Taylor Sheridan’sYellowstoneprequel1923is back for Season 2, essentially finishing the story Season 1 was telling. This is less a second season and more a ‘second half’ to what started in 2022. Taylor Sheridan’s soap opera universe, where the Dutton family face family drama and land wars over generations, continues to sprawl despiteYellowstoneitself having ostensibly ended.1923presents yet another period in the seemingly endless and repetitive saga.
There is always a new mustache-twirling baddie using pawns on the chessboard to take down the Dutton clan, populated by gravelly-voiced patriarchs, tough-as-nails women, old-school cowboys, and a few damsels in distress.
Winter Is Coming, and Hard Times with It
1923 - Season 2
In the new season of 1923, a cruel winter brings new challenges and unfinished business to Jacob (Ford) and Cara (Mirren) back at Dutton ranch. With harsh conditions and adversaries threatening to end the Dutton legacy, Spencer (Sklenar) embarks on an arduous journey home, racing against time to save his family in Montana. Meanwhile, Alexandra (Schlaepfer) sets off on her own harrowing trans-Atlantic journey to find Spencer and reclaim their love.
The new season picks up with the Duttons facing some hard times in a hard winter. Heads of the family Jacob (Harrison Ford) and Cara (Helen Mirren) are making due with less and hunting for food, with Jacob heading into town over the legal issues of loyal foreman Zane’s interracial marriage. The loyal foreman is, of course, anotherYellowstone-verse standby.
Taylor Sheridan’s Best Performance Was in This Biker Drama
Before Taylor Sheridan built his own TV empire, he was just another aspiring actor — and he’s remembered for one role in particular.
Hemingway-masculinity-wet-dream-character Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), who hunts lions, broods about the war, and kills as easily as he lights up a cigarette, was separated from his love, Alexandra (Julia Shclaepfer), on their long journey back to Montana to help save the ranch and family. We catch up with him working hard on a steam ship trying to earn his way back home, while Alexandra is devastated over their separation and resolves to find a way back to him and his permanently sweaty Henley shirts.
We also catch up with Teonna Rainwater(Aminah Nieves) after her daring escape from the convent where she was violently converted and tormented by the sinister Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché). This storyline is one of the more bold and unique of the otherwise familiar Sheridan plotlines, as it features the inner workings of a vanishing way of life. Teonna is a person forced against her will to adopt the ways of the dominant settler culture the series otherwise truly aggrandizes. It is a welcome dose of complexity in a typically straightforward storyline.
Will the ‘Yellowstone’ Formula Keep Working?
Actors and audiences love Sheridan’s writing because it gives everyone something as meaty and juicy as the steaks the characters themselves raise. Big emotional outbursts and revelations set against the sweeping gorgeous landscapes feel like the TV equivalent of Louis L’Amour. Which is to say, Season 2 of1923is a fairly clichéd and over-the-top crowd-pleaser, with some questionably old-fashioned and overly simplified American morals. There is a suggestion that the formula is starting to wear a bit thin, or maybe that Sheridan isbecoming self-indulgent in his success.
Taylor Sheridan Has Had a Reality Competition Show for 5 Years
Aside from creating films and scripted television, Taylor Sheridan has branched out into reality TV — but it still has his signature Western flavor.
The bottom line is, if you loved what Sheridan’s worlds and the Dutton sagas have offered to date, surely the return of1923will deliver. If you’re looking for at least some kind of deviation from the norm or something more subtle, some artful and honest depiction of the American West, you’ll have to go somewhere else, and luckily there are countless other places to findgreat Western series.1923Season 2 Premieres on June 22, 2025, and can be streamed on Paramount+. Watch it through the link below:
Watch 1923
