History YMMV / Yellowstone

* MemeticMutation: Liberal John Dutton[[labelnote:Explanation]] Greatly annoyed by the MisaimedFandom 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 political own beliefs.[[/labelnote]]

** Although she survives, Beth being beaten to a bloody pulp in season 2 episode 7 is quite satisfying since she nearly drove Jamie to try to kill himself.

* ObscurePopularity: 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.

** Although she survives, Beth being beaten to a bloody pulp in season 2 ep. 7 is quite satisfying since she nearly drove Jamie to try to kill himself.

* MisaimedFandom: A rather understandable (and therefore confusing) example. In [[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/yellowstone-tv-series-taylor-sheridan/671897/ an interview]], Creator/TaylorSheridan 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, issues regarding indigenous people and land-grabbing are the ''only'' somewhat left-leaning views the show expresses, the rest is clearly right-wing.

** Although she survives, Beth being beaten to a bloody pulp in season 2 episode 7 is quite satisfying since she nearly drove Jamie to try to kill himself.

* DesignatedHero: 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 don’t really need, use political corruption to get away with crime, willingly ruin lives if it means more power and money, [[TestosteronePoisoning project a toxic masculine culture that bullies the weak (Jamie and Jimmy)]], and murder ranchers if they ever decide to leave Yellowstone after [[HeKnowsTooMuch getting too involved in the seedy side of their operations]]. They’re basically a crime family that lives in Montana instead of New Jersey.

** Although she survives, Beth being beaten to a bloody pulp in season 2 episode 7 is quite satisfying since she nearly drove Jamie to try to kill himself.

** This also extends to the Broken Rock tribe itself in later seasons. Due to a combination of factors (TheFixer, 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 TheRez 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.

** 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 TheRez 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.

** Although she survives, Beth being beaten to a bloody pulp in season 2 episode 7 is quite satisfying since she nearly drove Jim to try to kill himself.

** Although she survives, Beth being beaten to a bloody pulp in season 2 episode 7. Considering that before this she had driven Jim to try to kill himself it's very hard to sympathize with her.

* CatharsisFactor: 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 [[spoiler: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.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: 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 and John doesn't recognize any of the sacrifices he's had to make in life for the ranch, especially considering Kayce joined the Navy to run away from it all and Beth openly attests to not giving the shit about the Yellowstone at all past her father's desire to keep it whole and going into the twenty-first century. Jamie went to law school because John told him it would help him to keep the ranch safe, he lets Beth and Kayce get away with just about anything, and he even has something of a right to be angry with John for not revealing [[spoiler: Jamie was really adopted]] until well into adulthood after Jamie had to find out for himself. It doesn't help that [[spoiler: Beth's admittedly valid reason for hating him]] isn't revealed for a couple seasons, making it just come off as irrational. And even when it is revealed, her extremely cruel moments like telling Jamie he should kill himself, [[DisproportionateRetribution is still borderline sadistic.]]

* MemeticMutation: Liberal John Dutton[[labelnote:Explanation]] Greatly annoyed by the MisaimedFandom 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.[[/labelnote]]

* InformedWrongness: Stanley, John's environmental advisor, is fired by John for claiming the sage grass population would not be effected by solar panels being implanted, with John even saying that Stanley "scares him" because he isn't joking. While John is right that sage grass would be damaged by the solar panels, as a rancher, ''he shouldn't care''. Sage grass has very few benefits on pastures (and is toxic to other plants) and has to be heavily controlled so that the plants cattle ''can'' eat aren't killed. John also shames him for not casually introducing himself sooner, when as the new governor, it's ''John's'' job to formally introduce himself to his advisors. Stanley is essentially punished for doing his job correctly... [[FoxNewsLiberal Or because he represents environmentalists.]]

* MisaimedFandom: A rather understandable (and therefore confusing) example. In [[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/yellowstone-tv-series-taylor-sheridan/671897/ an interview]], Creator/TaylorSheridan 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, issues regarding indigenous people and land-grabbing are the ''only'' somewhat left-leaning views the show expresses, the rest is clearly very right-wing.

* MisaimedFandom: A rather understandable (and therefore confusing) example. In [[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/yellowstone-tv-series-taylor-sheridan/671897/ 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, issues regarding indigenous people and land-grabbing are the ''only'' somewhat left-leaning views the show expresses, the rest is clearly very right-wing.

* DesignatedHero: The Duttons. 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 don’t really need, use political corruption to get away with crime, willingly ruin lives if it means more power and money, [[TestosteronePoisoning project a toxic masculine culture that bullies the weak (Jamie and Jimmy)]], and murder ranchers if they ever decide to leave Yellowstone after [[HeKnowsTooMuch getting too involved in the seedy side of their operations]]. They’re basically a crime family that lives in Montana instead of New Jersey.

** Beth and Rip's treatment of Carter borders on sadistic, even though it's clearly set-up to be a case of ToughLove (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 [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep 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.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Men lacking in traditional masculine traits are frequently portrayed as weak and spineless, justifying their abuse. Men are expected to be ''hypermasculine'' in this setting, and those that don't reach this standard (like Jamie and Jimmy) are frequent targets of bullying and physical abuse. Even Dan Jenkins is mocked for a supposed lack of manliness (even for sensible things like covering your ears while at a shooting range).
** The first season plays heavily into negative stereotypes of Asian-Americans, as the bus full of tourists John finds in a first-season episode are busy taking photos of [[BearsAreBadNews a grizzly bear at close range]], several of whom are not fluent in English, and a tourist who delivers a MotiveRant about the Duttons not owning the land around the ranch before John cajoles them into leaving.
** Social Justice Warriors, “Karens”, and people on the far-left, are some of the worst targets on the show. Look no farther than Summer.

* SpiritualAdaptation: Can best be described as a better 21st-century update of ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' than the [[Series/Dallas2012 2012 version]].

** 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.

* MisaimedFandom: A rather understandable example. In [[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/yellowstone-tv-series-taylor-sheridan/671897/ 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.

** Social Justice Warriors, “Karen’s”, and professionally offended people are some of the worst targets on the show. Look no farther than Summer.