Yellowstone

[The15thMember]

We have a free trial of Paramount+ right now; it comes as a perk with Walmart+, and my mom is trying that out.  It doesn't have a lot on it we are interested in, although my sister and I gave the Halo series a try and we are LOVING it.  It's been a while since we watched a show that good. 

Since we love cowboys, we gave the Yellowstone prequel 1883 a look too.  We've never watched Yellowstone, but we've always been interested in it, since it's so popular, and we figured that it wouldn't matter much to watch the prequel first.  (Yellowstone streams on Peacock, not Paramount+, so we couldn't start with the main series.)  We watched the first episode of 1883, and it was ridiculously stupid.  I'm no cowboy history buff, but even I know that Pinkertons didn't lead wagon trains, that oxen are better for long distance trail travel on a budget than horses, that rattlesnakes and roving bands of murdering Indians were not the biggest dangers out on the prairie, and that the Oregon trail didn't start in Texas.  Not to mention it was full of ridiculous modern social and political dialogue and commentary that didn't make any sense for the time period.  It made it seem like taking your family to Oregon was something only undertaken by insane people or poor immigrants who couldn't afford to take the train there. 

It was such a dumpster fire that it made us seriously question if Yellowstone could be as good as people make it out to be.  We were thinking about purchasing the first season to give it a try, but now we're not sure it's going to be worth the money.  Has anyone here watched Yellowstone?  How do you like it?         

[BeeMaster2]

My wife and I and my brother and his wife love Yellowstone. We all can?t wait to see the next episode. We are also waiting for the new show to come out. I think it?s called 1923.
Jim Altmiller

[Acebird]

Has anyone here watched Yellowstone?  How do you like it?         

Its a good modern day entertainment with all the sex you could ask for.  It is not a documentary.  That would be boring and wouldn't capture the general public.  It is written to attract both the right and the left.  I would not trust it is an authentic representation of the past.  We like it and are waiting for the next series.

[Michael Bush]

Yellowstone is entertaining.  It has some ridicules concepts thrown in but it's not woke.  Sounds like the prequel is woke.  Nothing ruins a good story like revisionist history and "preaching" wokeness.

[Acebird]

"preaching" wokeness.

I have heard this term used on both sides of the isle but fail to understand its meaning.

[Ben Framed]

Yellowstone is entertaining.  It has some ridicules concepts thrown in but it's not woke.  Sounds like the prequel is woke.  Nothing ruins a good story like revisionist history and "preaching" wokeness.

Stated back in the old Bonanza Series? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Michael Bush]

Any story that pushes an agenda is "preaching".  "Woke" is an adjective that to the left means they are aware of the "horrible injustices perpetrated on everyone".  "Woke" is when everything fits the current leftist agenda.  E.g. masculinity is toxic, there have to be characters that "check all the boxes" even if it makes not sense in the context of the story.  I.e. there has to be someone gay, trans, black, brown etc. even if there is no historic context that makes sense.  E.g. the recent movie about Anne Boleyn where she's black.  Then you have to have some ridiculously hateful person who is prejudiced against those "oppressed" groups.  An example from Dr. Quinn politically correct medicine woman would be the hateful cowboy who not only doesn't want her in a horse race but when he finds out she won and she's a woman insists on taking her trophy.  Anyone who has hung out with cowboys knows how ridiculous this is.  NO cowboy in any of the west would ever take a trophy away from anyone who beat them fair and square, especially a woman.  No matter how much of a jerk he might be, he would be ashamed to do such a thing.  It's bad enough to lose to a woman, but to be a sore loser about it would only make him more ashamed.  Another is the corn growing, peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the same show.  The Cheyenne, in reality (not in the show0 in retaliation to being massacred, burned Julesburg to the ground and murdered many ranchers and their families.  Some might have been somewhat peaceful, but they were warriors and to portray them as pacifists is absurd.  So stories that are woke and historic fiction always rewrite history to fit the left agenda.  If they are current, then they exaggerate people into cartoons of their concepts.  e.g. men are all stupid and racist and misogynists unless they are totally lacking in masculinity, then they might possibly be good, American Indians are pacifists who would never hurt anyone etc. ...

[The15thMember]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.  I don't need the show to be entirely without problems or suspension of belief (I am watching the Highlander TV series right now, after all), but I need the story to move under its own momentum, not the momentum of an agenda or an entirely misapplied theme.  It sounds like Yellowstone is still worth a look. 

[Michael Bush]

Yellowstone is a good story, interesting characters, not that farfetched and not a lot of wokeness.  Of course they have to squeeze in a little but it has nothing to do with the plot.  There is a line where some Oriental tourists say that no one should own that much land, which is a bit leftist, and perhaps the daughter implies how unfair it is to be a woman, but that's like two scenes out of several seasons and neither felt preachy.  It might be cheaper to buy the DVDs than to get a subscription.  I would watch it if you get the chance.

[The15thMember]

Yellowstone is a good story, interesting characters, not that farfetched and not a lot of wokeness.  Of course they have to squeeze in a little but it has nothing to do with the plot.  There is a line where some Oriental tourists say that no one should own that much land, which is a bit leftist, and perhaps the daughter implies how unfair it is to be a woman, but that's like two scenes out of several seasons and neither felt preachy.  It might be cheaper to buy the DVDs than to get a subscription.  I would watch it if you get the chance.

That sort of thing won't bother me.  I don't care if stories include stuff like that, but they can't be writing the story in a way that doesn't make any sense just to include scenes like that.  I always buy shows on hard disk if I can.  Honestly, I doubt I'd watch a show if it wasn't available on hard disk.  I'm the kind of person who likes to rewatch stuff, and if I'm going to have to pay for that privilege forever with a subscription, I'd almost rather not watch the show.  I just find myself sitting there and hoping the show is bad so I don't wish I could purchase it.  That's one thing we do like about Paramount+, CBS releases everything on Blu-ray/DVD eventually.  It's gotten to the point where we're like only watching CBS shows as a result, since they are also responsible for the remastered releases of the old shows we like.  I think that literally the only fictional show we are watching right now that is not part of the CBS family is Highlander.         

[Kathyp]

Picard is good.  I have enjoyed Sky Med.  Top Gun Maverick is on there.  A bunch of the CBS TV shows are on there if you need to catch up on any of them.  NCIS, NCIS LA, Hawaii Five-0 (the new one), etc.  All the Star Treks. 

It's not bad.  We got it free when we switched to T-Mobile so I used it mostly to catch up on series I had not finished.

[The15thMember]

Picard is good.  I have enjoyed Sky Med.  Top Gun Maverick is on there.  A bunch of the CBS TV shows are on there if you need to catch up on any of them.  NCIS, NCIS LA, Hawaii Five-0 (the new one), etc.  All the Star Treks. 

It's not bad.  We got it free when we switched to T-Mobile so I used it mostly to catch up on series I had not finished.

Try Halo if you haven't.  It's good to know that you are liking Picard.  Have you tried the other new Star Trek shows?  How are they?  I'll be like 50 by the time I get to the streaming Star Trek shows.  I'm taking my sweet time watching all of Star Trek in order, so I'm only halfway through Next Gen now, but that's how I like it.   

[Kathyp]

I have been about 1/2 way through Halo.  Since I am a Halo player from way back I was happy to see that they were true to the game in a lot of the stuff on there.  I watched most of the Star Trek spin off shows as they were on.  If I run out of things to watch I might go back and do a few over again, but between the pile of books I have to read and the shows I have not yet watched, it seems unlikely that I'll ever get back to them!