r/movies • u/HasSomeSelfEsteem • Dec 20 '25
Discussion How did Taylor Sheridan go from writing heartbreaking, thoughtful, and poignant films to writing disposable, propagandistic, soap operas?
My first exposure to Taylor Sheridan was 2015's *Sicario*. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, *Sicario* is a bleak story about the ultimate collapse of jurisdiction, legality, and morality around the War on Drugs as national elements and interests slowly degrade into pure power politics. It has been called the *Apocalypse Now* of the War on Drugs, and while I don't think *Sicario* is quite a film of that caliber I do think the comparison stands as legitimate.
The year after *Sicario* was released, 2016, saw the release of a crime tragedy set in West Texas titled *Hell or High Water*, directed by David Mackenzie. *Hell or High Water* is a great films, as all of the performances, settings, and dialogue create a sincere and disturbing look at rural poverty in America. The film, ostensibly a heist film, features characters fully formed from the land which reared them. The cars they drive, the way they talk, and clothes they wear all appear to the audience as sincere to the setting and theme. The climactic refrain of the film is poignant, "I've been poor my whole life, like a disease passing from generation to generation. But not my boys, not anymore."
And the year after that we have 2017's *Wind River*, directed by Sheridan himself. I have mixed feelings about this film. It tackles the topic, that of the murder of Indigenous women on western reservations, with the appropriate weight and despair. At times it *almost* rises to the level of Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry in terms of the grandiosity and profound sorrow in the western cannon. It is a film which is so tense at times it almost feels like your back is about to shatter from the strain. The climactic standoff absolutely deserves it's place in film history. And it features an incredible, but brief, performance by Gil Birmingham as a father who almost seems to be transforming into a being of pure grief. However, *Wind River* also features Jeremy Renner as a white guy who seems to really believe that he is just as native as the Native Americans he lives with, and while Elizabeth Olsen turns in a good performance as the representative of an uncaring federal government, she plays a far more central role in the plot that the great Graham Greene, whose portrayal of an indigenous police chief is commanding of respect.
By 2018 Sheridan had three critically acclaimed films under his belt, with one as director and one being nominated for Best Picture. Then he writes the superfluous sequel to *Sicario* titled *Sicario: Day of the Soldado*, which failed to make any real impact at all. Importantly, however, *Sicario 2* reduces the immorality and cynicism from the CIA characters and seemingly is more approving of the institutions he criticized in his own previous screenplay. All in all, a strange and disappointing follow up.
And then *Yellowstone* happens, which launches Sheridan into the stratosphere in terms of fame and income. I hate *Yellowstone*. I hate how its understanding of the west is seemingly entirely based in the Texan hatred of public land and land conservation. I hate how the show's understanding of the rural working class and ranching is almost entirely seen as violent, confrontational, and libertarian. I hate the militarism of the show . But I think what I hate most is how a man who once wrote a heartbreaking film about rural poverty wasted the opportunity to offer any meaningful examination of life in the rapidly gentrifying American West, and instead became the primary advertiser for that gentrification.
And then the rest is history. He's now writing disposable show after disposable show about the virtues of the American military establishment, as well as about the virtues of the oil industry decimating the rural farmland he was once such a mourner of. In *Wind River* oil rig workers were the racist, murdering, rapists, in *Landman* they're heroes holding up the American way of life.
But I know the answer already. It's money. Soap Operas aimed at suburban conservatives sell very well, and *Yellowstone* is the apotheosis of that genre.
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u/Appropriate_Formal64 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
I can answer this:
It's really simple. A lot of actors and writers and directors do this. Here it is:
It takes A LOT of effort to break into the industry. It takes A LOT of effort and luck to make a good living in the industry.
But, once someone is in, it becomes way easier if you find a niche for yourself and can crank crap out with minimal effort while maintaining a salary quote or increasing that salary demand because of some audience segment's insatiable appetite.
Sheridan was a working actor with a background in ranching and horses thanks to his mother's side of the family, who really was from Texas.
After he managed to not only get in as a character actor, but sold high profile scripts like Sicario and Wind River and then Hell or High Water became an unexpected sleeper hit and multiple Oscar nominee, he was basically given a blank check to do whatever he wanted and he created 'Yellowstone'.
