Taylor Sheridan seemed like he was everywhere in 2025, as he continued to draw record-breaking viewership for Paramount+ with the new seasons of Landman, Tulsa King, and Mayor of Kingstown. Additionally, news of his new deal with NBC Universal to make shows for the Peacock streaming service was a major shakeup for the industry at large and provided insight into the developments of Skydance’s merger with Paramount. Although it would be fair to characterize his work as divisive, Sheridan earned the best reviews of his entire career for the second season of 1923, the epic period series that serves as a prequel to Yellowstone. Not only does 1923 have the greatest scope of Sheridan’s shows, but it also touches upon important issues while balancing a robust ensemble cast.
1923 doesn’t mark the first time Sheridan has ventured into the past of the Yellowstone universe, as he previously created another near-masterpiece with his miniseries 1883. However, 1923 has more overt implications for the characters in Yellowstone, and allowed Sheridan to say something profound about the emergence of the Dutton family ranch during a difficult period in American history. Sheridan has frequently evoked the work of iconic filmmakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age with the parallels his shows draw with all-time great Westerns, but 1923 is his first project that feels worthy of being compared to the cinema of John Ford or William Wyler. It’s not only a satisfying and thought-provoking addition to Sheridan’s catalog for those who have been watching his shows since the beginning, but also great proof for non-fans about why he is such an exciting storyteller.
‘1923’ Is Taylor Sheridan’s Most Epic, Immersive Western Series
1923 is unique from Sheridan’s shows because it tells a complete story with a definitive endpoint; although there were too many characters to feasibly wrap up the narrative in only one season, the two volumes of 1923 were planned from the beginning. Sheridan can occasionally get accused of doing too much wheel-spinning in order to extend his shows past their period of relevance, but the tightness of 1923 feels closer in line with the films that he has written. At the same time, 1923 needed to be told in a serialized way because of the depth given to all the characters. Not only is Sheridan trying to explore the ideals and independent philosophies that came to define the Dutton family throughout the 20th century, but he also provides a perspective on why the decade was so fraught for Americans leading up to the stock market crash of the 1920s. Despite often being nicknamed “the Roaring Twenties,” it was a ten-year span in which flyover states struggled due to the hardships of natural weather events, Prohibition, and a growing alienation towards the establishment.
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Sheridan has shown strength as a director of mid-budget dramas and thrillers intended for adult audiences.
Shows like Landman and Tulsa King are centered around a singular protagonist who often serves as a mouthpiece for Sheridan’s own ideologies, but 1923 is a true ensemble show with a global scope. It says something about the reach that Sheridan has that he was able to lure the likes of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren to a television project that reunited them for the first time since the 1986 classic The Mosquito Coast. Ford and Mirren star as Jacob and Cara Dutton, respectively, who oversee the family’s ranch in Montana. Although their nephew, Spencer (Brandon Sklenar), whom they raised as their own, spends much of the first season in Europe and Africa during his romance and marriage to Alexander (Julia Schlaepfer), this year finally allowed the entire family to reunite as they fought to protect their home and territory from the cruel business tycoon Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton). The restraint that Sheridan showed in biding time with these storylines pays off, as seeing Spencer search for his wife in America and finally reunite with his family is tremendously emotional.
‘1923’ Is a Satisfying, Conclusive Western Series
1923 shows that Sheridan is far more willing to react to criticism than some may believe, as he shows far more interest in developing nuanced female characters than he did during Landman; not only is Liz Strafford a great protagonist that gave Michelle Randolph a better opportunity to show her range that she did in Landman, but Isabel May’s role as the narrator added an all-seeing presence to the series that tied it back to the events of 1883. Although Sheridan was able to explore the abuses and indignities suffered by indigenous people in his contemporary western Wind River, 1923 also examines the cruelty that went on in American Indian boarding schools, which is a topic that is just beginning to receive more attention thanks to documentaries like last year’s Sugarcane.
1923 is earnest in a way that Sheridan should favor more often, as the show avoids glib irony in favor of exploring the ties that bind families together, even if they face a clash of ideals. 1923 Season 2 feels particularly relevant to current events because of what it says about industry’s ability to subjugate the American working-class, but it doesn’t face the risk of stepping into incendiary discourse by directly relating to recent news topics. Sheridan is a writer whose straightforward approach to narrative and theme are very classicalist, which may explain why he’s best at working with period pieces; 1923’s two-part finale episode, “A Dream and a Memory,” runs for two hours long, and feels more satisfying the many of the mainstream films released this year. 1923 doesn’t need the connectivity to the Yellowstone universe to be an old-fashioned story of serenity and sacrifice that captures every nuance of the era in which it is set; for Sheridan, it shows that popular and prestige don’t have to be counterintuitive.
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2022 – 2025-00-00