Despite Yellowstone’s success, many fans believe Taylor Sheridan made a huge mistake in the early days of the show by not letting the audience grow closer to this one character.Yellowstone is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and its creator Taylor Sheridan is right to be immensely proud of it. There are few other series with such a brilliant combination of deep characters, unique atmosphere, and intense brutality that rarely feels out of place. Yellowstone is a one-of-a-kind experience.
Sheridan’s characters are all deeply flawed but humane nonetheless, and the audience sympathizes with them in this weird “you’re an asshole but I love you” way. However, it has not always been like this — or, rather, there were some instances where Yellowstone failed to give us a proper up-close view of some essential characters.
As you might very well remember, the catalyst for the series was the deadly shootout between the Duttons and the residents of the Broken Rock reservation. During the confrontation, John Dutton’s eldest son was killed, and this event triggered all the later plot development. However, why did we only know him for less than an episode?
Lee Dutton was clearly an important figure in the Dutton family, serving as his father’s right hand and being an inspiration for his younger brother. It was Lee’s death that made Kayce stick closer to his family, and without him, we wouldn’t have had Yellowstone the way we know it today. Lee was a crucial piece of the plot.
But most fans feel like Lee was just that — a plot device with the sole purpose of justifying the later events. He was not thought-through as a character, and he didn’t get the recognition he deserved in the series. Despite his admittedly important position in both his family’s hierarchy and their hearts, Lee was almost not talked about.
This feels incredibly weird compared to the way Taylor Sheridan usually explores his characters, and we can’t help but agree with other fans here: it was a big mistake. When you’re starting off a show with someone’s grim demise, it’s important to ensure that your audience actually feels something — and Lee Dutton was such a stranger to us it was impossible to feel anything when he died.