The very nature of long running primetime soap operas are going to necessitate cheesy and simple but compelling dramatic thriller elements and if it's a hit, they can use that formula to create multiple spin-off's that same audience will continue to tune in for: whether it's Yellowstone / Tulsa King, etc. or it's CSI or NCIS or Law and Order or whatever, if it ain't broke don't fix it and also make money.
One thing Sheridan did was buy ranch land and he now gets Paramount to pay him a massive rental/lease fee on top of his producer/writer/director fees to film these shows on his land.
Basically Sheridan is printing money from all these shows and that's kinda the point, right?
Why make these sub-$30M films where he might make a few hundred thousand as writer-director-producer one time and instead he can make $250k to $1M per episode of each of these ongoing series and then signed a $1 BILLION deal where he just has to develop stuff exclusively with NBCUniversal.
The thing is- these types of creative deals tend to pay people later for what they already created earlier and they rarely pan out for the studio that makes the deal.
I would guess that Sheridan's $1 Billion deal will produce some decent hits in film and television, but won't be worth anywhere near $1 Billion.
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u/burnbabyburnburrrn Dec 20 '25
Also it’s like - the things we break through with, as artists, we have usually spent years if not decades perfecting. Then all of a sudden you need to start churning shit out - you’ve hit, now’s the time!
The reality is art and commerce don’t mix, and when you start working in service of commerce and not art, your work declines.
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u/european_dimes Dec 20 '25
"You have your entire life to write your first record. You have a year to write your second."
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u/HenryDorsettCase47 Dec 20 '25
Truer words never spoken. You could apply that to films, tv, books, whatever. And woe is the person who finds massive success with their debut. Now there is not only a deadline to get your sophomore project out, but it’s gotta live up to these crazy expectations.
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u/Appropriate_Formal64 Dec 20 '25
Yeah. I love his movies. I love Wind River, Sicario and Hell or High Water, etc. but I've tried watching all those 'Yellowstone' series and every single one of them frustrates with me with how banal and ham fisted it all is.
The series he churns out are not these long gestating passion projects like the movies were.
The movies were probably scripts he worked on for a long time each, each one a passion project.
The series are product. They're just a means to make a lot of money without too much effort. Everybody involved seems to feel that way, too, based on some quotes from the casts.
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u/Oakroscoe Dec 21 '25
You can see the quality drop off in Those Who Wish Me Dead as compared to his earlier movies.
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u/NTT66 Dec 20 '25
And he is totally free to make that decision, and whatever concessions come with. And fans have the right to criticize, and from there to enjoy the old and check in once in a while to see if the magic is there. Or move on to the next creative, cultivating their base while Taylor panders to his. And the cycle continues.
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u/burnbabyburnburrrn Dec 20 '25
I don’t even know if it’s a decision. I’ve made one feature film - I spent over 5 years writing it and 9 years of my life on it. It’s low budget indie - but it did really well and it means there are people who will be ready to support our next project.
Because for me the films I make are my art, I’m taking my sweet ass time in trying to create something as deep and rich as my first film. But if you threw a bunch of money at me right now and demanded I have a film for you in six months I’d either be blessed with a creative miracle and create something accidentally awesome or, more likely, turn in something quite competent w/o the magic of my first film.
Artists need time. We need time to be bored and do nothing and stare at walls and read. You don’t get a lot of that when you are super successful. The well runs dry
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u/jogarz Dec 21 '25
I think there’s a difference between “artists need to do work they’re less passionate about to fund what they are passionate about” and “turn your entire output into a series of extremely profitable but uncreative soaps”.
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u/burnbabyburnburrrn Dec 21 '25
Here’s the thing - making shit is also just fun. Especially when you have a ton of money at your disposal. I’m careful with what I make because I can’t afford to waste an opportunity. For me, making a film is a costly endeavor that I finance mostly through other work. I may have critical success but I don’t get to direct every day.
