‘My Horse Opera’: Taylor Sheridan Says Logic Was Never the Goal of ‘Yellowstone’

Shows like Yellowstone captivated audiences and had us questioning our loyalty in the Dutton family. Creator Taylor Sheridan turned the flagship show into a western empire and now he has multiple spin-offs, new series, and more under his belt at Paramount. But even the most devout Yellowstone fan has to admit that sometimes, the show goes a litle off the rails and you find it hard justifying what is going on. Remember when Kevin Costner‘s John Dutton was in a shoot out in modern day Montana and no one even questioned him about it? Apparently, that is part of the charm of the show for Sheridan.

During a new interview with Gold Derby, Sheridan admitted that the show is “nonsensical” and even shared some insight into why that works. “With Yellowstone, which is nonsensical — there’s a great writer named Gretel Ehrlich, who calls it my horse opera because it makes no sense and it’s not trying to,” Sheridan told the publication “And yet it’s a window into a world. There’s a very sort of loving nature with the camera that attempts to sell this place as the idyllic location to raise a family. I subtracted from that in 1883, and tried to make it look slightly more foreign.”

The key to all this was knowing that there was an empty space on television for Sheridan to fill and he took that challenge on, bringing us the western drama. “I knew there was such a thirst, that a Western done well is a universally loved genre. It captures everything American, this sense of freedom and vastness and independence. And there’s a romance to it. You get on a 1,200-pound animal, and that thing trusts you, and you trust it, and you run 40 miles an hour. It’s just so romantic and brutal and beautiful.”

Yellowstone Really Was a Horse Opera

Part of the allure of a show like Yellowstone is that you know things are going to be out of our realm of belief. And yet you still tune in week after week. So many things happened throughout the show’s five seasons that it is hard to even pinpoint the most absurd one. Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) and his sister Beth (Kelly Reilly) have some pretty choice moments to chose from. Like when he forced her to get a hysterectomy as a young teenager. Or, maybe it was Sheridan himself being in the show. Who knows. The point is: That’s what made Yellowstone fun and Sheridan knew that.

So don’t worry about defending Yellowstone to people who think it makes no sense. That’s the point! And you can watch the series and see the drama unfold.