The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Yellowstone’ Episode 8 Recap

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Chris Ryan and Ryen Russillo are back to break down Episode 8 of the Paramount+ drama ‘Yellowstone.’ They discuss Taylor Sheridan’s odd creative direction, recent developments with the Dutton children, and the exciting (but maybe not totally necessary) diner shootout. Lastly, Chris and Ryen share their hopes for Season 4’s last two episodes.  Host: Chris Ryan and Ryen Russillo  Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, long-time writer with the Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't Ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken. Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. 40 grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. This episode is brought to you by Ultima Replenisher. Health is all about balance, like a salad with fries.

So why not have balance in your hydration? With six essential electrolytes and no junk, Ultima provides balanced hydration you can enjoy every day. That means no sugar, calories, or carbs, and it's not loaded with sodium. Just delicious plant-based flavors you'll actually look forward to drinking. Shop Ultima on Amazon or in store at Target and Whole Foods Market. Hello, and welcome to the Ringer Prestige TV podcast. It's the Yellowstone Recap. It's Chris Ryan and Ryan Rissola.

what's going on, man. I can't wait. I can't wait for this one. One of like the weirdest hours of television I've ever seen. Because as a Yellowstone episode, like for what I think Yellowstone is about, there was about 20 minutes. They had about 20 minutes of Dutton family problems. And then there was a 10 minute 1883 segment and a 10 minute Jimmy and Texas segment.

It's honestly become like experimental. theater to me and I kind of love it. Okay, that's a really, that's an interesting way to put it, because it's almost like now you have to just understand what you signed up for. And it's kind on you to just accept it. And, you know, I like the 1883 stuff. I mean, who doesn't love a good old shootout? And Tim McGraw is good in that spot, you know? Yeah, did you watch? Did you watch the whole? I've got to it yet. It's tough. It's pretty cool. It's definitely got like early Yellowstone energy where you're just like, holy shit. Like, he definitely knows the story. This, these characters are super interesting. Sam Elliott's incredible in it.

Yeah, Sam Elliott was born to be in Westerns. Like when he was in high school and guidance counselor, was like, don't even bother. You're not going to college. Although I don't know what Sam Elliott's background was. Do you play football or something? I don't know. So, yeah, it's weird because you're looking down.

And, you know, I always kind of check like how many, and you're like, okay, we're like seven minutes in. It's not even Yellowstone yet. And then, you know, we go to the dramatic credits, which are always kind of interesting when you really watch what's going on on those credits. Like, it's actually really well done with the cranes and then the destruction and the, the explosive mining while there's these massive buffalo running through it all.

So you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, cool. So it was a cool reminder there. And then, you know, the Jimmy part, the four sixes, I had no, I thought we were dropping this dude off to never be seen again. And he's had, he's like a JD Drew comeback here, like at the end. Because now it's kind of interesting. his love story, obviously, we're going to be forced to pick between Mia and Emily here at some point.

I mean, Mia's just straight up mean to him, but maybe that's the kind of person that Jimmy needs. So they're going to have to sabotage Emily somehow, almost like how they sabotage Karen and made Pam seem so. Wait, was the other way around. They're going to have to do something to Emily to kind of sabotage her to get us to want Jimmy and Mia back, because right now, like, I'm team Emily in this one.

I'm team Emily, too. I mean, I'm hoping Mia doesn't just show up because in real life, like sometimes you move and you meet someone else and you just keep it, keep it going, you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't always have to be Mia coming through the front door being like, I'm back, you know, like, I didn't think that she was, I didn't think that they had such magnetic chemistry that I need that relationship to continue either into another season of Yellowstone

or onto this four-sixth show. I do love that they kind of always give you a reason why anyone would be interested in Jimmy, you know, because it's still the first thing. four or six is one still doesn't check out because emily's like well you know there's the six guys from the previous episode and i've already dated three of them um i'm like i don't know i see a bunch of dudes running around on horses like it seems like there's more than six possibilities but for jimmy you know you're on a trailer you're just in the middle of nowhere when we move we usually move to somewhat of a city have people that we work with yeah it's like this guy's like i don't

i don't think he has video games anymore so um i don't i don't know what's going to happen because mea liked him because he was this this rodeo guy. By the way, I did DVR rodeo session, like a real one. Did you really?

