History Series / Yellowstone

Premiering in 2018, the series has aired five seasons. Two distant prequel series, ''Series/EighteenEightyThree'' and ''Series/NineteenTwentyThree'', have been ordered for Creator/ParamountPlus; the former premiered on December 19, 2021, the latter on December 18, 2022.[[note]]''Yellowstone'' itself is not available on that platform as streaming rights are held by Creator/{{Peacock}}.[[/note]]

Premiering in 2018, the series has aired five seasons. Two distant prequel series, ''Series/EighteenEightyThree'' and ''1923'', have been ordered for Creator/ParamountPlus; the former premiered on December 19, 2021, the latter on December 18, 2022.[[note]]''Yellowstone'' itself is not available on that platform as streaming rights are held by Creator/{{Peacock}}.[[/note]]

Premiering in 2018, the series has aired four seasons and is now airing its fifth. Two distant prequel series, ''Series/EighteenEightyThree'' and ''1923'', have been ordered for Creator/ParamountPlus; the former premiered on December 19, 2021, the latter on December 18, 2022.[[note]]''Yellowstone'' itself is not available on that platform as streaming rights are held by Creator/{{Peacock}}.[[/note]]

* TheMafia: Ultimately, this is what the Duttons are in the modern day. While they appear like ordinary ranchers, they are actually a ruthless crime syndicate.

** The constant theme that rural America is more honest and superior to big cities and the coastal states comes off as rather silly when rural Montanta is portrayed as being just as corrupt and violent as any city. So far, this hypocrisy has not been brought up.
** The RatedMForManly and ToughLove way new ranchers on Yellowstone are treated (which often crosses the line to bullying) is always justified as being necessary to make competent ranchers. However, Jimmy only becomes a successfup rancher ''after'' he leaves Yellowstone to work at a ranch in Texas, where they treat him much better. And while Rip's TrainingFromHell turned him into the badass he is today, it still left him emotionally crippled, and he has essentially turned himself into the Dutton's ''slave''. Once again, this is never discussed, and the Duttons continue their way of doing things without any change.

** In season five, John gets a number of opportunities to tell environmental activists and academics how stupid they are. In flashbacks, he listens to a government environmentalist insist that it's impossible for wolves to stray into local ranches, and then he proves that they not only can but ''have.'' After meeting GranolaGirl protestor Summer Higgins, he effortlessly shreds her shallow arguments against ranching. As governor, he listens to a staff member claim that solar panels have no negative impact on sagegrass, and then he points out that sagegrass is destroyed to install solar panels. On the flip side, he gives numerous monologues about how ranchers are more respectful of the environment than anyone.

** In season five, John makes it his one and only platform issue to stop tourists from the coasts coming to Montana on vacation. He gives numerous speeches about how coastal elites are making a ruin of their own cities, fleeing to rural communities, and destroying the traditional lifestyle they find there.

* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Jamie went to Harvard, though he didn't even apply. John pulled some strings to get him in. Hoever, everyone agrees that he's an excellent litigator.

* KarmaHoudini: While bad things happen to Beth, she never receives ''any'' comeuppance or even criticism for sadistically abusing Jamie and Carter.

* StrawCharacter: Summer Higgins is an insufferable GranolaGirl who has spent her whole life campaigning for animal rights and environmentalism and yet can't come up with even the most basic defense of her views. Just about every conversation she has with the Duttons about their opposing views ends with her in stunned silence in the face of their superior arguments. Even her basic manners need to be corrected by various Yellowstone residents. She's basically a walking caricature of a "woke SJW."

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In season five, John argues with an environmentalist advisor about solar panels damaging sage grass, implying that killing any of it is not worth it. In reality, sage grass is one of the most useless plants to grow in pastures, and is usually only kept for aesthetic purposes. Cattle do not eat it, it affects the growth of other grasses and crops by excreting toxic chemicals, and it's really only useful in areas that have many droughts (which Montana is not). Controlling sage grass is very important for ranching, [[CommanderContrarian which makes it seem like John is just arguing for the sake of arguing.]]

* BaitTheDog: There's a moment between Carter and Beth in Season 4 that's actually wholesome... But she quickly ruins it. When Beth walks by him working in the stalls, he greets her by saying: "Morning Momma", and she actually responds like a mother would by instinctively saying "morning, Baby." First she's happily surprised by the moment, but then, she breaks the kid's heart by telling him he can't call her that. When he asks why, pointing out that she's been acting like his mother, she coldy tells him that like her, Carter can only have one mom, and she's dead. [[BreakTheCutie The poor kid is in tears by the time Beth walks away.]]

