The first contemporary *Yellowstone* spin-off, titled *Marshals*, kept the Montana setting but switched genres: it went from being a big-budget melodrama to a modest broadcast TV procedural. The second, *Dutton Ranch*, maintains the tone of the original while moving the action to Texas—home to Taylor Sheridan (creator of *Yellowstone* and executive producer of *Dutton Ranch*) and the setting for *Landman*, the prolific showrunner's bold oil-industry drama.
Given that the presence of *Yellowstone* lead Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) was enough to turn *Marshals* into a massive hit—regardless of the stylistic shift—*Dutton Ranch* looks like an even safer bet for the streaming platform Paramount+. *Dutton Ranch* doesn't need to be excellent or original to count as a success; it simply needs to serve as a suitable placebo for its predecessor. In that regard, the spin-off is an absolute triumph.
Creator: Chad Feehan
Stars: Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser, Finn Little
With Kayce busy fighting crime and the other Dutton siblings dead, the only family member left to carry on the legacy of the late patriarch John (Kevin Costner) is Beth (Kelly Reilly). She has barely had time to recover emotionally from committing fratricide when she and her husband Rip (Cole Hauser) lose their Montana ranch in a wildfire. (If you think climate change is cited as a contributing factor, then you don't know which TV universe you're watching!) Beth and Rip have no choice but to pour all their remaining resources into buying a vast property in the fictional town of Rio Paloma, Texas—located near the border—move south with their adopted son Carter (Finn Little), and start their TV show... sorry, their cattle business!—from scratch.
Beth and Rip's main antagonist in the care of their herd of Black Angus steers—which, as we are constantly reminded, possess top-tier genetics—is Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening). Beulah is the dominant figure at Rio Paloma, a rancher from a long-standing family line who owns a mansion befitting her status. She keeps her children under an iron grip as they vie to succeed her. The role is played by an Oscar-winning actress, drawn by the chance to chew the scenery and enjoy a prominent lead role at this stage of her career. In short: she is the female version of John Dutton, with a lot more turquoise and a thick Texas drawl.
"Dutton Ranch" was not created by Sheridan; that credit goes to Chad Feehan (*Lawman: Bass Reeves*), though Feehan left the production after the first season. Nevertheless, "Dutton Ranch" displays many of the stylistic hallmarks of this neo-Western auteur—beyond just the John Dutton archetype: a strong-willed, sexually aggressive blonde, like Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind), Carter’s love interest; oversized, almost cartoonish pickup trucks, like Beth’s trusty Dodge Ram; gruff aphorisms passed off as hard-won folk wisdom ("Honey, you can't chase peace.
You have to live it," Rip tells his better half); and a fascination with violence and vigilante justice in defense of the family, such as when Rip beats a cattle broker to a pulp for selling them a sick bull with forged papers. Beth sets the offender’s trailer ablaze with her cigarette and walks away with Rip in slow motion—channeling Angela Bassett in *Waiting to Exhale*. And here comes Sheridan’s ultimate signature touch that ties it all together: unabashed camp!
Beyond the geography and its implications—such as the glaring absence of Native characters, whose perspectives provided much of *Yellowstone*'s most nuanced content—the differences between "Dutton Ranch" and the original series are as subtle as one would expect in the Sheridan universe. The role of the "persecuted minority that wins the series' sympathy thanks to an ancestral bond with the land" falls here to Texans like Azul—the foreman Beth and Rip inherited from the ranch's previous owners, played by J.R. Villarreal. When Beulah’s troubled son, Rob-Will (Jai Courtney), drunkenly hurls insults at Azul in a gas station parking lot, Azul reminds him that his family has been in Texas longer than the Jacksons... right before Rip knocks Rob-Will unconscious with a single punch, of course.
There are a few explicit references to *Yellowstone*, such as when Beth reflects on how much she misses John or tells Joaquín (Juan Pablo Raba)—Beulah’s adopted son—that he reminds her of "my father’s lawyer," meaning Jamie (Wes Bentley), John’s killer and her own adopted brother. However, such references are hardly necessary, given that *Dutton Ranch* displays a very similar sensibility: a string-heavy soundtrack, sweeping landscapes shown in slow motion, and animal deaths treated with far more emotion and sentimentality than the (very many) human bodies that appear throughout the four episodes screened for critics. The property may go by a different name, but we are undoubtedly back at the ranch.
The first two episodes of *Dutton Ranch* will premiere on Paramount+ on May 15, with the remaining episodes airing weekly on Fridays.
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