How accurate is Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone?

When it comes to TV success stories, “Yellowstone” is a bit of a head-scratcher. It's not that the western series about a powerful ranch-owning family that betrays each other is uninteresting, it's that its target audience is surprisingly unclear. The Paramount Network show attracts tons of viewers, but who exactly are they? /Film has often joked that every dad in America watches Yellowstone, and much emphasis has been placed on its Middle American audience, but it seems obvious that the series also has a significant number of City Slicker fans. Due to sometimes paradoxical politics, it is particularly difficult to accurately determine the Yellowstone population. Andrea Long Chu once wrote a Vulture article about how the series is known for its popularity in red states, but depicts vaguely left-leaning politics — while continuing to focus on the grievances of white American landowners.

“Sheridan is only part cowboy,” Chu wrote of series creator Taylor Sheridan, noting that his father was a cardiologist and he spent weekends at his mother's ranch. “'Yellowstone' is full of ironic attempts at cowboy lyricism,” she continued, “but one often gets the feeling that Sheridan is trying to convert wisdom from prosody with poetic brute force.” Whether it's the ethics, the aesthetic, or the execution of the show, there's definitely something about “Yellowstone” that rings wrong to some country folks, even though millions of people tune in regularly to watch the show see. I have personally recommended the series to several close family members who were born and raised on the farmland of Kansas or are constantly threatening to move to open Montana, where the series is set. Your conclusion? It's good, but not remotely realistic, and it's more of a soap opera than a true western.

So is “Yellowstone” a show for cowboys or just a Hollywood cowboy cosplay with enough deviousness to captivate its sizeable audience? Your mileage may vary, but when it comes to people who have actually lived the modern ranch life, it sounds like the show is a jumble of accurate and unrealistic elements. After the first part of season five ended, Variety interviewed Idaho rancher Jesse Jarvis about the show to ask what was true to her and what wasn't. Jarvis said many of the show's themes were true to life, citing family dramas, issues with a rural population boom, cowboys' pride in their land and ranchers' close relationship with their state governments as elements the show got right.

Jarvis also noted that the show has some key details correct, such as the rodeo sequences and the clothing the ranchers wear. “You’ll see a lot of Kimes Ranch on the show — that’s a brand we carry,” she told Variety. “The hats they wear are from brands like American Hat and Greeley Hat, which we also wear.” Jarvis said she believes Sheridan, who currently lives on a ranch in Texas, “brings the truth and wants to convey the “real picture” of the rancher lifestyle because he himself has “invested so much in it.” Jarvis also noted that Rip Wheeler, the fan-favorite character played by Cole Hauser, is the most accurately dressed character in the series. Your only criticism? The cowboy hat worn by ranch hand Jimmy (Jefferson White) in Season 1. “It looks like it came from a country music festival. We don’t wear them,” Jarvis explained.

For that matter not As for “Yellowstone,” Jarvis said that the swearing and violence in the series was way over the top: “Sometimes it seems like someone is getting shot every single episode!” Her other big problem concerns the portrayal of the Dutton family's wealth in the series. The Rancher notes that the inclusion of helicopters and premium pickup trucks and trailers doesn't really align with the reality of the business. “There are some investor-owned ranches that have access to this kind of thing, but that's a very small percentage,” Jarvis concluded. “Their money doesn’t necessarily reflect well what ranchers and farmers are struggling with financially.”

Other ranchers and farmers have also commented on “Yellowstone,” with several answering a question posted on the show’s subreddit about how accurate its depiction of ranch culture is. “What I like about the show is how clean everyone is at the end of the day,” commented one user, who introduced himself as a farmer from North Carolina. “I’m never clean. When my hands aren't covered in grease, my clothes are so dirty my wife has to blow the worst of them off with the air hose.” Another noted that the scenes depicting wildlife threatening livestock are realistic but added that “the violence, the fighting and the killing are not at all realistic.”

Many commentators have agreed that the general problems the Dutton family faces as ranchers are quite realistic, while the dramatic, murderous way in which they deal with these problems is clearly imagined. “Rich corporations wanting to develop land into megacities and airports is realistic,” one user commented, then added, “Killing everyone you come across and dumping them on the side of the road in an empty county so you can I can’t lie down anymore.” A joint jury is not real. Another frequently cited inaccuracy in the show is the relatively mild weather. “People are hardy, weather-beaten and exhausted from working 10-hour days outside in temperatures between 100 and 40 degrees Celsius, often seven days a week,” one Montanan wrote in a blog post for the company Jelt Belt. Now the show rarely seems to depict harsh winters.

The differences between the “Yellowstone” world and the real world are numerous, with Jelt Belt also pointing out the characters' incredibly short commutes between cities that are actually hundreds of miles apart. Still, the same post cites the show's references to a meth crisis and the disappearance of Indigenous women as two serious issues that Montanans are really grappling with, and praises the show for addressing them. Overall, it sounds like the series takes a lot of liberties with its portrayal of ranch life in Montana, but it also gets more than a few things right. It definitely works something That's right, because the fifth season premiere of “Yellowstone” achieved higher viewership than anything else on television in 2022.

The long-awaited and (supposedly) final installment of “Yellowstone” episodes will premiere on November 10, 2024 on Paramount Network.