As we wait for part two of season five.
To some, ranking the seasons of Yellowstone is on a par with choosing their favourite child, but when you consider what the Paramount+ show is really about – a Succession-style tussle over the future of the Dutton family’s Montana ranch – it becomes a rather fitting comparison.
After all, who is John’s favourite? (It’s Beth).
We now know that the Kevin Costner vehicle is about to gallop off into the sunset, in part on account of the very real-life drama behind the scenes between the show’s star and its creator Taylor Sheridan. That contractual back-and-forth, as well as production delays due to the strikes and a recent lawsuit, has made for a fairly fraught set.
With the final part of season five set to premiere at the end of this year, we’re biding our time until the return of the show, with all the sparky personalities we’ve come to know.
From dinosaur remains to an explosion at a meth lab and the sweeping backdrop of Montana, Yellowstone never fails to balance high drama with absurdity.
But which season of the epic frontier tale – which has been widely recognised as America’s most popular ongoing show, spawning countless spin-offs – stands above the others?
Welcome to our definitive ranking of every horseback montage and rodeo spectacular that’s kept Yellowstone chugging from year to year.
5. Season five
It feels harsh to mark an ongoing season down, given that we haven’t seen the end of it yet. The final six episodes are set to arrive just in time for Christmas.
But what we’ve seen so far certainly wasn’t up to the standard of the early Yellowstone seasons. There are a number of factors, not least Taylor Sheridan’s reduced involvement in the show in favour of his other projects.
It’s not hard to notice the storylines have declined in recent years, most notably in this tumultuous current season.
The show may be biding its time to hit us with a dramatic punch in the back half of the season. But in what we’ve seen of season five so far, not a whole lot happens aside from John becoming governor.
Yet all is not lost! The mid-season finale left us with a number of juicy strands to get excited about, namely Jamie’s attack on John and Beth, as well as Kayce and Monica’s decision to move back to the ranch. And there’s still the matter of those damned wolves to get the blood pumping.
4. Season four
Much of the criticism hurled at season five feels reminiscent of that levelled at the season before it. At this point, it began to feel that Sheridan might be spreading himself a bit thin as the Paramount commissions started to gather pace.
Despite once again packing in a bumper 10 episodes, not a whole lot of note happened. Even season four’s surprise attack on the Duttons yielded… nothing.
Amid the stasis of much of the show – the camera always returning to the tedious tragedies befalling Kayce and Monica – the Jamie and Beth drama stands out as a highlight and has continued to reverberate as we gear up for more of season five.
But off the back of a superb season three, the experience of watching season four felt not wholly dissimilar to when Rip tossed a rattlesnake in Roarke’s face. Boo.
3. Season one
The one where it all began. This gets automatic credit for being the season that launched several more and some spin-offs to boot.
It also has a feature-length first episode that’s a masterclass in pilot-writing, setting up oodles of tension between the Dutton family ranch and the neighbouring Indian reservation and land developers. Ending in (spoiler) Lee’s death immediately established the stakes to buffet the show onwards.
Having said that, this season does slip down the rankings because it’s where we get the preposterous exploding-meth-lab scene while Kayce and Monica are out on a drive. So it isn’t without its moments of over-the-top melodrama.
2. Season three
The third season of Yellowstone is nothing short of captivating television. Straight after a season of Old West mentality, battling it out with the Beck Brothers, Yellowstone brought in a foe deeply rooted in contemporary issues: a massive corporation determined to tear up the ranch and build an airport in its place.
The season largely suffered on account of its pacing – after the rip-roaring season two, which finally got the balance of hijinks and melodrama with character studies bang on, this felt lethargic by comparison.
But, that noted, the Dutton camping trip was an all-time highlight.
1. Season two
After the hit-and-occasional-miss nature of the first season, Yellowstone‘s second effort fired on all cylinders, in large part due to the addition of a vicious double act to antagonise the Duttons.
The creepy Beck Brothers are frontrunners for the role of best bad guys of the show, proving their mettle as experts in manipulation and intimidation, all the while disturbingly viewing their actions as justified. Their violent exchange of blows with John and co – particularly the attack on Beth – still stands as some of the most gripping storytelling on the show.
Also, for any Desperate Housewives fans in the building, what an ingenious move to cast the villainous epitome of soapy villains in Neal McDonough (Wisteria Lane’s Dave). He’s a perfect fit in the world of Yellowstone.
Love them or hate them, a number of Sheridan’s stalwart women and merciless cowboys have been cemented in the TV character Hall of Fame, through which Yellowstone has crafted storylines tackling modern-day issues with an Old West sensibility. Yee-haw!
