YMMV / Yellowstone

• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Hendon brutalizes two robbers by locking them in the back of trailer while handcuffed and driving erratically to toss them around. It seems rather improbably elaborate, but this is actually a very real form of police brutality called a rough ride. And yes, it does often result in serious injuries.
  • The "train station" is likely inspired by the real-life Yellowstone "Zone of Death", where due to its remote location and a loophole in the United States Constitution, theoretically no one can be convicted of a crime.^{To elaborate} The Yellowstone National Park is almost entirely in Wyoming, but extends a bit into Montana and Idaho. Yet it falls in its entirety under the District of Wyoming, even the bits in Montana and Idaho. Since three of the road entrances into the park, plus one of the visitor centers, lie within Montana, a small number of park employees do live within that state, but the Idaho section is totally uninhabited by humans. Since the US Constitution demands an "impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed", if ever someone is murdered in that uninhabited 50-square mile strip of Idaho, good luck in finding that jury.
• Angst Aversion:
  • Some of the show’s subject matter can turn off some viewers. The blatant physical and emotional abuse of Jamie by his family can make it difficult to sympathize with many characters on the ranch, especially for viewers who have themselves been victims of bullying or abuse. The fact that Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male is played completely straight doesn’t help.
  • This also extends to the Broken Rock tribe itself in later seasons. Due to a combination of factors (The Fixer, Angela, repeatedly dropping Anvilicious rants about the plight of Native Americans, Rainwater becoming more of an altruistic/heroic figure due to aiding the Duttons several times, the scenes at the reservation generally focusing on slice-of-life encounters instead of the terrible squalor seen in Season 1), the comments about whether the land belongs to them can become grating to some viewers. It doesn't help that they're nearly pushed out of the narrative as a political entity once Market Equities shows up and builds a pipeline over the site they planned to build a casino on.
• Angst? What Angst?: Over the course of several seasons, the Duttons seem to have entirely forgotten about Lee, their eldest brother/son who was murdered not that long ago. They frequently reminisce tearfully over their mother, but Lee might as well have never existed. It takes until season four for people to start acknowledging him again, with John pointing out his gravesite and mentioning his death, while Kayce has a vision of Lee during a vision quest.
• Anvilicious:
  • That the Native Americans got screwed out of their land, and that almost nothing is being done to remedy any of the systemic problems that plague modern Indian reservations even today. Not a bad message by itself, but in particular the scene where Chief Rainwater talks to his lawyer, Angela (also an American-Indian) who says the American government has broken every treaty it has ever signed "including their most recent one with Iran," is an obvious blanket statement and such eye-rolling Author Tract it is hard not to groan.
  • That rural places like Montana are superior to big cities and wealthy states like California. The Duttons, especially John, frequently talk down to outsiders as lacking in morals or character (often referring to them as "tourists" who have no understanding of the state's history or culture). This one borders on Broken Aesop, since the rural setting of the show is depicted as just as brutal and corrupt as any city.
  • The show has a very low opinion of modern technology, with several scenes emphasizing just how much some characters hate it. A group of "treasure seekers" using a drone to fly around the reservation looking for burial grounds is met by an armed response from Kayce and Sam Stands Alone, neither of whom understand what it is. Monica also delivers a rant at her students in Season 3 accusing them of spending more time looking at their phones rather than enjoying nature.
  • That Suicide is Shameful. When Beth purposely pushes Jamie towards committing suicide, John stops him by calling the act of suicide "the most selfish thing a man can do". This is never deconstructed or played for any irony.
• Awesome Music: Season 1 is rich with the vocals of Maynard James Keenan: Jimmy is listening to A Perfect Circle's "Judith" when Rip first confronts him. "Grand Canyon" and "The Humbling River," from Keenan's solo project Puscifer, also feature on the soundtrack.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • The Montana Free Militia, who made their first appearance in season 2 as hired muscle for the Beck Brothers and are revealed to be responsible for the attack on the Duttons at the end of season 3, have their remaining members wiped out at the beginning of the third episode of season 4. Between their racism, violence, injuring and killing innocent bystanders and their repeated failures, it's satisfying to see them beaten to death and gunned down.
  • Jamie’s "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Beth in Season 5’s midseason finale is very satisfying, especially given the fact that Beth has been abusing Jamie for years and now Jamie finally has her beat, where Beth can do nothing but spew insults and beg her father to kill Jamie.
