After Paramount+ dropped the first trailer for The Madison, I knew that Taylor Sheridan's new standalone series would be heading in a completely different direction to anything we've seen before. In short: less Yellowstone and Marshals, more Ransom Canyon and Virgin River.
I love being right as much as the next person, but this tonal shift could have gone one of two ways. With The Madison being so widely (and incorrectly) reported to be a direct Yellowstone spinoff early on, fans have willingly shaped their own misconceptions of what might be waiting in store.
Truthfully, the fact that the Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell-led drama is a world away from Kevin Costner and co's legacy is the ace up it's sleeve... and Sheridan's jump into new TV territory has arguably gifted us his strongest show of all time.
Pfeiffer plays Stacy Clyburn, a well-to-do New Yorker who comes from the Upper East Side social scene, and is frankly rolling in money. She's married to Russell's Preston, a reluctant city bod who wants nothing more than to retreat to the cabins he's built in the Montana wilderness.
After a family tragedy, the entire gang is uprooted, including begrudging daughters and grandchildren who have clearly never seen a blade of grass in their entire lives. What ensues is a messy outpouring of grief, loss and love that immediately tugs at the heartstrings.
Life is cruel, overwhelming and unpredictable, which is something that Sheridan has always impeccably understood. It's only further testament to his craft — and why the 'Sheridanverse' exists in the first place — that he can effortlessly transition from cowboy feud to everyday tragedy.
Marshals: A Yellowstone Story wishes it could be as good as The Madison
The Madison is beautiful simply because it's got the basics right. Our inciting incident is completely unexpected, as is the following resolution. As a result, one family, who couldn't seem more like strangers if they tried, face an impossible situation.
I've not seen anybody portray grief on TV as vulnerably and honestly as Pfeiffer does in a long time. There are no dramatic crash outs, no sitting on the bathroom floor in floods of tears, and no sudden realizations that actually, everything is going to be okay.
Instead, Stacy goes through the motions in a catatonic state. Devoid of emotional range and ability to feel, she reminds us that grief is something you have to learn to move forward with, rather than move on from. Pfeiffer bares all (metaphorically) to get this across, and it's incredibly easy to see why she's the talent of a generation.
Stacy's daughters, standoffish Abigail (Beau Garrett) and hapless Paige (Elle Chapman) are the ideal, if not insufferable, companions. Each teaches the other something about themselves they don't want to address, resulting in literal catfights, harsh truths and even harder lessons learned.
Amazingly, Sheridan and his cast balance out the scales of searing drama with genuinely laugh-out-loud humor. Episodes 2 and 3 amp the comedic factor up to the max as living in a wooden cabin (complete with an outdoor toilet) becomes less of a novelty.
'Soap opera' isn't a negative — and it's certainly not beneath us
Of course, Yellowstone fans are bound to say that The Madison is too soft or far-fetched for them, but as we well know, there's nothing that signals strength quite like emotional honesty. Team this with wildlife living and the jaw-dropping Montana views that we already know and loved, and Sheridan's melding the best of both worlds into something unmissable.
Yes, it's all a bit soap opera-y. But when did that become such a dirty term? Back in the day, it was the main TV format for building community, championing representation and allowed us to access thoughts and feelings we didn't always realize were there. Get off your high horses, people... we're not in serious cowboy town anymore.
Frankly, Marshals: A Yellowstone Story must be wishing for this kind of magic. It's been absolutely astonishing to watch how much public interest has dropped off since its debut episode was released, with fans hailing it as nothing more than a run-of-the-mill CBS police procedural. With my pessimistic hat on, they're right, with Marshals straying too far from the core beliefs that made Yellowstone the success it was.
Think of The Madison as the Western redo that's up there with Landman in terms of star quality. Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to get something right, and I think streaming and society are both all the richer for having the Clyburns around.
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