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna watch it later. I'm pretty excited about it. Is that going to be the new F1 rodeo? I'm trying to figure out something to just,

I need a sporting event. I know nothing about and have no takes that I'm crafting while I'm watching it. Right. You just need like your pure pleasure. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, so then what? We get to, we get to Jamie and his dad. That's the first real relish tone. Finally, about 20 minutes

and we get to the Dundens. I thought we could start our conversation about Yellowstone. I'm just going to read you a quick quote from Taylor, Sheridan, from a New York Times interview he did because he was doing press for 1883's premiere. And he was chatting with Noel Murray over at the New York Times. And this is what he said. I think one of the reasons the critics haven't responded to Yellowstone is that I'm breaking a lot of story rules. I'll jump the plot ahead for no reason whatsoever except that I wanted to and it's entertaining.

The people who get it, eat it up. and the people that try to look at it with a critical eye see a mess. But that's what I love about Yellowstone, the way that it flows from being campy to melodramatic, to intensely dramatic, to violent. It's every old Western and New Western and soap opera thrown together in a blender. Now, that is a little bit like a quarterback who goes out

and throws three picks and then is like, the crowd just loves to see me sling it. You know, like, sorry if you don't get it. Sorry if the QBR doesn't reflect what I really. mean. But on the other hand, I kind of respect it because he's very self-aware of what he's doing here at least. Yeah, because people are trashing this episode. I felt like this episode on Sunday was the culmination of people kind of being frustrated and not really knowing what was going on. I'm all for him being like, look, I just want to switch it up around a little bit. Like,

if this is your first stretch, everybody would be killing him. Everybody be killing him. Yeah. Now, he has enough equity built up for how many things he's done really, really well. And again, We've kind of joked like, how many shows does he have going on right now? This is insane. He's got three shows on, and he writes every script for all three shows. So by the end of like January or early February, he will have written 30 episodes of television that are on the air in like a four-month, five-month period. That's unheard of.

It does. I mean, you know, Mike White did White Lotus. And he just kind of sat in a room. And then Inglesby did Mayor of East Town and just kind of banged it out. I think Taylor has a little, there's a couple other people that do have writing credits on Yellowstone though. I think so,

but he also is like, I don't have writers rooms. I don't know how to do that. So I mean, we're, I mean, whether this is going to turn out to be like a creative doping situation

at some point, we find out down the line, like Taylor had like 80 writers in a room somewhere. But like, honestly, maybe he's just like, I crank it out, you know? You know,

and then the other thing is we, as we know, is that even if you have somebody who's a staff writer, you're going to be changing most of their script back to just kind of stay into your season's vision anyway because you already know what the season finale is going to be. So the guy is insane as far as how prolific he is. So I would agree with him. You know what I mean? I'd be fine with it. But this show is starting

to like, there's a critic turn on it now, especially with this last episode where it's like, what the fuck. And I can still respect what he's doing. I think it's cool that he's not following the rules. But then there's also like the Beth Dinner Table scene, which I think is absurd because Beth is just talking about prostates. And then I think I thought the, hey, Tate's got a boner in the bathtub and then let's make out conversation. Like those, those were like, I don't know. I want to see more John and Rip, man.

Because when John and Rip were in the truck at the end of the episode, it was awesome. Putting the John and Rip scene at the end of the episode almost made me hate the episode. Whereas like up until that, I was like, what a weird season of TV. I can't believe this is the most popular television show on television. Like it's barely itself anymore. And when it is itself, it's like these four crazy people eating dinner for 15 minutes. Yeah, there's also kind of like a reminder when you see Rip and John in the truck together. And it's a really good line too where John's like, we're going to drop these bulls off.

Then after I, we're going to go see the sheriff. And then he's like, you know, Rip, you're the only person that doesn't ask me why. It was really, really good. And it was perfect for those two. And you see that their level of acting, like there's moments where those guys are like on a different level, I think sometimes. And it definitely stands out.