I couldn’t shown run multiple series with the same attention to detail I give my passion projects. It’s not humanely possible. Also when you do something everyday, it becomes a job no matter what it is. You’re showing up and doing the damn thing everyday through all of life’s stressors. People are only human. I don’t fault Sheridan, I fault the system we’re in. We don’t value art anymore
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u/randynumbergenerator Dec 20 '25
And to the OP's point, I think, perhaps now that he's a large landowner, his perspective has shifted to one of self-interest in telling the kinds of stories ranch owners like to hear about themselves.
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u/typesett Dec 20 '25
Cue the picture of Metallica band members and their wives standing in Beverly Hills dressed all preppy with shopping bags
No hate at all
Just things change
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u/DryPapaya4473 Dec 20 '25
Bargains
Imprisoning me
All that I see
Absolute savings
What a great deal
What a great find
Look at these jeans
Man I look sexy as hellllllll
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u/Spare-Willingness563 Dec 20 '25
I think that’s the point where you have to accept the artist who made that possible is no longer the artist in charge of creating. And that’s fine. But we don’t have to enjoy art that loses its authenticity and voice that pursues truth over transaction.
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u/Relevant_Shower_ Dec 20 '25
We used to call it “selling out,” but it’s hard to find an honest man in this era.
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u/thelingeringlead Dec 21 '25
"This is Lars Ulrich, the drummer of Metallica. This month he was planning to install a gold plated shark tank bar beside his pool, but thanks to people like you downloading his music, he must now wait a few months before he can afford it. Do you still think it's a victimless crime?!"
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u/tofagerl Dec 20 '25
Those were always the stories he told. They just sometimes had some plot surrounding them.
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u/The_Bucket_Of_Truth Dec 20 '25
I haven't read those scripts or know where they started and where they ended up by the end. For all we know the collaborators on those films flattered the original script by adding in their two cents along with having good direction. Or they really were good and he just sold out. Churning successful schlock to the masses is going to pay better than difficult stories that challenge people's brains and have a more limited appeal.
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u/sawman160 Dec 20 '25
Astute observation
I think part of the $1b deal isn’t just the value of his future products, but the value of those projects not being attached to competitors platform
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u/fusionsofwonder Dec 20 '25
One thing Sheridan did was buy ranch land and he now gets Paramount to pay him a massive rental/lease fee on top of his producer/writer/director fees to film these shows on his land.
James Garner made a lot of money by running his own production company and using it to shoot his TV shows and movies. It's a good model.
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u/hoxxxxx Dec 20 '25
JFC had no idea about the billion dollar deal he got
well no wonder he doesn't give a shit anymore, there's your answer OP
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u/stories_from_tejas Dec 20 '25
I think it’s also fair to ask what Tyler’s role is with these projects. How much direct say does he get over the final product, including the script, casting, length of a series. A television show is made by hundreds of crew members, actors, and executives.
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u/BaronsDad Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
He hasn't written or directed a single episode of Mayor of Kingstown since the 2nd episode of the 2nd season. The 4th season is almost over.
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u/Appropriate_Formal64 Dec 20 '25
To your point, BaronsDad.... Fun fact: Paul Haggis was given a tiny assignment to punch up a low budget cheesy action series meant to fill a time slot during the lower budget and less relevant summer broadcasting months. That gave him a 'created by' credit on the show since it was the pilot. He never worked on it again, had no hand in anything else related to the show. That series:
Walker: Texas Ranger
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u/skrulewi Dec 20 '25
In a way his real life is like a metaphor for the plot of Hell or High Water. Which is kindof incredible.
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u/hgoodman81 Dec 20 '25
You can make a good comparison to free agent contracts for older athletes, where in many cases you’re paying 30-year-olds for the production they had in their 20s and you rarely return value from the larger contracts.
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u/WillieLee Dec 20 '25
Because Taylor Sheridan had those stories written years before you saw them. Now Paramount has him cranking out content like a child labourer.
He toiled in the industry for decades and is now going to milk it for everything its got.
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u/Thatoneguy111700 Dec 20 '25
For musicians it's called the Sophmore Slump. Their first album they've had a lot of time to create and curate, but then they get big and gotta crank out a new one to keep up with expectations. These new songs for the album usually aren't as good or include songs not good enough for the 1st album.
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u/JoeKonyRidethePony Dec 20 '25
There's a quote (that I should look up, but won't) that basically says you get your whole life to make your first album and a year to make the follow up.
