“Yellowstone” star Kelsey Asbille is very well-aware of why people love the series, and it’s not a grand mystery to the actress.
The western series with Kevin Costner will end with season five after being arguably the best show on TV since 2018.
While most of Hollywood attempts to go woke, the series from Taylor Sheridan does the exact opposite. Yes, it covers differing viewpoints but not in a way that alienates the audience. Asbille understands that’s the complexity that has made it a hit.
“I think our audience shows the complexity of America. And I think that’s the genius of Taylor’s writing: He’s able to have these conversations about land, and land politics, in a way that can educate and provoke,” Asbille explained during a profile with the New York Post.
Taylor Sheridan perfectly crafted “Yellowstone” to appeal to everyone.
The problem most Hollywood productions face is pretty simple. They contain a ton of woke content that is jammed down viewers’ throats without any nuance.
The general themes are middle America is awful, white people are racist and everyone is a victim. It’s been that way for more than a decade at this point.
“Yellowstone” is refreshing because it doesn’t do that at all. The show covers the horrors Native Americans have faced in America, abortion, violence, land rights, family drama and just about anything else you can imagine that you’d find on a ranch without force feeding it to viewers.
Sheridan allows the drama to unfold naturally. He doesn’t treat the audience as a group of uneducated morons. Shockingly, he believes they can make decisions for themselves.
Taylor Sheridan doesn’t also represent minorities as powerless victims. The exact opposite, actually. The Native Americans – Mo, Monica and Rainwater, specifically – are portrayed as unbelievably tough, cunning and more than capable of fighting when push comes to shove.
Famously, Monica helped kill a rapist and Mo has fought time and time again when called upon. That speaks to the “complexity” Asbille is talking about.
I know it’s crazy for extreme liberals living in bubbles to believe, but non-white people are more than capable of looking out for themselves. It’s the bigotry of low expectations to think otherwise.
Mo routinely represents this fact, and he’s criminally underrated.
Hopefully, more people in Hollywood learn from Sheridan and the way he works. Any topic can play if done correctly. Just don’t make it preachy. Nobody wants that. Make it engaging and fun. It’s not rocket science. It’s just TV.