• Designated Hero: The Duttons can be this to some viewers. If it wasn’t for the fact that their enemies are over-the-top evil, they would probably be the villains in this series. They have a ridiculous amount of land they really don’t need, use political corruption to get away with crime, willingly ruin lives if it means more power and money, project a toxic masculine culture that bullies the weak (Jamie and Jimmy), and murder ranchers if they ever decide to leave Yellowstone after getting too involved in the seedy side of their operations. They’re basically a crime family that lives in Montana instead of New Jersey.
• Funny Moments: When Kayce pays Dan Jenkins a visit, he and Ryan (the Livestock Agent with him) quickly subdue Jenkins's bodyguard. As soon as Kayce goes inside, the bodyguard not only turns the tables, but produces an FBI badge. Ryan asks if he's moonlighting. The bodyguard grins and says, "Alimony's a bitch!"
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Rip is easily one of the most popular and recognizable characters from the show.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • After nearly getting trampled to death in "Meaner Than Evil", Colby gives a shaken up, injured and vulnerable Teeter some emergency medical attention. She gives him a heartfelt thank you and they kiss.
  • After all the crap that happened in "I Want To Be Him," a lot of good happens in "Keep The Wolves Close".
    • For starters, Lloyd finally reconciles with Walker by getting him a guitar to replace the one he smashed.
    • After Teeter confronts John about her and Laramie's dismissal (which wasn't her fault), he changes his mind after Rip backs her up and that she has the brand. She hugs Rip in gratitude and he reassures her that the brand really does mean something.
    • Carter finally reconciles with Beth and moves back into the house with her and Rip.
    • We see Kayce and Tate bonding, as well as Kayce and Mo while searching for (and recovering) a group of stolen horses.
    • Finally, for all of crap that Jamie has been going through, we even see him spending time with his son.
  • Emily jumping in to defend Jimmy when Mia punches him for getting in a new relationship, making it a rare example of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male being averted in the series. She comes very close to beating the shit out of Mia, which impresses everyone on the ranch. She also trusts Jimmy enough to talk with Mia alone after the fight, showing that she trusts him completely, and knows that he needed to get some closure.
• Memetic Mutation: Liberal John Dutton^Explanation Greatly annoyed by the Misaimed Fandom below, conservatives have memed a picture of John Dutton sitting on his truck, adding captions of him stating strongly liberal viewpoints delivered with masculine conservative couching. It's also used to mock liberals posing as conservatives in real life, and people who lack awareness of their own political beliefs.
• Misaimed Fandom: A rather understandable (and therefore confusing) example. In an interview, Taylor Sheridan expressed amazement at the show being embraced by "red state viewers" who claimed it represented them, saying, "The show’s talking about the displacement of Native Americans and the way Native American women were treated and about corporate greed and the gentrification of the West, and land-grabbing. That’s a red-state show?" However, the show also increasingly focuses on unflattering portrayals of blue-state coastal elites and city-dwellers while lionizing the traditional values and lifestyle of rural Americans, including toxic masculinity, so it's not hard to understand what the appeal is for red-state and conservative viewers. Really, while issues regarding indigenous people and land-grabbing are the only somewhat left-leaning views the show expresses, the rest is clearly right-wing.
  • By the show's fifth season, multiple news articles have commented on how the show's audience is primarily conservative, and how the show's premise and idealogy generally appeals to the right-wing.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • If her abuse of him wasn’t enough, Beth telling Jamie that he should kill himself is mind-numbingly cruel and shows that her end goal in abusing him is that he will eventually do it.
  • In Season Five, the reveal of how John branded Rip is arguably this. While Rip was working on the ranch as a teenager, his relationship with Beth was unstable and one-sided, and she hooked up with one of the ranchers who was bullying him. When the bully cruelly brags to Rip that he had sex with Beth, Rip gives him one hell of a beating. Then, when it's all over, the bully pulls a knife on Rip and tries to murder him, forcing Rip to use lethal force to defend himself. Immediately, Rip goes to John and explains what happened. Despite knowing that Rip was defending himself, and acknowledging that Rip could have gotten away with saying the bully just fell off his horse, John uses the opportunity to force Rip into devoting the rest of his life to the ranch. It's a clear case of John using Rip's Undying Loyalty and honesty to turn him into his personal attack dog.
  • Beth's reaction to finding out from Jamie that their family has been sending people to the train station for a century, and that the train station exists at all, is immediately trying to get John to send Jamie there.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • During episode 7 of Season 1, Rip is hunting for a grizzly bear that has been recurring for the last two episodes when he comes across a couple hanging on a ledge. He attempts to pull them up, but in the commotion, the man inadvertently causes the woman to fall to her death onscreen. Stricken with grief, the man lets go of the rope and falls to his death. No sooner does Rip have time to realize what happened, than the bear comes charging at him, forcing him to to shoot it dead.