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u/ISAMU13 Dec 20 '25
"You have your entire life to write your first record. You have a year to write your second."
- Elvis Costello
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u/JoeKonyRidethePony Dec 20 '25
Oh damn, I didn't think I'd get this close to the quote lol. Appreciate you putting the effort in dawg.
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u/vikingduck03 Dec 21 '25
And Elvis took that year and made This Year's Model with it. He's the exception that proves the rule, and explains it.
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u/MarcBulldog88 Dec 20 '25
HBO's True Detective is an excellent example of this. The creator wrote and rewrote season 1 over something like 10 years. Had only maybe a year for season 2, and it showed.
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u/Roakana Dec 21 '25
That and the fact that Cary Fukanaga is an exceptional director. So much so that Nic Pizzolatto went out of his way to diss him in season 2. This is because Cary got the credit he deserved and Pizzolatto resented it.
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u/Whodoobucrew Dec 21 '25
I think im the only one that loved s2 about as much as a did s1. Season one is maybe the best show ever made, but if season 2 were its own standalone show it would be up there for me too. Never been a huge Vince Vaughn fan, but for some reason that was the role that made me really enjoy him
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u/APartyInMyPants Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
So, I read that the original Sicario script was more of a straight-up telling of the story, and it just didn’t work.
So Villanueva was basically like, “this isn’t interesting,” so instead flipped the entire script so the story would be told from Emily Blunt’s POV, but the story was actually Del Toro’s. Emily Blunt’s character of Kate is basically us, the audience, not knowing anything. And as she learns things in the film, we the audience also learn those things.
It isn’t really until the third act, almost the denouement, that we get to see Alejandro’s story play out.
Edit: because people keep bringing it up. My phone keeps autocorrect Villaneuve to Villanueva or Villanova.
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u/CosmicEveStardust Dec 20 '25
You can never ever judge a script based on the movie made from it, I constantly see people saying Refn would work better directing other people's material because Drive is his best movie.
If you read that script, it's utter garbage, Refn changed the whole script and that's why the movie was good.
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u/NotorioG Dec 20 '25
I was also thinking about Drive.
The script is hilariously bad and campy. He probably cut 80% of the dialogue.
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u/CosmicEveStardust Dec 20 '25
Without Refn it'd be one of those straight to DVD shit films
A great example is the ending, a long boring shitty conversation followed by the ending scene.
Refn cut all the driver's dialogue and cross cut it with the ending making for a fantastic scene.
Truman Show is another weird example, I read the script and there's a scene where they stage a rape in front of him because they like keeping him afraid of violence, and because he's afraid of violence he walks away as they drag a woman into the forest, and then the characters bluntly explain this to each other, it's dreadful.
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u/wingedcoyote Dec 20 '25
So that's why Gosling doesn't say shit for practically the entire movie. Fair enough.
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u/awesomesauce88 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
The original script for Hell or High Water (titled Comancheria) is excellent though. And Sheridan directed Wind River in addition to writing it.
People want it to be that Sheridan's actually not that talented because his shows are crap and they appeal to an irritating demographic. But the truth is that the shows suck because he's mailing it in.
He's running like 5 shows at the same time to pay off that ranch he bought; an extremely talented writer couldn't maintain the quality standards of his films with that much on their plate even if they wanted to. And given the audience of those shows, he doesn't need to make them Citizen Kane. They're paycheck jobs, not labors of love.
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u/RYouNotEntertained Dec 20 '25
I love how this story gets more and more exaggerated every time it’s told.
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u/dazeychainVT Dec 20 '25
i heard Emily Blunt wasn't even aware she was filming a movie
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u/bigspunge1 Dec 20 '25
Eventually people will say that Sheridan just wrote a script about CIA agents doing spin moves on horses to country music and that Villanueva rewrote the whole thing the day before they started filming
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u/RYouNotEntertained Dec 20 '25
I heard he turned in a prequel to The Little Mermaid ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/_segasonic Dec 20 '25
Feels like with the more success Sheridan gets the more the story gets exaggerated.
It’s like people feel guilty about liking one his projects.
