My goodness, having now completed Yellowstone’s fourth season, Mayor of Kingstown’s inaugural season, the first couple episodes of 1883, and reflecting on Those Who Wish Me Dead, Sicario, Wind River, and Hell or High Water, it’s clear that in Taylor Sheridan’s universe virtually every thorny, otherwise intractable problem will be solved with a bullet. Or 10,000 bullets! I haven’t seen such frontier justice dispensed so reliably and regularly since the 1980s (think Rambo, Above the Law, Commando, Die Hard and the like).
I imagine the ACLU’s lawyers’ heads about pop off their shoulders when they watch shows like this, but I must admit it’s incredibly refreshing to see swift shots served thoroughly and liberally rather than the introduction of unnecessarily complicated plot points that leach and leak from episode to episode, season after season like they do in other fictional universes.
Got a problem that needs solving? Send in the troops, or better yet—send in Taylor and his tough writing team; they'll scorch the earth and rid the west of dang near every varmint from here to Cape Flattery!
