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One of the most successful and prolific TV producers in the world, Taylor Sheridan is also a controversy magnet. A polarising figure, much of his work is contentious.
For some, his shows are misogynistic, red-state MAGA manifestos that cheer on the fossil-fuel industry. For others, they’re the work of an unapologetic bloke who understands men, admires and appreciates the work that they do, and is prepared to champion the values and lifestyles that matter to them.
Whatever side of the Great Sheridan Divide you’re on, no one could argue the fact that he’s exceptionally productive. Following a significant early career rejection, Sheridan rebounded to build an empire. Over the last decade, he’s provided a sturdy spine for Paramount+ with his shows including Mayor of Kingstown, Lioness, Landman and Tulsa King, as well as Yellowstone and its spin-offs, 1883 and 1923, with Marshals and The Madison to come in March.
However, the end of that fruitful association is in sight as Sheridan recently signed a $US1 billion deal with NBC Universal. From 2029, he’s contracted to produce 20 shows for Peacock, although his film projects could start earlier.
Described in a Deadline story that detailed the background of that mega-deal as “a my-way-or-the-highway guy in a cowboy hat”, the actor, writer, producer and director has carved out a career that supports that assessment. He’d been a jobbing actor (Sons of Anarchy, Veronica Mars) when he turned his hand to screenwriting, initially with movies (Sicario, Hell or High Water, Wind River).
He worked on two scripts for HBO, recalling in a 2020 interview that a senior vice-president at the company rejected the one that would become Yellowstone. Sheridan remembers him saying, “Nobody wants to see a movie about this ... the whole thing should be in a park.” To which Sheridan recalls retorting, “Buddy, you’re the exact reason that I’m making this.”
You can almost see him flipping the bird at that know-nothing city-slicker as he grabs his hat and marches out of that meeting and into TV history. The executive clearly misjudged the audience’s appetite for tales of bitter battles in the wide, open spaces. The project was snapped up by Paramount and Yellowstone became a global hit that ran for five seasons. It’s sometimes described as a neo-western, although Sheridan likened it to The Godfather, with powerful people doing what they think they must to protect their families, tribes and/or businesses.
That series, and many that followed, exhibit elements, themes and concerns that have become familiar through Sheridan’s work, some of them evident in 2016’s film, Hell or High Water, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay. A decade ago, it was clear that he could write energetic, engaging, smartly plotted scripts and cracking dialogue.
Since then, it’s become even clearer that he respects people – frequently men – who do things their own way: self-starters, independent thinkers willing to stand up to those who oppose them. There’s also a reverence for men doing “manly” things, tough physical work: breaking horses, droving cattle, drilling for oil.
There’s a love of the land, like the majestic landscape of Montana appreciatively portrayed in Yellowstone, with Kevin Costner’s patriarch remarking that the view from the family ranch is “like a painting in every direction”. In tandem with that is his ongoing commitment to the traditional Native American custodians of that land and respect for their historic claims on it.
This might sit uncomfortably – at least to city folk living outside Texas – with the burning desire in Landman to extract as much oil and gas from it as quickly as possible. Although even in that series – as in Yellowstone – come references to a way of life that might be facing extinction. In Landman, the shots of wind turbines acknowledge the incursion of alternative energy sources. So the companies for which the series’ acerbic hero Tommy Norris (Billy Bob Thornton) works as a fixer are facing competition and a future that might not rely on them.
Alongside those concerns comes one of the most contentious areas of Sheridan’s work: women and the portrayal of them in the male-dominated worlds that he creates. He maintains that he loves and respects strong women, like his wife, mother and grandmother. His shows would suggest that he also likes them in figure-hugging outfits that display generous amounts of cleavage.
With Yellowstone’s Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Lioness’ Joe McNamara (Zoe Saldaña), he gives us women who act like his men: they can fight and drink and curse with the best and worst of them, and the admiration for that grit is apparent.
In many ways, from her name to her work as a CIA operative and approach to it, Joe could be a man. In the first season, motherhood seems simply an inconvenience for her, a cause for a guilty backward glance as she heads off to do her duty.
Full disclosure: I only lasted one season of Lioness, so maybe that changes. But I didn’t wait to find out, as I found the show heavy-handed and dull, with the violence, particularly in the torture scenes in episode two, shockingly brutal for no useful purpose.
Similarly, I bailed on Mayor of Kingstown after a season. The violence of the prison-attack in episode three was sickening, but then the violation and degradation of an initially confident sex worker was the final straw. And there, too, there was a distasteful relish in just how far the drama could push things. Sheridan has his strengths, but subtlety isn’t one of them.
Landman, though, is a different story – especially the recent second season, which finished last month. Here, the women, particularly Tommy’s newly returned ex-wife, Angela (Ali Larter), and daughter, Ainsley (Michelle Randolph), are broadly drawn but bring love and levity. Tommy travels around Texas, hosing down disasters, making wry pronouncements about the state of things and generally looking weary and sour, as if life has burdened him with lemons. Meanwhile, the women in his family happily make lemonade: shopping, cooking and delighting in the goodies that his position provides.
Sheridan uses them partly as comic relief: aspiring cheerleader Ainsley is a classic dumb blonde, albeit a sweet-natured one, and Angela is a pistol who never takes a backward step. Together, they’re a lot of fun.
There’s a lot more of Sheridan’s work to come: more of his existing series and then the Peacock shows. As divisive as these productions can be, there are clearly enough rusted-on fans for NBCU to invest heavily in his future output.
But before that, there are the latest Yellowstone spin-offs. One of them, The Madison, stars Michelle Pfeiffer and has been promoted as “a very female-gaze-oriented show”. So it’s hard to resist at least giving it a go.
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