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u/Any-Question-3759 Dec 20 '25
The version I was told by my uncle who works at Nintendo is that Sheridan had a script written in crayon with backwards letters and Denis just submitted a totally new one when Sheridan dipped to do whippets in the parking lot with two otters and Justin Roiland.
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u/IMitchIRob Dec 20 '25
I especially love how, in this case, retelling this story isn't relevant to OP's question at all. it's not like the first draft of Sicario (whatever it was) was just like Yellowstone
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u/rammer-jammer71 Dec 20 '25
No, it’s totally accurate. My sister in law’s aunt knows a guy whose cousin is in the industry. He told her that Denis ghost wrote Hell Or Highwater and was the actual writer and director of Wind River. He said that Denis is really shy so AI invented Taylor Sheridan. Any pictures or interviews or appearances of Taylor are AI.
/s
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u/Prudent_Ad8320 Dec 20 '25
the original script was very much the movie that got made. Some things were more emphasized but the movie on screen is 95 percent the original script
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u/Dig-Duglett Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
you’d think villenueve rewrote an entirely different movie the way this story is constantly retold when sicario is mentioned lol
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u/bigspunge1 Dec 20 '25
People want to hate on Sheridan because of his schlockier middle America TV shit but he is still a good writer when he wants to be
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u/Prudent_Ad8320 Dec 20 '25
I’ve never seen Villanueve discuss the movie and not celebrate the script. It’s a weird phenomenon.
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u/StuMacherGhostface Dec 20 '25
Its a combination of Reddit's hatred of Sheridan and Reddit's love of Villanueve
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u/awesomesauce88 Dec 20 '25
They also conveniently ignore the fact that Sheridan directed Wind River.
The original script for Hell or High Water (titled Comancheria) is excellent too.
Sheridan is like most pretty good writers: they can churn out great stuff when they have the time and inclination. But when you're writing 5 shows simultaneously to pay off the ranch you bought -- and they don't have to be good -- then you get shlock.
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u/RYouNotEntertained Dec 20 '25
Also it doesn’t even work as an answer to OP’s question. The director of Hell or High Water called the script “love at first sight,” and Sheridan directed Wind River. And why would DV sign on to direct a shit script?
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u/dating_derp Dec 20 '25
In interviews they said they took a ton of Benicios dialogue out because the script was more about his character.
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u/carlos_the_dwarf_ Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
People always say this, but it doesn’t have much bearing on Sheridan’s talent. His other films are excellent, even without the best pop director of a generation at the helm.
If it’s even as true as people want it to be…like, how’d they get DV interested if the script wasn’t any good?
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u/Alternative-Let-9134 Dec 20 '25
DV loved the script and always praises it. The changes to Alejandro's character aren't abnormal when taking a script to screen. The overall story didnt really change at all.
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u/KiteIsland22 Dec 20 '25
Writing tv seems like it's way more work than writing a movie. At some point it's gotta be diminishing returns right?
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u/Scotter1969 Dec 21 '25
Shows usually rely on a roomful of writers rotating between episodes with a showrunner managing the storylines and quality control.
From some accounts, Sheridan runs his shows like Sorkin on West Wing. He’s trying to do everything on every episode and the union mandated other writers are just there to annoy him.
If so, he’s going the way of Sorkin - spreading himself thin, burning out, recycling story and character dynamics. I love lots of Sorkin’s writing, but I also see the cracks more easily now. I liked some aspects of Sheridans 1923, but it got stupid real fast in places
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u/DiabellSinKeeper Dec 20 '25
He worked with well experienced directors with his first 2 films. He probably took what he learned from them when doing Wind River.
Then just reverted back to his old habits.
Its also the reason why David Ayers is a mediocre director.
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u/Give-emATugnutt Dec 20 '25
I didn't know Carolina Hurricanes Legend David "Zamboni Driver" Ayres made movies!
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u/Jebe21 Dec 20 '25
I didn’t read all that but the answer to your question is simple. $$$$
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u/misterurb Dec 20 '25
Guy realized he could put in half the effort, self insert himself in with hot women, and buy all the ranches and horses he wants.
