(Los Angeles) With its trigger-happy heroes, its celebration of rodeos and its mocking of right-thinking Californians, the TV series Yellowstone seems tailor-made to flatter conservative America and its Republican electorate.
Posted at 12:31 p.m.
But this modern western, mixed with soap opera, has come to appeal to all sensibilities, becoming a rare cultural common ground in a country deeply divided politically.
The series, where family intrigues alternate with often violent action scenes, features the Dutton dynasty and its patriarch played by Kevin Costner.
The family owns a large and beautiful ranch in the wild state of Montana, near Yellowstone National Park, and tries every means to protect it from the sights of evil real estate developers, greedy politicians and Native Americans claiming their ancestral lands.
When Yellowstone began airing in 2018, it has built up a loyal following in rural and small town America, where television still has the upper hand on streaming platforms. streaming. The series had notably benefited from a marketing strategy coupled with the retransmissions of American football matches.
But the launch of the fourth season last November by the Paramount network had attracted 11 million spectators, a performance higher than that of the fourth season of Game Of Thrones.
“Just because it’s in Montana and there are ranchers, people say it’s a show for the Republican right,” Paramount Network president Keith Cox told AFP.
“But now, we realize that it’s a series for everyone,” he rejoices.
Proof of a success that transcends political opinions, Yellowstone has just been recognized by Hollywood by winning its first nomination for the SAG Awards, a prize awarded by the Syndicate of American Actors, an organization not very suspicious of conservative sympathies.
A reassuring authenticity
How did the series catch the eye of the elites?
The presence of a movie star like Kevin Costner played a big role.
As it grew in popularity, Yellowstone has also been compared a lot to a western version of the HBO series Succession, a critical success, again featuring a wealthy family torn apart, but this time with the New York business community as the backdrop.
If the two series display dominating patriarchs, political shenanigans and private helicopters, the values they convey are diametrically opposed.
The cynical and selfish heirs who redouble their efforts to betray their father in “Succession” repel many Americans, notes Mary Murphy, specialist in the entertainment industry and pop culture at the University of Southern California.
Despite huge media coverage, Succession failed to draw more than 1.7 million viewers for its final episode.
By comparing, Yellowstone can be summed up as the silly story of a man “who uses his ties to people to preserve the earth”, analyzes Mme Murphy.
“Those who watch this feel comforted in their simple way of life,” she says, noting the importance that this dimension may have had in combating the feeling of “insecurity” caused by the pandemic.
For the teacher, Yellowstone looks at American values and how “the country was made,” themes that resonate across the country.
The series also plays the card of authenticity with its cattle ranchers and rodeos, even if it often forces the line on violence and scandals to advance the plot.
The creator of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan (Sicario) knows what he’s talking about: this horse-loving Texan who owns a ranch himself wrote every episode. “It’s his world”, slice Keith Cox.
Some have tried to make the series a standard bearer for the ideas of the conservative right, citing as an example certain passages supposed to criticize the “woke” movement and the hypocrisy of climate defenders.
But the boss of Paramount assures that the series “never takes sides”. “I don’t feel like she’s waving the flag of one side or another. Anti woke? I think she’s just real.”
Keith Cox cites his Hollywood colleagues as an example. ” This is very fun. Many of my counterparts said worse than hang and did not want to hear about it. And all of a sudden, they are conquered”.