  • The Beck Brothers' intimidation tactics. When yanking liquor licenses fail, they use white supremacists to beat, sexually assault and kill people, brutalize families and kidnap and abuse children.
  • Being "Taken to the train station" by the Duttons. It's an isolated spot just over the Wyoming border where there's no one for at least a hundred miles around to see you get shot and dumped into a ravine.
  • The coordinated attack that we see at the end of Season 3 and in the season 4 premiere. Several shootings and a bombing that leaves at least three people dead—all of whom were innocent bystanders—and several badly injured.
  • What the Duttons and law enforcement do to said attackers in response. All the attackers are chased down, hanged, shot, and beaten in the first five minutes of the season 4 premiere. At the beginning of the third episode of season 4, the remaining members of the militia are wiped out and their "party planner" is imprisoned, tortured, and eventually killed in an old fashioned shootout at the "train station".
• Obscure Popularity: This is one of the rare shows whose ratings have increased every season (going from averaging two million viewers in its first season to seven million in its fourth) in a time when cable viewership is in decline, has a passionate and active fanbase, and was successful enough to launch several spinoffs. Nonetheless, the show has gotten little mainstream exposure and is largely unheard of outside of its fanbase.
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • Over several seasons, Mia throws herself at Jimmy, helps him come out of his social shell, and nurtures him through two catastrophic injuries, but when he needs to go to Texas for work, she dumps him, and Jimmy falls almost immediately in love with another girl. After only two or three scenes together, they're engaged.
  • John and Summer's relationship makes little sense, as almost every scene they have together involves either Summer snottily insulting John's lifestyle or John lecturing Summer on how everything she believes is wrong. Their relationship might be purely physical, but with John being such a wealthy and respected member of the community, you'd think he'd easily be able to meet attractive women he halfway respects. This even gets a Lampshade Hanging midway through Season 5, when John sarcastically comments at a post-cattle branding ceremony dance that he's having no luck getting women to dance with him after both Summer and Lynette rebuff his attempts to court them, due to the fact that they're both jealous of the other.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Season 2 has the show's comedic relief, Ryan and Colby, running into friction because one wants to take "the brand" and the other doesn't, which is effectively uncapitalized in the long run. Season 2 revolves around Ryan (a reserve Livestock agent under John Dutton's command) being given a Field Promotion, and slowly realizing that he's getting more and more drawn into the shadier side of the ranch's operations, leading him to take the brand (despite Colby telling him to rethink his actions). The schism between them doesn't show up again, with Colby promptly dropping the matter and all of the regular ranchhands taking the brand by the end of the following season after they all decide to team up and kill Wade Morrow and his son.
  • Beth Dutton and Angela Blue Thunder teaming up and causing all manner of havoc on the corporate side is set up in Season 3, when Rainwater connects them and they briefly work on stopping one of Market Equities' stock runs, with Beth even giving her an insider tip to invest in a certain stock to make some easy money and the former commenting that they could work well together. This idea gets dropped almost instantly, as Angela is absent in Season 4 and only returns in Season 5 in a far different role (now an advisor within the U.S. Government, who instigates an Enemy Civil War against Rainwater by having the President endorse one of his rivals).
  • Season 3 and 4 set up a plotline regarding the Rule of Symbolism, as Kayce is visited several times by a wolf that appears to be sitting and staring at him (including when he's Making Love in All the Wrong Places with Monica), and is hypothesized by Mo as having a greater meaning that ties into the imminent birth of Kayce and Monica's second child. Come the Season 5 premiere, Monica is involved in an car crash that claims the life of her unborn child due to the trauma sustained when the vehicle rolled over, and the plotline is promptly dropped.
  • The entire gubernatorial campaign for Governor set up at the end of Season 4 (when John announces his plan to run) is avoided via a nine-month Time Skip that occurs between seasons, with the race and vote completely unseen before it starts with John having learned he just won the race. The political maneuvering John would have to do against his opponent, along with a mention of a not-insignificant part of the voting bloc that doesn't like his proposed policies, are dropped completely after the first act of the season premiere, while the rest of the season is motivated by John immediately getting annoyed by the demands the job entails.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Jamie is supposed to be taken as spineless and slimy, but he actually ends up making some really great points about how he is blatantly John's least favorite son. Jamie went to law school because John told him it would help him to keep the ranch safe, but he subsequently ignores the sacrifices Jamie made to keep the ranch safe (and lets Beth and Kayce get away with just about anything). Jamie even has something of a right to be angry with John for not revealing Jamie was really adopted until well into adulthood after Jamie had to find out for himself. It doesn't help that Beth's admittedly valid reason for hating him isn't revealed for a couple seasons, making it just come off as irrational. Even when it is revealed, her extremely cruel moments like telling Jamie he should kill himself, is still borderline sadistic.