And so, yeah, I know we can't get 60 minutes of those two guys driving around and shooting up everybody. People kind of hated, I thought, the diner scene, but they just had to figure out a way to kill the sheriff, which is now going to lead to a huge problem for John getting to the guy that he knows is behind trying to kill the family at the end of last season. Yeah,

I think some of the other criticism of the show also is rooted in the fact that, like, John is acting like he just got this information air dropped out of nowhere to him, but like, Casey kind of told Jamie to go find out about this, and Jamie did go, like, there is this weird, like, Jamie was sort of working for the family and now isn't again, but it's just really unclear. Did Casey never follow up with Jamie about,

hey, I want you to go investigate this Terrell Higgins guy? So it's a little bit confusing, but yeah, like, I loved the diner scene as an action sequence, those guys being like, let's just get everybody in this diner killed. It was pretty tough. A lot of collateral damage. Yeah.

When Rip rips a guy through a window, it just looks good. It looks very believable. And he's so big this season two. So he just yanks that guy. But then Rip just knew it right away. Real Jason Bourne's shit where he's like, wait, no one's eating.

Yeah. No one's eating, sir. It's funny. There was also just an episode of Mayor of Kingston that had a very similar scene where one of the characters is stopping in a pizza parlor. It's just like something's not right here. Something's not right. I'm just going to hang out and eat this slice for like an hour

and then take down these two meth dealers. It's obviously a trope for Taylor. I did think that this episode worked for me also because there was no bunkhouse stuff. I think that we had kind of... We've really circled the square on the bunkhouse, and I was glad not to go back to Lloyd and Walker and Laramie and have to revisit that.

I mean, that's kind of what the show has become, though. These storylines that, you know, normally there's always a mechanism. There's a reason why this guy goes to visit this guy. Are these seeds that are planted at the beginning of an episode where you're like, oh, that guy's one of the biggest corn dealers in Iowa? And then you're like, okay, well, why were we just told that? You know, sometimes it's filler. Sometimes it's just backstory so that we know who the person is.

But a lot of times you'd be like, oh, that's why that, you know. That's why that happened. And it feels like this Taylor probably even admits in the Times piece that I read as well where he's like, no, no, that's not what I'm doing. Like, I'm not doing this for that. That's not why I'm doing this. And I think he just liked having us live in the bunkhouse for a little while, the same way he likes us living at the four sixes.

But it is a little strange, though, to be like, hey, here are these two other spin-offs we have and we're going to dedicate almost 30 minutes of an hour slot to these other things that aren't really, like what's pushing the storyline is the four-sixes, is that Jimmy, Jimmy's obviously going to have to come back or Mia's going to come visit him and then that's it. Like there's not there's not going to be some grand. I wouldn't imagine. Yeah. There's no version of the four sixes where they're down muscle and all the guys mount up and head up to Montana and leave the farm behind.

I can't, I don't think so. But then I also started thinking a little bit like one of the scenes we all love the most was the motorcycle gang coming up, partying on their land, smashing the motorcycles and coming back. and we think John may kill these guys. But that wasn't really any different than the diner scene. Honestly, the diner scene has more meaning because the sheriff part of it. That was just bikers versus cowboys. And we ate it up the same way we ate up in a Bronx tale, the mob guys versus the bikers,

even though it didn't mean anything with the story. So maybe it's just tougher to do that shit and get away with it for no reason in four seasons in. Yeah, I think it's also just the feeling like there in the first couple of seasons, you might feel like something like that is immersive and in the fourth season you're like, you're delaying the inevitable. You know, like, I was talking about this with Greenwald about another show. But there is an awareness

you have with TV shows where you're like, where is this going? It's like you're kind of constantly sort of thinking about what direction it's traveling in and then you're hyper aware if you feel like your destination is being delayed unnecessarily. Now, that might speak to our like

attention span problems or maybe our lack of being able to just be present with the show. But I think in the case of Yellowstone, it's pretty obvious that this season it's not like a throwaway season necessarily, but it is definitely like doing the work,

