How Yellowstone Creator Taylor Sheridan Feels About The Show's Negative Reviews

Some critics argue that "Yellowstone" lost its way as the series progressed. Others believe that creator Taylor Sheridan ruined "Yellowstone" season 5 when he gave his character, Travis Wheatley, a more prominent on-screen role and partied with supermodels because why not? However, some people are of the opinion that "Yellowstone" was a bad show from the outset, claiming that it lacks a focused story and plot. Sheridan addressed those naysayers in a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter and explained his mindset in regard to the show's storytelling.

"It has no plot, really. [...] Don't take my land, I want your land. In that, I have a lot of opportunities to poke fun, but also kind of point out different points of views, and kind of really study a way of life and a world. There's a lot of defiance in the way I do it."

Sheridan added that "Yellowstone" is the type of series that was made for critics to dislike, noting that many of them were confused by its success. With the neo-Western drama, he set out to make a show that shattered Hollywood conventions, and he always knew it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.

While "Yellowstone" has been criticized for its lack of plot, Taylor Sheridan explained that the show was never supposed to be sophisticated in that sense. In the aforementioned interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he revealed that he's more interested in exploring people, and this is why he is reluctant to pass his projects on to writers' rooms (which might be conditioned to try and make his work less polarizing). In his own words:

"My stories have a very simple plot that is driven by the characters as opposed to characters driven by a plot — the antithesis of the way television is normally modeled. I'm really interested in the dirty of the relationships in literally every scene. But when you hire a room that may not be motivated by those same qualities — and a writer always wants to take ownership of something they're writing — and I give this directive and they're not feeling it, then they're going to come up with their own qualities."

Despite the criticisms, the success of "Yellowstone" proves that it has many fans who believe it ranks highly among Sheridan's TV series. And with "1923" season 2, "The Madison," "6666," and Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser's spin-off on the way, the haters will have to accept that this franchise will be around for quite some time.