising power of greedy capitalists. Instead of making the Duttons the embodiment of privilege and generational power, *1923 *sees them as being a beneficial player within the society of Montana during a period of drought and locusts. The series’ most ruthless villains, such as Timothy Dalton **as the cruel business tycoon Donald Whitfield, strive for the same level of independence, but do not use their power to institute any semblance of chivalry.
Although prior Sheridan shows have been dominated by the presence of a major movie star who essentially runs the production, ***1923 *****has a well-defined ensemble cast **in which the characters have an equal amount of screen time and presence. Seeing Ford and Mirren reunited almost 40 years after they worked together in the **Peter Weir **classic The Mosquito Coast is a treat for cinephiles, and it’s impressive to see that they have matured to the point that they can play reverential, experienced family leaders who have earned the trust of their entire community. It’s interesting to see Dalton, an actor who was once 007, play such a nasty, unforgivable character, but Donald sadly doesn’t feel that unrealistic when looking at the practices of business magnates at this time in American history. *1923 *also serves as a response to critiques that Sheridan hasn’t done enough with his characters of color, as **Aminah Nieves **has a powerful role as Teonna Rainwater, a Crow woman who fights against the malevolent practices of the Catholic Church and ultimately strives to secure her own future.
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
1923 might be the most dazzling show on a visceral level that Sheridan has ever put together thanks to the gorgeous production design, practical location shooting, and beautiful score fromBrian Tyler and Breton Vivian, composers who have experience in film.* 1923 *****also has the most compelling romance of any of Sheridan’s shows **with Spencer and Alexandra, as the strong chemistry between Sklenar and Schlaepfer makes it all the more heartbreaking when they are separated and forced to go to the ends of the Earth to find one another. It’s also a show with room to flesh out characters beyond what would seem like a caricature; Jerome Flynn’s Banner Creighton is initially introduced as another insipid enemy of the Duttons, but by the end of the second season, he is revealed to be a man of principles.
*1923 *shows Sheridan at his best when he is working within parameters, as **the series serves as both the perfect sequel to *****1883 *****and captures a particularly interesting moment in American history **that offers more than a few lessons worth remembering today. Two seasons are just enough time to capture the most defining moment in this era of the Dutton family’s history, but *1923 *is so successful as a standalone Western that it doesn’t require any existing knowledge of the *Yellowstone *universe to be enjoyed.