  • This finally hits its zenith midway through Season 5 when Beth breaks into Jamie's house, hits him (drawing blood in the process) and confronts him over the campaign to impeach John. As the audience has seen over the preceding half-season, John functionally abdicated his responsibilities in the first few days to go on a trip to capture and brand cattle, and has all but ignored the advice of every one of his advisors, meaning Jamie is in the right for wanting to protect the continuity of the Governor's office. Beth threatens to reveal the blackmail material on Jamie... only for the latter to throw it back in her face that he's been trying to protect the ranch all along (bringing up his unsuccessful campaign to have Market Equities build an airport in the region in Season 3), and that for all of Beth's machinations against him, she has no legitimate right to the ranch — invoking both Tate and his own son's inheritance of the property in the process. It says something when even Jamie (who outright condones Sarah looking up contacts who could put a hit out on Beth) looks like the sane one compared to Beth, who is completely naive about the "train station" and runs to her father to try and get Jamie killed immediately.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Monica is often the voice of reason and is the show's most morally unblemished character, so she's supposed to be sympathetic. She's often saddled with Author Filibusters about the very real plight of Native Americans. In season three, however, her decision to tear into her students for browsing on their phones in a park before class comes across as almost breathtakingly self-righteous and unprofessional. She has no right to dictate how her students pass their time outside of class. Her diatribe has nothing to do with the content of her class. And her choice to call the entire class "a waste of my fucking time" before walking away in disgust seems like something she could get fired for. None of it is helped by the fact that she's almost the same age as the students she presumes to lecture about how to live their lives.
  • John turning a blind-eye to Beth bullying Jamie before he even finds out the reason Beth hates him so much, but physically threatening Jamie the single time he retaliates, kicking Jamie off the ranch by telling him he's never done anything for the family after pressuring him to go to law school and become the family lawyer, and refusing to answer when Beth demands he say he love Jamie the same way he loves her and Kayce borders on Kick the Dog.
  • Beth. Her entire history of verbal and physical abuse towards Jamie is hinted to be because of an unspecified incident in the past, behavior she claims she's entitled to, and even John tells Jamie multiple times to give her space because she's been through a lot. No matter the reason, it still comes off as a massive Double Standard that she can sadistically abuse him regularly, but if he fights back ONCE, he’s a spineless weakling who deserves to be disowned by his family. Even when the reason for her hatred is revealed, considering it only happened because of her own actions (and that she had to cajole Jamie into taking her there), it makes it more of a case of her blaming everyone but herself and abusing someone rather than deal with her own flaws.
  • Beth and Rip's treatment of Carter borders on sadistic, even though it's clearly set-up to be a case of Tough Love (he's intended to be a younger analogue of Rip) and Carter himself is said to be a truant. In a moment of desperation, Carter calls Beth his "guardian" when Haskell has him arrested after robbing a convenience store (an act that got him roughed up), and he's brought back to the ranch... only to be threatened multiple times by Rip, who kicks him out in a rage, orders him to walk into the middle of nowhere (which Rip changes his mind on), kept in a storage shed until morning, then driven out into the middle of nowhere again and physically tossed from a vehicle before Rip's conscience gets the better of him. Even when he becomes a "member" of the ranch (a stall-cleaner), he's repeatedly subjected to verbal abuse by the other ranchers along with Rip (who all contend that he doesn't deserve a name besides "boy" because he won't be sticking around), is forced to live in a barn after Beth throws him out of the property she and Rip are living in, and half the attempts he makes to ingratiate himself with Rip or Beth are met with a dismissive, even hostile, response. They essentially kidnapped a teenager and forced him into slave labor to teach him a lesson. The show attempts to justify this by claiming that because Carter is just like Rip, their actions were necessary to toughen him up, even though it comes across as a clear case of abuse to some viewers. And the idea that Rip is some sort of ideal to aspire to is also... troubling.
  • Due to the above examples, the Duttons as a whole can be difficult to sympathize with after a while, due to their repeated cruelty, full acceptance of toxic masculinity, and belief that abuse makes people stronger, despite all the evidence (even in the show) showing that this is not the case. Despite this, the show never really plays this for any irony and completely lionizes this kind of culture.

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