1923 details another violent period in the history of the Yellowstone, but the Harrison Ford/Helen Mirren ranch storyline is probably the show’s least engaging. The success of Yellowstone made spinoffs all but inevitable, and after the critical acclaim that greeted 1883 – which detailed the journey leading up to the founding of the ranch – the universe has expanded considerably. 1923 is the follow-up to 1883, while more Yellowstone spinoffs like 6666 and a Matthew McConaughtey-led series are also on the horizon.
1923 is apparently the most expensive of any Yellowstone series to date and boasts an incredible cast, including Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and Timothy Dalton. All the money is certainly up on the screen, from production design to period costumes and sets. The story is mostly centered around Jacob Dutton (Ford) and his wife Cara (Mirren) as they try to defend their ranch during a particularly rough period in American history. There are also two other major plotlines; the harrowing treatment of Aminah Nieves’ Teonna Rainwater in a Catholic boarding school and Spencer Dutton’s (Brandon Sklenar) time as a big game hunter in Africa, both of which are more compelling.
1923’s Dutton Ranch Story Is Its Least Compelling
The Dutton storyline is well crafted and performed – though Jerome Flynn’s villain Creighton is a tad cartoonish – but season 1 soon turned into a prolonged waiting game. After Ford’s Jacob gets shot, the rest of this plot is the family waiting (and hoping) that Spencer will return to help them win the range war they find themselves in. It quickly becomes clear Spencer won’t get back until 1923 season 2, however, so it’s mostly the family impotently waiting while periodically receiving bad news. This lack of any forward momentum makes it feel like the Dutton story is just spinning its wheels.
Spencer’s 1923 story feels like a trashy romance novel, where he’s a sweaty-chested hunter who always appears to be under attack from lions, sharks or ghost ships. His romance with British runaway bride Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) doesn’t feel terribly realistic, it’s never dull for a second and the actors share great chemistry. The Teonna plotline might be the darkest of any tackled in the Yellowstone universe yet, as she suffers emotional and physical abuse so extreme she commits murder and is then relentlessly pursued by the church and police. While this plotline can arguably wallow too much in its violence, Teonna is an easy protagonist to invest in.
How 1923 Season 2 Could Fix The Ranch Problem
It got to the point in 1923 season 1 where it felt like the Spencer and Teonna stories were the real focus, as each episode push the narrative forwards while the Dutton ranch saga mostly stood still. 1923’s second season will also be its last, and will finally see Spencer arrive back at the Yellowstone ranch. This will no doubt lead to a bloody ranch war where the Dutton victory is assured – though who will survive is far less certain. Having Spencer back will finally merge these divergent narratives, and the Duttons’ can (finally) start fighting back against the forces opposing them.