The Paramount connection modern western (debuting June 20) stars Kevin Costner as Montana ranchlord John Dutton.
Yellowstoneis partly shot in Montana, and the pilot gives a keen sense of Big Sky Country place.
It also casts a wide narrative net.
Credit: Paramount Network
There are four Dutton children, three of them dangerously boring.
The fourth is Beth, a maneating boozehound tycoon played withSin Cityhyperbole by Kelly Reilly.
But I watched every episode ofBoardwalk Empire, curse me, so I gave theYellowstonepilot aB.
And now John himself is here, theorizing that the dinosaur was probably killed by a prehistoric shark.
One thing I wasnt expecting this month was Kevin Costner talking about dinosaur-eating sharks.
I guess that maybe Montanansdo just discover dinosaur bonesin their backyard, sometimes?
Kayce has a young son, Tate (Brecken Merrill).
I would make every show-and-tell about dinosaur bones.
Strange things keep happening to Kayce.
Meth labs my guess,Kayce drawls, as he runs toward the explosion.
So nowYellowstoneis just a show where houses blow up sometimes.
(I think its a wolf.
It could be a coyote.)
Jesus, maybe its a metaphor.
Meanwhile, Kayces sister Beth wakes up one day in a pile of pill bottles.
And she takes a publicly naked bath in a trough drinking champagne straight from a bottle.
And she tells her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley) to BE A FING MAN!
while shes beating him up.
In sequences like this,Yellowstonereveals an unexpected penchant for the luridcrous.
Everybody gets one portentous line per scene.
What are your thoughts on Judgement Day?
All men are bad, but some of us try real hard to be good.
You killed the bodies, now you kill the souls.
Not a thing on this planet stays where it is.
I am the past, catching up with you.
Im in no mood to explain why we dont have the same peepee.
Sorry wait, what was that last one?
And then someone will say something tremendously goofy.
Often its Beth, and Reilly energetically plays her impossible character.
Everyone else is half-asleep.
Costner looks the part of the frontier monarch, but hes coasting on gravitas fumes.
The pile-up doesnt do him favors.
Hes starting to repeat himself, overindulging base swagger.
DEL TORO:With who?
At the end of theYellowstonepilot, Beth says to her father: Just tell me who to fight.
And John says: Everyone.
Watch out, everyone!C+
