Taylor Sheridan Does Not Plan on Changing His Ways Despite One Common Complaint From Many Yellowstone Fans

Yellowstone needs its creator back as Taylor Sheridan takes a leave of absence from the show, marking its inevitable downfall since Season 3.

Taylor Sheridan may not have had a lot to show for himself as an actor but he does charge headlong at a story when armed with a pen and paper. The actor-turned-writer has earned himself a legendary reputation as the creator of Yellowstone but with the rise of his status and success of his show, the hunger that drove him to achieve his dreams has taken a backseat.

Without his Oscar-nominated standing as a screenplay writer, the world would not have realized the extent to which his talents stretch. But as Sheridan kept expanding his empire and delivering one masterpiece after another, it became increasingly evident that there was a world of difference between having talent and harnessing it.

Taylor Sheridan Refuses to Acknowledge His Mistakes

The brutal and cutthroat world of the film and television industry follows one simple motto: eat or be eaten. For Taylor Sheridan, that became evident when he took a stand for himself on Sons of Anarchy and was awarded a “f*ck you death” in return. His policy from then on was to never let a studio exec be in control of his fate.

Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, 1883, and 1923 proves that Sheridan’s imagination is one without limits. But with ideas flowing faster than his team at Paramount can execute them, it often boils down to the writer taking charge of one show while delegating the task of writing and guiding the arcs of the other shows to freer hands.

In a 2023 Hollywood Reporter profile interview, Taylor Sheridan claimed:

The freedom of the artist to create must be unfettered. If they tell me, ‘You’re going to have to write a check for $540,000 to four people to sit in a room that you never have to meet,’ then that’s between the studio and the guild. But if I have to check in creatively with others for a story I’ve wholly built in my brain, that would probably be the end of me telling TV stories.

With that working as his guiding principle, Sheridan went off to work on Yellowstone which gave way to more spin-offs, and before long, there were half a dozen shows at Paramount conceived by him. With limitations of time, it became impossible for Sheridan to oversee all the projects he himself created. This led to a decline in the overall quality of writing. Then came the plotholes.

From poorly constructed plot devices to hasty deaths without repercussions, there are no limits to the number of glitches in Yellowstone‘s storyline that made the series go downhill. There is no investigation into Sarah Nguyen’s death, Lee was forgotten as soon as his funeral was over, and Beth’s mother is a completely illogical character that allows Sheridan to force trauma into the story.

With plotholes driving Yellowstone into the ground, Sheridan seems no closer to conceding defeat and acknowledging the fact that he needs to clean house. A writers’ room did not make Yellowstone; it was always Sheridan. As such, he needs to return to ground zero to give his story the attention it deserves instead of running off with a new idea every other week at Paramount.

Yellowstone Treads Down a Dark and Dingy Path

Yellowstone has had a lot to tell over the last few years and a shortening supply of mouths to tell it. As Taylor Sheridan brings the drama to an epic high, siblings clash as Kelly Reilly and Wes Bentley’s characters declare an all-out war. Gone are the simpler days of Season 1 when tantrums, screams, and punches were the worst of what could happen between the two.

Now, as fans gear up for the battle of wits and wills between the dysfunctional pair, the wait seems to stretch longer with each passing week until the season finale. With Kevin Costner walking out on the Paramount series in favor of his Warner Bros.-sponsored Western epic, the likelihood of John Dutton appearing in the final 8 episodes of Yellowstone Season 5 is nearly negligible.

It will have been 2 years in between the two halves of the final season. However, time stood still in-universe at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch which will make writing off Costner’s character infinitely more difficult (unless Sheridan cops out with a time jump in the narrative).

In that case, it will be far more interesting to see how the brilliant Oscar-nominated writer-director leads his last lap to victory in a satisfying and believable arc, especially since he expected the series to have at least 2 more seasons before pulling down the curtain. These recent developments have pushed the final chapters of the Yellowstone saga to its spin-off series, 2024.

Yellowstone Season 5B premieres on Paramount+ in November 2024.