'1923' Review: Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren Boost Taylor Sheridan's Chaos 'Yellowstone' Spinoff

One hour pilot episode of Paramount+1923, Yellowstone The only episode of the prequel pair To critics, it’s not a template for a compelling ongoing series, but rather a very loose mix of stuff that’s clearly the focus of this week’s fascinating creator Taylor Sheridan.

Aboriginal Re-Education School! Tsavo cannibals in Kenya! Grazing rights!

1923

Bottom line Ford and Mirren are good, but the plot needs to be sorted out.

Broadcast date: Sunday, December (Paramount+)
Throwing: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren , Marley Shelton 1923 James · Butch Dale , Darren Mann, Brandon Sklenar, Jennifer Ehle, Aminah Nieves, Jerome Flynn, Timothy Dalton
creator:Taylor Sheridan

maybe1894 will eventually come together, maybe they will come together soon – also, I’ve only seen one episode — but in the short term, Sheridan’s carefully cultivated core audience is unlikely to care. Amidst a star-studded cast led by Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, familiar expansive skyscapes and Periodic totemic recitation of the name “Datton”, 1883 provides a lot of curious (and potentially irritating) content right away.

Ford and Mirren play Jacob and Cara DUTTON – any and all references to the last name “Dutton” feel in all caps as an added “you know The” is shorthand for dramatic irony, like Yellowstone in 1883 years” — owners of a thriving cattle ranch in Montana. As Ford and Mirren are playing a couple who realize the hardships of a distant utopia they hope to become, 80 Apparently also Mosquito Coast prequel.

Jacob arrives 80 and finds himself raising his brother James – “Like Tim McGraw in ! Hint – sons John (James Badge Dale) and Spencer (Brandon Sklenar). John’s son Jack (Darren Mann) is also in the busy Dutton clan, eager to be part of the family’s ranching legacy , and married the slightly prim and demure Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph).

The Montana Livestock Association folks are concerned about the lack of space for their cattle to graze , and a sheep invasion run by local shepherds led by Jerome Flynn’s Banner – a rivalry associated with the Old Country (or the Old Country, as this is the Scottish and Irish conflict between people).

Meanwhile, in what could be the Montana wilderness, we meet Teonna (Aminah Nieves), an indigenous teen, in a stern Father Raynor (Sebastian Roach) runs a boarding school facing abuse – I choose to believe that “Reno” means that the series is also a prequel to Chocolate Wars — and Overseen by the vicious Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle).

Then there is a storyline in Africa where an initially unidentified bearded man is hunting big game and repressing his Trauma of service in World War I.

Just as potential scars from the Civil War are 1894, the First World War in ‘s backstory is everywhere as Prohibition and the looming Great Depression are its inevitable future. It’s all about Sheridan’s iconic The obsession with human beings and the inherently sadistic disregard for… well, it all ties together. As Isabel May recites in the episode’s opening voiceover, “violence has always plagued this family,” in this In this case, that feels like a very understatement. As Sheridan says, violence is fundamental to the DNA of the American Dream, a tension in our ingrained identities that we have the ability to impose on a land previously occupied People of this land, we have the ability to export globally as well.

The more spread 1235256055 pilot gets, more speculatively concern I get.

When everything stands on solid ground base time , Dutton – staunchly determined older men, rebellious and potentially troublesome younger men, and women around them who are confident and supportive – 1894 The pilot is totally watchable. Director Ben Richardson, a constant presence in the Sheridan universe as director and cinematographer, is an expert on the visual grammar of this world, even the parts that annoy me, like the overly neat production design throughout. He knows how to go from the picturesque close-ups of horses moving against towering skies and herds of livestock across vast plains, to the tight close-ups of ragged men and busy women giving their opinion to the nobility of the land and more. My inner tv critic wants to stress – not a Taylor Sheridan groupie cares – EVERYTHING 100 with1923Try to do better at AmazonThe English ,More effective*).

Ford eased into the character actor phase of his career that he might prefer, starting with ‘s, snarling with ominous weight, got somber value from every inch of his craggy face. Introduced with a rifle in hand, but still conveying plenty of necessary emotion, Mirren is a fine foil, though she boasts that smoothed-out, exaggerated accent that one might have if she hadn’t been executed by an impeccably great An actor who dares to quibble about our time (see also Dame Judi Dench in Belfast). Dale (and on-screen wife Marley Shelton) have generally felt underutilized so far, and Timothy Dalton, who chewed up scenery in the show’s trailers, has yet to make her first appearance.

The boarding school stuff is just non-stop sadism, although I’m sure it’s accurate sadism, and I’m sure to the insulated Yellowstone There is value in the audience imparting knowledge of these schools, but the scenes feel like exploitative recreations of trauma by white writers and directors, and viewers get worried when slavery or the Holocaust are treated equally. Maybe once the story line is less about insults, whips, blood and tears, it will fit together more convincingly. Oh yeah, and Ehle’s “savage nun” character is way over the top, so I hope Sister Mary gets more interesting soon.

As for the African scene? Well, I know Sheridan has seenThe Ghost and the Darkness and read some Hemingway, but so far the show’s seriousness about colonialism borders on stupid , and two things that had me laughing out loud in the last five minutes of what should have been a shock, were definitely not on purpose.

Uneven has its advantages though: Most The pilot is a mismatched enigma, but the piece I love makes me more right than ever Yellowstone or100. Having only watched it for an hour, I think my review boils down to, “We’ll have to wait and see.”