Has Taylor Sheridan been preparing us for the next 4 years?

The original pitch for Yellowstone was “Godfather in Montana”

It was a long wait for the wrap up of Yellowstone. I’d almost given up on seeing how they’d handle things after the very public departure of Kevin Costner from the show. His character, Montana’s Governor John Dutton was killed off, and the last five episodes were about the aftermath.

The preceding 4 1/2 seasons fulfilled the promise of Taylor Sheridan’s elevator pitch. The Yellowstone Ranch was the base for an organization that took the law into its own hands, and killed and disposed of the bodies of those who got in their way, or threatened the Dutton family.

In The Anatomy of Genres John Truby suggests there are twelve kinds of stories. A story often includes elements of several genres, but will work primarily within the “rules” or expectations of one. (Truby also ranks these genres from the “lowest’ form to the highest, but that’s a discussion for another time.)

Three quarters of the way up the ladder is the Gangster story, which Truby says evolved out of the Western. Once there were no further new frontiers to explore, the underlying question became, “how does the world actually work?” Gangster stories offer a critique on the distribution and use of power.

Truby says, “Every story of a bad king is a gangster story.”

Democracies are not supposed to have kings, but they do. Powerful figures who operate by their own code, above or outside the laws of the land.

Yellowstone’s John Dutton, who ran his ranch, and for a brief time, the whole of Montana, cultivated a loyal “family” - a close circle of allies who did his bidding. They were kept in line by a complex of motivations: love/loyalty for the king; alignment with his goals and values (protect the land, the ranch, whatever it takes); gaining personal benefit (the king ensures the prosperity and safety of his loyal subjects).

Prominent amongst the massive pile of documents the incoming American president signed on Inauguration Day were executive orders commuting the sentences for over 1500 people involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

These individuals had been convicted of criminal offenses too numerous to count or mention here. Some of their cases were presided over by judges appointed by the president, in his previous term of office.

As I read about these pardons, I thought about the power of a “king” to protect and reward those who go to extreme measures to prove their loyalty, even when it means defying the rule of law.