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: In the case of the Beck brothers sending two assailants after [[spoiler:Beth]] to send a message to the Duttons. After beating up [[spoiler: Beth]] and killing [[spoiler:her assistant Jason]] in front of her, instead of finishing the job, he tries to get her to admit she's scared of him. [[spoiler:Her]] standing up to him gives Rip enough time to show up and put a stop to it.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology/ArtisticLicenseEconomics: In season five, John argues with an environmentalist advisor about solar panels damaging sage grass, implying that killing any of it is not worth it. In reality, sage grass is one of the most useless plants to grow in pastures, and is usually only kept for aesthetic purposes. Cattle do not eat it, it affects the growth of other grasses and crops by excreting toxic chemicals, and it's really only useful in areas that have many droughts (which Montana is not). Controlling sage grass is very important for ranching, [[CommanderContrarian which makes it seem like John is just arguing for the sake of arguing.]]

* ArtisticLicenseEcology: In season five, John argues with an environmentalist advisor about solar panels damaging sage grass, implying that killing any of it is not worth it. In reality, sage grass is one of the most useless plants to grow in pastures, and is usually only kept for aesthetic purposes. Cattle do not eat it, it affects the growth of other grasses and crops by excreting toxic chemicals, and it's really only useful in areas that have many droughts (which Montana is not). Controlling sage grass is very important for ranching, [[CommanderContrarian which makes it seem like John is just arguing for the sake of arguing.]]

** Mia does this to Jimmy in Season 4, completely ostracizing him and seemingly ending their relationship when he is forced to go to Texas by John. Except, [[AllTakeNoGive this is really just her attempt to get Jimmy to "fight" for their relationship.]] He doesn't fall for it. She's actually angry when she finds out that he took her word for it and ended up getting engaged with someone else, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and Jimmy tells her off for her selfishness, and how his love for her wasn't enough.]]

** When Beth catches a racist boutique store owner and local cops falsely accusing her sister-in-law Monica of theft and [[ShamefulStrip strip-searching her]], a few growled threats send the cops away with tails tucked. Then she gets ''really'' nasty with the owner.

* When Beth finds Jamie clearing teetering on the DespairEventHorizon, she at first acts like she sympathizes with him, while softly telling him that the more he tries to get John to love him, the more he will hate Jamie. Then, [[SuicideDare she tells him that he should kill himself]]. Even worse, ''he actually almost goes through with it.''

* AmbiguouslyGay: This is Jamie's initial characterization. Beth accuses him of being a closeted gay man and tells him that their father will love him less when he finds out. Jamie weakly claims that he's not gay, only celibate because the world is too cruel to risk fathering a child. Beth continues to make the same accusation in a few later episodes. When Christina virtually throws herself at him, Jamie seems uncomfortable and perplexed but does get into a physical relationship with her and eventually [[spoiler:impregnates her]]. The characterization seems to be completely abandoned by season four, when he's easily seduced by Sarah Atwood.

** [[spoiler:Monica dresses in a flattering outfit and pretends to be broken down by the side of the road in hopes that the man who killed a local native girl will try to do the same to her. It works]].

** As it turns out, this is something of a tradition at the ranch. One person gets all the worst jobs, and is effectively treated as an outsider. It's later revealed that ''Rip'' had this role on the ranch as a teenager, to the point where even [[DomesticAbuse Beth treated him terribly. Still, he fully supports this tradition and takes part it in personally]].

* ButtMonkey: Jimmy. He is ruthlessly bullied and called an idiot constantly for just not knowing ranch slang and being a mediocre horse rider, which is something you would expect from someone who’s never been on a ranch.

** As his other films, such as ''Film/WindRiver'', suggest, Taylor Sheridan is very sympathetic to the plight of Native Americans, and he gives various Native American characters plenty of time to bitterly complain about their history and current predicaments. It goes up a notch in season 2, when Monica takes a job as a history professor and uses the opportunity to deliver lengthy monologues railing against European imperialism, particularly dumping on Christopher Columbus. [[BrokenAesop Not that this makes the Duttons ever give the Natives back the land that ''they'' took.]]

** As his other films, such as ''Film/WindRiver'', suggest, Taylor Sheridan is very sympathetic to the plight of Native Americans, and he gives various Native American characters plenty of time to bitterly complain about their history and current predicaments. It goes up a notch in season 2, when Monica takes a job as a history professor and uses the opportunity to deliver lengthy monologues railing against European imperialism, particularly dumping on Christopher Columbus.

** John also invokes this to shut up Summer, who was haranguing him for the supposed mistreatment of cattle on his ranch. He points out that in order to grow whatever trendy grains she eats, every creature living on, in, and under that field had to be killed off first, including countless insects, snakes, frogs, ground squirrels and voles, capping it off with this ArmorPiercingQuestion:
---> "How cute does an animal have to be before you care whether it dies to feed you?"

* ScarsAreForever: [[spoiler:Beth]] is caught in an explosion at the end of season 3. She has a prominent facial scar and a large burn scar across her back throughout season 4.