doing a lot of work that no show I've ever seen as done before, where it's like, let's just launch a couple of other shows while we're also have the most popular show on cable. All right, that's what I want to ask you. Have you ever seen any show ever really do this? And you watch everything. No, I've never seen another show to this. I've never really seen another show. Now, the only

the closest comparison I can make is to Marvel, to the Marvel shows, because the Marvel shows are basically, like, here's a story, but then also, we're introducing, like, five or six characters that we're going to kind of test balloon, and if anybody pops, we might make a show about this person, or we might put this person in the next movie

or something, and also we're setting up something, but we don't want to over-commit to it, or we don't want to, like, throw it away on a Marvel show. There's an entirely, it's entirely possible that 4-6 is either, I mean, it's going to get made. Maybe Jimmy won't be the star of it. Maybe Jimmy's just going to be a supporting character.

And it's, I think that there's a lot of work being done in the 101 studios, Taylor, Sheridan universe stuff, going, like, just being like, let's see what clicks. Obviously, advertising 1883 constantly with Yellowstone and also having a couple of scenes from the show, essentially on Yellowstone this season, led to 1883 putting up a huge, huge number in its premiere. Yeah. I don't know what the four-six thing is, because you've made a really, really good point where, you know, rip goes to bar, punches guy. Season one, it's like, yeah, all right, we know the full rip. In season four, you just go, oh, cool, he got into a bar fight, you know? But I think the two things that are happening here, Beth, the market equities part of it,

which, by the way, the side guy in market equities, I'm expecting almost the camera where he just, he's going to do like a Michael Scott and he looks at the camera and he goes, you know, I used to be the Terminator, the new one. It doesn't he have this. look. He also kind of looks like unattractive older sports center Matt Berry. Yeah. So I can't, I can't quite like he already knows Beth is full of shit. Jackie's not sure. Yeah.

And then Beth finally like, because there was no way it was ever going to make any sense that she was going to sit there and help these people build an airport. But the summer Beth Alliance is probably the main thing along with what Jamie ends up doing here with his dad. And those feel like if you had a seed, if you had four number one seeds for potential storylines of where this thing finishes up. Those are two of the one seeds, right? Absolutely.

I guess, you know, Casey's family, I guess, is another one seed, even though it's unclear where this is all going, because they did two episodes where it seemed like he was flirting with Avery and was kind of like... Oh, if they get divorced, I'm in. Monica and Casey? So there's like the Casey family part. And I guess, I mean, I guess there's John looking for love.

You know what I mean in some way? I guess that is a plot line too. You know, they've thrown away a couple of things like the rich guy moving in and blocking up the road, the Casey then threw the guy in the cattle grate. There's a couple of things, but yeah, you're right. The Jamie John, Governor, Two Fathers thing is definitely up there.

And then Beth with Market Equies. My favorite part of the episode, by far, is Beth cold calling the New York Times and just being like National Desk, please. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're going to want to check out this protest and just like dial up this local NBC news channel. And it was just like, if somebody called the Ringer and asked for you and it's just like,

just want to let you know Memphis is pretty good. You might want to check them out. The Grizz? Yeah. They play for each other. You used to be able to get everybody's direct line at ESPN. We found that out in college. So you could just call up and be like, give me Scott Van Pelt.

You could just leave anybody you wanted voicemails. People used to do that to do that to my dad when he was a movie critic at the Philly Enquirer, and you would just have his answer machine full of, listen to me, Rocky Four is a great film. He didn't respect it enough. That was probably Bill. Like, yeah, it was probably Bill. That's why I ended up hiring you because he felt guilty about calling your dad and leaving all these horrors. Does that mean you have a ton of VHS tapes at your house? I think there's somewhere. I mostly, it's mostly DVDs, though. There were some VHS tapes there. So you're still, is it your house or the Pops house?

Like, I just littered with DVDs still or what? In my parents' house, there's just a shit ton of DVDs. There's some like right over there actually. Yeah. Yeah. Like all screeners? No, no, like just like the, you know, the Stephen Spielberg collection, the David Lean collection. And he had a lot of them.