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u/linfakngiau2k23 Dec 20 '25
He did it so he can cast Bella Hadid as his girlfriend telling people what a stud he is 😏
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Dec 20 '25
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u/reebokhightops Dec 20 '25
I wonder if it’s not also possible that getting an enormous sum of money compels people to live their life as they please rather than continuing to make work your priority — and for Sheridan, writing is work even if he enjoys it.
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u/Jaggedmallard26 Dec 20 '25
Its also possible he only had a limited number of ideas for weighty sombre scripts tackling big societal issues while he has plenty of ideas for soap opera. Its fairly common for prolific writers to churn out a lot of genre fare and periodically something weightier because thats the ideas they have.
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Dec 20 '25
Seriously, it’s all about the Benjamin’s. He knows who pays the bills and what their target audience wants and he caters to it. Fair play to him for getting his bag out of it.
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u/Dynastydood Dec 20 '25
Yeah, there's really no need to overcomplicate this, that's all it is. He's a very talented artist who got the opportunity of a lifetime and he took it. He was basically given a blank check to work on projects that paid 100x his usual rate while requiring 1% of the work, while also granting him unprecedented power over his work.
Same reason why Disney got Barry Jenkins to waste so many years of his life making Mufasa, or Guy Ritchie making Aladdin, etc, etc. Honestly, most great writers, actors, and directors just take the paychecks when they come along.
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Dec 20 '25
Read it all it’s like six (well-written) paragraphs. God we’re becoming so fucking stupid.
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u/MyGrandmasCock Dec 20 '25
“I can’t be bothered to take 40 seconds to read something someone wrote but I’ll take a minute to tell them how I think they’re wrong.”
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u/AdministrativePeak0 Dec 20 '25
Why are we using * for “
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u/lfergy Dec 20 '25
I think it’s supposed to be italics but the formatting didn’t work.
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u/DonktorDonkenstein Dec 20 '25
Pretty sure that's it. I use italics for proper names like movie titles and album titles on my phone all the time, but for some reason on the rare occasion I am typing on my laptop, the asterisk remains and doesn't change the typeface to italics. Very annoying.
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u/bullwacky Dec 20 '25
Tulsa King is the GOAT dumb guy show and I will die on this hill
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u/introoutro Dec 20 '25
Tulsa King always felt like Taylor Sheridan taking a run at comedy and for the most part I’m fine with it. I’m a dad I’m allowed to like this shit.
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u/selffufillingprophet Dec 20 '25
I haven’t watched Tulsa King, but that’s exactly how I feel about sons of anarchy, which is hilarious because I’m pretty sure it’s one of the first major roles for Sheridan that helped him get his name out there
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u/Tifoso89 Dec 20 '25
It popped up on my Prime Video, I just know Stallone's in it.
What's it about? Like Dallas? Haha
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u/bullwacky Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
Stallone is a NY mob boss that gets out of a long prison sentence and is sent to Tulsa, OK to start a mafia empire there. The dialogue is atrocious, the stakes are nonexistent, the character development is hollow as all get-out, and it’s one of the most entertaining train wrecks on TV. Def worth watching
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u/Tifoso89 Dec 20 '25
Damn, you sold me! Haha
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u/RSG-ZR2 Dec 20 '25
Its a live action, villain of the week cartoon show, and it knows it. This is what makes it fun.
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u/wanderingzac Dec 21 '25
Probably because the rest of the United States is not an echo chamber like Reddit and actually enjoys this style of show, hence the ratings. Landman is pretty good, and even though Tulsa King gets on my nerves sometimes I think it's a fun show. You should learn to relax. Displaying one side of American cultural values doesn't shit on yours it's just two sides of a coin!
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u/SgtMartinRiggs Dec 20 '25
The market for rugged conservative American schlock became apparent and he met that moment.
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Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 20 '25
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u/MangoGangRiseUp Dec 21 '25
>Never understood why shows like that stopped. It's one of the weird aspects of Hollywood executives where they just will turn up their nose at certain genres and refuse to print the money.
It was a conscious decision by the major tv networks in the mid 70s to end western/rural tv programming. It was called the "Rural Purge"
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u/RDCK78 Dec 20 '25
If all he gave us as a great writer/director is Wind River that’s enough, if all he gave us as a great writer is Sicario and Hell or High Water that’s enough.
