Episode one was terrific, but now on episode 4 and it feels more like a soap opera for the past 3 episodes. Hope it gets better...
Update:
Well, I suffered through the rest of the soap opera and it never improved... might even have gotten a lot worse!!
The writers are using the shotgun approach - throw everything random you can think about at the story and see what sticks.
This was a frustrating season for me. The first episode was my favorite episode of the entire series and provided the fast paced melodrama that I had come to enjoy from the show, adding in a lot of action-packed moments and giving good payoff to the cliffhanger of season 3. However, after the opening episode the season came to a screeching halt and I have a hard time even remembering what significant things happened this season aside from the last episode. The show got caught up in trying to take itself very seriously again, and in order to make this work you need a well written and engaging main story. I just didn't find the main story that engaging and the show seemed to focus on a lot of smaller side plots that carried little significance to the overall story. This show has shown us in previous seasons that it is more character driven than plot driven, which is completely fine, but at some point you need to focus on some level of plot development and in this season it was barely there. I think there were more scenes of horses just running around than there were scenes of actual plot development. I wouldn't mind focusing more on side plots and characters if the entertainment value was high and the character dynamics were interesting, but I thought the side plots were mostly boring and the character dynamics were repetitive and old. For example, they focused a lot on Beth vs Jamie this season and this relationship hasn't changed at all in 4 seasons and is getting repetitive. I wish they would evolve this relationship or focus on it less and give us more meaningful time with other characters. For example, Rainwater has so much potential to be a great character but we barely see him anymore. I had a bunch of little frustrations with character arcs and plot points that wouldn't bother me as much if the show played into the melodramatic soap opera tone (like season 2). But because they tried to take themselves more seriously this season the little things stood out more. Overall the whole season just felt somewhat uninspired and repetitive. I still really enjoy the overall themes/characters and the show continues to transport you into its setting with its amazing scenery and setting, so I am still a fan of this show and will continue to watch it with excitement. But overall I am left a little disappointed in this season after I thought it had so much potential to be great.
Yellowstone Seasons Ranked --> https://trakt.tv/users/justinnumerick/lists/yellowstone-seasons-ranked?sort=rank,asc
Where the first season was a bit over the top for me now an then - too much going on each episode- this season was great.
Beth? Still terrible. And Jamie’s storyline is also weak as hell. What a dipshit. Everything else is still great. I binged this season in a day for a reason.
Lack of vision is what I can describe this season. The Dutton's henchmen drama sub-plot was way too long that it took half the time of 3/4 episodes for this season to resolve and I was sick of it. Most episodes seems like there was no direction on where they want the story to go, you could say filler episodes. I can say that if you cut these filler episodes we will only get 3 episodes where the main plot progress for season 4 and it's a shame compared to s3, notably where they end a big cliffhanger by the end of the season 3 finale.
TBH I think they should end this series next season if the quality of the writing will be the same as this season.
Idk why but I got a feeling that Taylor Sheridan's time to make this season was preoccupied with the spin-off of the prequel series 1883 for this, the Yellowstone writing quality suffered.
Season 4 is plainly bad writing with no focus direction and a pretty much boring season.
Huge disappointment for me!
Best thing I’ve seen on TV for years, and the spin-off 1883 is just as good, it shows the American west at its best, can’t wait to see 1932 series
Great season. The only issue I had was how the Beth/Jamie dynamic ended. It was a little too contrived for my liking. Still, I loved every other part of the season——particularly Jimmy’s storyline.
Also, the judge in the final episode was an absolute nut case.
Shout by N. iekBlockedParentSpoilers2021-12-29T00:17:26Z
Season 4 is lame compared to previous seasons (except episode 1). Not much happening, too much drama and emotions, not much shooting or real story lines. The main story of ‘who shot John’ and Jamie visiting the prison to find out his father did it bled dead and instead they fill the episodes with all these stupid emo shit. The airport plan is just taggling along, wtf they just killed this guy with the snake who was STILL fishing in the stream next to Dutton, random shit happening.