He used to do a DVD column for a while when that was first coming out. Yeah. I'm trying to decide where to go with this. So the one thing about the Casey stuff I wanted to mention. So Casey and Monica are going to have another kid. Seems like Tate's developing a sense of humor, which is great for that family. What did you think of the little wolf scene?

Where Casey's like, I see a wolf, and Mo is like, there haven't been any wolves over there. And Casey's like, well, I'm fucking looking at one right now. And Mo's like, don't kill it. It's a test. Is that, is that like a vision? Or we actually, is there something going on here? Like, is there like a conservationist?

angle. I was trying to figure that out. Huge Moe fan. I think we all realize that like Moe, Mo seems to deliver every time he gets a shot attempt. I think his real name is Moe, by the way. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I got to double check that. Also in a little tidbit. Did you hear about the backstory of the four-sixes that somebody sent this in? You know what? I'll need to look this up. So let me look this up before

I share it on the podcast because I don't want to mislead anybody. I don't, yeah, I didn't really get, obviously there's going to be something else with this wolf. The wolf's coming back. I don't know if this was some sort of like Australian walkabout thing. That would be a little weird if you could just have a vision on your porch hanging out. Or is it like just a metaphor for Casey being the wolf? And it's like you're not supposed to like he's like obviously a violent guy who's only good at kicking ass. But like, you know, he's supposed is he, but Monica's got him living in this, the Zillow house and raising a family.

And maybe he's like the wolf is me. I don't know. I was trying to figure it out. Wow. Yeah, I didn't. You're right. Like there has to be a purpose. So then what does it mean?

But then if he doesn't kill the wolf, I don't know. I give up. I can't figure it out. Okay. I'm not going to try it. Do you want to tell me what the four-sixes thing is? Well, somebody had sent in a note telling me what it was named after. The whole legend is that some guy won the ranch from somebody else in a card game and he won it with four-sixes.

So four-of-a-kind four-sixes won the ranch, named it four-sixes. But I don't know. That's the first thing that comes up on the internet. So whenever it's that, sometimes I'm like, I'm not even sure. All right. Let me ask you this. Okay. Where are you with Jamie's supposed real dad, which also could be the 180 on this whole thing?

We find out that he's not actually the real dad, right? Wasn't there some sort of like seed planted that maybe it wasn't the case? Yeah, this is like a con of some kind, right? Yeah. And there's a little bit of doubt. But that might just also be because people are searching for twists in a season that hasn't really had a lot. I have a sneaking suspicion that the entire Jamie season was shot in like one day. Because every scene with Jamie is like him standing in a meadow.

The lighting's actually very similar now. I wonder when they're like, Wes, you know, it's COVID. Come in for like a week. We'll just get you knocked out for the season right now. Like, hey, somebody messed up in travel. we don't have a place for you to stay. Montana's been on fire. Yeah, stand in this field.

We got Will Patton. Christina's back. We're never going to see your baby. But let's just run through this plotline. I thought it was cool that Christina actually unpacked the political reasoning behind John's run, which is not so much that he wants to be governor

as much as he just needs to stop Jamie from being governor. But I don't know. where we are with the Higgins part. And I also don't understand whether or not Garrett has set in motion another Dutton family assassination. So those are the two big questions I have for the last two episodes.

It's like, Garrett, a couple of episodes ago was like, you're damn right, I killed him. I tried to kill him and I'm gonna do it again until I'm successful. And it's like, okay, so then for the next two episodes, you're just hanging out drinking orange juice? Or what are we doing? Yeah, I've started to notice

he's got a bit of a like, if Billy Bob Thornt from Slingblade had an operation that went well. Yeah. Yeah. Like, have you seen, have you seen Jay? He's doing great. Now, because that pivot to him being welding murderer to Montana country George Stephanopoulos. Yes.

Where it's like, Jamie, we got to focus on the senior vote and the child tax credit. It's all messaging. It's Facebook. And I'm going to make sure we just don't push the school. lunch reform because kids don't vote. Thanks. Thanks, dad. You were putting together like some rebar three episodes again. Yeah.

