I might be jumping the gun on this just a tad but it doesn't take long before Dutton Ranch starts to feel very familiar. So far, although the cast of characters are much smaller, it seems a great deal like Yellowstone but without as large a cast of characters and the big price tag of Kevin Costner.
Will it be good? Well that's tough to say after one episode because although I do like the formula of the Duttons being ass-kickers that have their own unique way of dealing with bad people without using the law, it does feel like a candy bar that I really like repackaged with a different name on it. It kind of feels like cheating.
They seem to just be picking through the most popular characters from the Yellowstone series and running with all of them. I have enjoyed all of the prequels but I have to give the thumbs down to Marshals which I think simply isn't very good and that the main actor and his actor child are just awful.
But at least in the case of Dutton Ranch basically everyone thought that Rip and Beth were excellent characters. The problem now is, how do we build a story around them? At the conclusion of Yellowstone everyone knows and respects them, and there really isn't much else for them to go with that since so much of the story revolved around Costner's character.
I do like how they didn't really feel as though a long and drawn out explanation was necessary though and they just get right to it in the first 10 minutes when a fire starts and completely wipes out their ranch in Montana or wherever it was meant to take place and instead of rebuilding they just move to Texas.
Through great wealth, or so it is presumed, they quickly establish a large ranch and it is immediately successful but that brings about the jealousy of a rival family that has been in that part of Texas for a very long time and wants to protect what they have by any means necessary. This seems awfully familiar, it's almost like Yellowstone but the shoe is on the other foot this time.
The Dutton's as far as I have watched do not get rattled and are kind, fair, but also stern with everyone that they meet and they have a unique way of intimidating those that get in their way that is very familiar because it is exactly the sort of things we saw in the original series
Whether or not a person can enjoy this I think depends a great deal on whether or not you are really tired of this entire process that was done so many times in Yellowstone. I don't really know exactly where the story is going but it does seem to directly mirror the original series and for the most part, I am ok with that.
However, I can't treat this series as if it was a priority because even though it is a putting one of my favorite albums on repeat, it is still something I have seen before.
One thing that the showrunners have always done really well is to make the scenery the star of the show and they aren't as able to do this with Texas being the location because Texas is flat and simply isn't going to have the awe-inspiring shots that they were able to pull off in the far north of the USA. It's still lovely though. Instead of having the American Indians be the marginalized group that they are friends with they now have Mexican Americans and I can see that becoming more and more of a focus here as well.
I don't really know what to expect but I can tell after a single episode that Paramount knows they have a good product here and just had to figure out a way to repackage it and get people to buy it again.
I don't believe this one will go over as well as the previous show or the 2 prequels, but it is still better than most anything else that is on TV right now.
Should I watch it
I think if you enjoyed the original you will like this too if you can push past the fact that there really isn't but so much rivalry that you can put into a ranch sort of situation and yes, the stuff from Yellowstone will be repeated. If you haven't seen Yellowstone this will appeal to you as well because it isn't necessary to know the backstory from that show (for the most part) in order to enjoy this.
I probably wont watch it as adamantly as I did the original but it is still great story-telling, even if it is re-used.
This is currently only legally streamable on Paramount+