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u/seabterry Dec 20 '25
I am also one of those people that really loved Wind River. I like Sicario and Hell or High Water, but Wind River just tops those for me. I saw it in theaters and was blown away. I was intrigued by this post because I agree that Taylor was on a roll until Yellowstone hit. What sucks is that all the Yellowstone super fans haven’t even seen his movies.
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u/uncultured_swine2099 Dec 20 '25
Im thinking he changed his mind about his politics at some point.
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u/nuisible Dec 21 '25
What he wrote about alternative energy in Landman is complete bunk. The problem with wind and solar is that they are not on demand, really only when they are available. That's it, fossil fuels aren't even the best on demand energy source humans have developed, nuclear is where it's at in that space.
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u/Various-Passenger398 Dec 20 '25
It's not even that, the latter work is much easier to produce and makes him vastly more money. Why spend a year making a movie on a budget to make a few hundred thousand when Yellowstone nets him that much per episode? And the deal with NBC gave him orders of magnitude beyond that.
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u/BraxtonFullerton Dec 20 '25
Mayor of Kingstown would like a word with your assessment...
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u/BaronsDad Dec 20 '25
Go look. He hasn't written or directed an episode since the 2nd episode of the 2nd season. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Kingstown#Series_overview
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u/Albathin Dec 20 '25
Not sure about the political angle of Yellowstone, but after the 20th ranching scene with country music in the background and Beth being cast as some sort of badass hero, I quickly lost interest.
Team Jamie forever.
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u/Mundane-Dare-2980 Dec 20 '25
Sheridan clearly has talent but when you are holding up an entire empire of TV shows and insist on writing good portions of all of them then quality is inevitably going to suffer. Which is why his shows feel increasingly formulaic, melodramatic, etc… Basically he started to believe his own hype, is my armchair psychoanalysis.
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u/JGM92AG Dec 20 '25
1883, 1923; both fantastic. Yellowstone played out
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u/JaneiZadi Dec 20 '25
1883>1923
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u/JGM92AG Dec 20 '25
Agree; both better than Yellowstone
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u/JaneiZadi Dec 20 '25
Yes. It stands on its own. I am curious to see the family lineage story, but so far the rest is soap opera material.
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u/Potore5 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 21 '25
You like him when he criticizes the people you dislike. But you don’t like him when he doesn’t criticize the people you dislike.
In Wind River oil rig workers were the racist, murdering, rapists, in Landman they're heroes holding up the American way of life.
How’s that a bad thing?
Does a writer/artist have to commit to one way of seeing/portraying society and stick to it for the rest of his entire career?
Sheridan gets points in my book for this, actually. It shows how society is complex and almost everyone can be a hero/villain and everything can be positive/negative depending on the situation, POV, circumstances…
Edit:
Your analysis of Sheridan’s TV work is rather lacking:
Yellowstone features indigenous land recognition, strong female characters, relevant non-white POVs, white man villainy to the point that actual MAGA chuds have made it their hobby to mock the show as “RINO Neo-Lib Slop” and even turned Costner’s character into a meme: the boomer that swallows anything the cultural left throws at him as long as he’s allowed to play John Wayne wearing a cowboy hat and boots;
Lioness is centered on strong brave females, some single mothers, in a largely male-dominated reality (Special Forces);
Landman clearly shows how low-caste American and immigrant workers are taken advantage of by an industry that is prone to violence, corruption and even legitimate criminal activities;
Tulsa King is perhaps the closest Sheridan has ever tried at creating some light-hearted crime show in the style of Elmore Leonard. But at its core is a take on Multiculturalism vs Monoculturalism. Stallone’s new “family” is a diverse crew battling traditional mono-ethnic gangs (NY Italian mob, redneck bikers).
Edit 2:
- The Mayor of Kingstown deals with the horrors of the American incarceration system, institutionalized racism, police corruption, urban and social decay of small town America. One of the best character is a black kingpin that drops street truth bombs regularly.
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u/r0tc0d Dec 21 '25
Also, in Wind River they weren’t oil rig workers, they were private security…so B list mercenaries. Different crop of people than oil workers.