Do you have to visit your parole officer over here? Thanks, Manafort. Yeah. It's weird to see that that whole thing. I just also find, I just find that that is a little bit uneven, basically, where it's like Casey and Jamie. began the process of finding out who this guy in prison was, who hired him. Jamie obviously finds out that it's his biological father, never tells Casey one way or the other.

And now, in a roundabout way, John and now Rip have figured it out. And they were basically meeting with Sheriff Haskell in a diner to be like, it's important that this Higgins guy suffers and dies in prison, essentially. they walk into a holdup, I guess, at a diner. A three-person hold-up. And I'm a little unclear as to why, like whether they noticed John Ripp walking up and were like, everybody stands still.

It's like everybody, let's just freeze. Let's just see if these guys will just come in or go away. And then, like, the shootout is essentially like a lot of loss of life caused by John Ridd by just being like we got to get in there. And then we lose Sheriff Haskell. He's been on the show for the entire time.

That's Hugh Dillon, I believe, and he's also on Mayor of Kingstown and is the co-creator of Mayor of Kingston. So busy guy, understandable. But yeah, we'll see where that loss takes us. I mean, he's the first major character to die this season, I guess. I would call him Major.

Yeah. Yeah, Major, no, you're right. Because, I mean, he sort of pops up and they just boss him around and yelling him, whole time. I mean, it's kind of been his role for three seasons. I also think it's kind of interesting, too, if you think about the Sons of Anarchy line where it's like assistant cop, ends up being co-creator of these amazing shows because that's what Taylor was, although I guess this is the sheriff and not,

not the assistant, the deputy, as Taylor was, you know, sort of in the background, the son's anarchy. I didn't, I didn't quite, I don't know if there was another way to, you know, frame that where why how does how does the sheriff get killed in an action scene where I guess they just didn't care I mean how many other people got killed though were there was there one other guy in a booth that got blasted yeah I think there was one other guy yeah but it just it seemed like there was a lot of gunfire for what would have been like a $50 robbery I mean how much how much cash on hand does a diner ever really have especially now yeah you know so uh yeah that one I mean I kind of You know, look, it's a little shootout.

Okay, fine. It almost felt like, hey, we probably need, we did an 1883 thing. We did a weird family Casey thing. We did a Beth losing her shit at dinner. And a solution was just to move to a different room. And then Beth was totally cool. Like, I had a hard time with that one. I was like, wait, it's still the same night.

And now everything's fine. We're having the second dinner. Yeah. Although the stuff whenever Costner's telling Rip, like, you're just pouring gasoline on it, rip. Like, that actually works good. her being irrational is a good vehicle to just get other good lines at a rip and John Dutton. But that was another part of the show where I was like, oh, wait, it's still

the same. We're just doing second dinner. Yeah. Well, I mean, they should do second dinner because nobody ever tells Gator how many there are for dinner on any given night. So he just makes this huge spread, even though it's usually John and Beth. And then Beth leaves in a tantrum. And John's sitting there with like an entire cowboy rib eye, a chocolate cake. a plate of popovers, a giant salad. It's just like... And 10 place settings. And then like they're hosting the friggin royal family.

You're right. Gator, there needs to be better communication in the kitchen. Just like, it's not even, it's just like, waste not want not. I thought that was the way of the west. You know, like we clean our plates out here. Yeah. I know. I agree with that.

I hadn't really thought about that. Like we knew Gator wasn't, I mean, fucking guy tried to make a smoothie a couple weeks ago. people acted like he, you know, burn everybody's toast. So, yeah, no, no, Gator, I hope Gator's doing all right. It seems like a good gig as far as the ranch. And then ultimately, you don't need to make that much food because nobody shows up and then everybody leaves dinner early. That's right.

And then Carter just eats the cake by himself. So for these last two episodes, where do you kind of want to go see this show go? Like, is there like a satisfactory conclusion? Do you want the governor stuff to be tied up this season? Do you have any feelings in that regard? No, I don't think I want the governor stuff to be tied up in two episodes. I almost would rather that carry over. I mean, the problem is like the market equities thing is a familiar beat to what we had

with Danny Houston and that stuff in the beginning. So sometimes you take like real big swings to deviate from what would be a believable storyline with this setting and these characters. And then everybody crushes you because, oh, wait a minute, like, this isn't realistic. You're like, okay, but what do you, like, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to do stuff that's similar that, that would happen, which is what I'm, I'm fine with there. But it feels like we're owed a lot, a lot of like important developing stuff for the next, you know, runtime of 40-something minutes or two more episodes. You know what I mean? I just, I feel like we're, we're way behind. Yeah. And as you start to get into, you know,

you can start to hypothesize about how much longer the show is going to be on, what the stalling is. You know, the whole wrap on Yellowstone was that this was like the COVID-proof show because Taylor actually had essentially a bubble built where they shoot so that they wouldn't have to change what they do very much. Whereas, you know, if you go and shoot in Atlanta or Albuquerque or something, people are going home, people are going out in the city and then they get sick

and then you have to shut down production. It's like there's really nowhere to go when you're shooting Yellowstone. So I'm surprised that this season feels like, a little bit compressed and odd. But again, you go back to Taylor's quote, and maybe that's the way he wants it. Maybe he just wants to mess around. Maybe he wants to try different stuff.

Maybe there are other shows that he wants to sort of promote through the making of Yellowstone. And in that sense, it's not like I ever leave an episode, and I'm like, what a complete waste of time. You know, like, I'm always kind of entertained or interested in what's going on. And then you get the John Rip Diner scene,

which while nonsensical, was just fucking awesome. So you always come, back for more. Yeah, I'm not going anywhere. I mean, that's, that's for sure. But it's, it's kind of weird that we have two episodes left and we're sitting here. We don't really know what the season's about. What would, what would the end be? Like, what, like, at least, again, it doesn't mean that you have to do it this way, which is kind of Taylor's entire point in the New York Times article. But, you know, I think I remember David Mammon at one point during a master class thing during the promo, because I signed up for, I forget which one.

one I did. I think I did the Sorkin one. And I, I, I don't think I, I don't think I passed it, to be honest with you. You failed to. And, yeah. And, and, and Mammett said something like, he's like, French movies say there is no middle beginning and end. He's like, that's why all French films suck. You know, because he's like, get down, grab your pen and bleed. Yeah. You know, like, man, it just punches you right in the head with like what you're supposed to do if you want to be a writer. And his whole point was like construct. Like there is a beginning. There is a middle.

There is a fucking end. You know, that's why Star Wars is actually a great movie. Yeah. Because it follows the three acts perfectly. That's the whole point. And people have a hard time with you when you deviate from it. But like we said at the very beginning, if you share the share and you get away with a little bit. But I don't know a lot of shows, I'll usually be like, okay, well, this, we'll get a

decision on this storyline at the end. And I don't even know what they'll be. Yeah. And also, if you watch the two other shows that Taylor has on the air right now, if you watch Kingston, which I think is excellent, it's just not for everybody because it's so dark. But that actually has that energy and compression and like that, even though each episode kind of presents a whole new set of problems for the main character to solve, the setting, the ensemble and the sort of general, here's what this guy has to do on a day-to-day basis. He has to make peace. between all these warring factions who are somehow tied to the prison system

so that it doesn't blow up inside the prison walls or outside the prison walls. It's just like, that's a really good idea for a show. 1883 is essentially wagon train. It's essentially just like, let's get these cool characters together and have them go look for a better place to live. Yellowstone had that.

It definitely was, but I just think it's kind of like, it just feels a little spread thin right now. So I'm looking forward to the point when it's like, okay, now here's what we're focusing on. and here's what's at stake for these characters. And they all feel a little bit scattered to the four corners of the earth. I'm looking forward to them being brought back together. And in some ways, it was at its best when they were all living together

because they were trapped with one another. Yeah. No, I think that's well said. All right. Well, we can wrap it up there. Hopefully next week gives us something a little bit more juicy to talk about. Ryan, thanks as always for joining us. And thanks to Devin for producing us today.

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