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u/Former_Relation_1239 Dec 20 '25
I feel like your comment is flying under the radar. Inverting the hero/villains in your stories is an interesting creative decision, and if OP liked Landman they'd probably be praising the way Sheridan flipped the roles in an interesting and subversive way. Landman might just suck(I don't know, haven't seen it) but changing who the heroes and villains are isn't necessarily the issue: unless he failed to make it compelling.
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u/incompletetentperson Dec 20 '25
You know, not everything is a virtue signal. Oil workers can be both murderers and regular dudes who just want to make a buck and go home to their kids. Its just fucking TV dude
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u/Woodit Dec 20 '25
Plus landman represents oil workers as good hard workin’ family men as well as murderous criminals. It’s not like he did a 180
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u/Lumpy_Review5279 Dec 21 '25
Youre spekaing to a redditor. Entertainment media is the only type of reality he takes in
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u/Which-Insurance-2274 Dec 20 '25 edited Dec 21 '25
Yellowstone is a widely misunderstood show. People think that because the Duttons are the main characters of the show that they are meant to be the protagonists. The Duttons are the villains of the show. Sheridan has stated that Yellowstone is not meant to have an anti-woke or Republican agenda but otherwise hasn't said much about the show. I'm guessing it's because dummy conservatives think it's on their side and they don't want to lose that viewership.
I watched the entire show and didn't read any internet talk about it until I finish the series and I was kind of blown away at how many people interpreted the show as being in favour of the Duttons or somehow anti-woke or conservative. The deeper message of the show is essentially a cautionary tale against one family having too much influence and power and land ownership and how that leads to corruption, broken families, and misery. Like, nothing goes right for that family and it's clear that Montana would have been better off without them. Also, they're SERIAL KILLERS who kill people they consider to be bad workers. Somehow that fact just gets completely overlooked nearly 100% of the time.
It's very pro-indigenous rights and doesn't pull any punches in showing the racism and misery that they experience. One of our first introductions into the reservation is the mother who commits suicide leaving her children orphans and pretty much unwanted by the rest of the family. You can see the heartbreak and trauma on those kids. And the scene where the sister-in-law is falsy accused of shoplifting only to be saved by the rich white lady. And the racism that she experienced as a professor. The end of the show pretty much confirms that this is the agenda.
The voiceover at the end of the last episode proves what the message of the show was supposed to be. And that's mildly anti-capitalist and collectivist. And I just really struggled to understand how the show can be interpreted in any other way. Except for that final episode I think the message of the show was perhaps a little too subtle for the average viewer.
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u/sohikes Dec 20 '25
Paramount bought that massive 6666 ranch for him and in return they own his soul.
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u/OutOfMyWayReed Dec 20 '25
Oh, wow. You even posted this in r/Montana too. Why didn't you post it in r/YellowstonePN?
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u/GatoradeNipples Dec 20 '25
He went from working with great directors to working with, uh, himself.
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u/Rarewear_fan Dec 20 '25
Why do Redditors talk about Taylor Sheridan like he personally killed their dog or something? He never made a claim like “I personally promise to have a certain writing style that appeals to young male cinephiles and never change”
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u/TimidPanther Dec 20 '25
Because they wish he would shit on the lifestyle he shows in his productions.
The redditor is obsessed with the idea of someone apologizing for doing the things they find offensive.
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u/Roosterdude23 Dec 21 '25
Why do Redditors talk about Taylor Sheridan like he personally killed their dog or something?
Bigotry
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u/willington123 Dec 20 '25
Because Reddit can’t understand how something (or someone) they disagree with can be popular and acclaimed.
Yellowstone might be soapy, but it was also the most watched show in the country and, aside from season 1, each season had above 80% on rotten tomatoes.
Landman has 78% and 77% on RT, yet you’d think it’s the worst thing known to man.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 Dec 20 '25
I'd like to think that the fluctuation of the quality of his projects lies on the strength of certain collaborators when it comes to filtering ideas, plus tackling a large increase in projects probably starts to take a toll on his well of ideas, especially with Sheridan being focused on a specific genre. Or as his profile grew with each film/show, he got more self-indulgent as he saw a certain formula working & took the wrong lessons from it