PLOT: The saga of the Dutton family continues with this prequel tracing the origins of John Dutton’s grandfather, James Dutton (Tim McGraw), a Civil War veteran trying to make a home for his family in the untamed west.
REVIEW: If you’ve seen any of my Yellowstone interviews, you’ll know that I’m a massive fan of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-western saga (it killed me that I couldn’t attend the premiere in Vegas, although the guy we had cover it did a great job). When I heard he’d be making a spin-off actually set in the Old West, I was intrigued. Sure enough, 1883 is a slam-bang prequel to one of my favorite shows on TV. What’s worth noting, though, is that even if you’ve never seen a single episode of Sheridan’s flagship series, you can jump into 1883 and enjoy it for what it is (a great western), which is perhaps why the show doesn’t carry the Yellowstone title even if the two shows are related.
Sheridan’s never made a full-on period western before, and his passion for the genre shines through here. He’s assembled a great cast that brings his saga to life, and you can tell Paramount Plus has put some serious coin into making sure this show is a strong launch for their hoped-for Taylor Sheridan universe of shows.
Tim McGraw is arguably the lead here as James Dutton. Like his grandson John, who Kevin Costner plays on Yellowstone, James is brutal and cold-blooded when needed but singularly devoted to his family and willing to eliminate anyone who threatens them. The show kicks off with a fantastic chase sequence, where his wagon is pursued by a group of cowboys planning to steal his horses. He quickly dispatches all of them, earning the respect of two Pinkerton agents (Sam Elliot and LaMonica Garrett) who witness the carnage from afar.
McGraw seems born to play a cowboy, but while he’s probably the lead, he’s not the whole show. His real life wife Faith Hill plays his wife here, Margaret Dutton, who’s the modern matriarch of the family. Hill and McGraw’s chemistry carries over to the show, making them a couple that’s easy to invest in. Isabel May also has a great part as their headstrong daughter, who, as we see in the rough teaser, ends up on a violent odyssey of her own while separated from her family. She also functions as the show’s narrator.
Of course, if you’re making a real deal western now, you’ve got to cast some legit cowboy icons, and Sam Elliot makes for a terrific co-lead here as Pinkerton agent Shea Brennan. With his whole family having been wiped out by smallpox, he’s taken a virtual suicide mission to guide a wagon train of German immigrants from Texas to Montana. They have no weapons or experience and seem like lambs being led to the slaughter, but Elliot’s compassionate cowboy wants to do the best he can for them. He’s assisted by a former Buffalo soldier, LaMonica Garrett’s Thomas, who’s more cynical than Shea and devoted to his life-long friend.
Of course, they end up enlisting McGraw’s James and his family to help out on their journey, but as the teaser reveals, it doesn’t take long for the trip to become deadly. With Yellowstone depicting the Duttons as having settled in Montana, you can bet they don’t make it Oregon.
While I’ve only seen the first episode and can’t say for sure how the whole season plays out, Sheridan’s made a hell of a kick-off for what could be another long-running show. It’s immediately compelling, with an ace cast and some gorgeous cinematography that rivals anything you’d see in theatres. Sheridan is known to write all of his shows himself, so I expect the storytelling to continue to be impeccable. If you’re a Yellowstone fan or even just a fan of westerns in general, this is appointment TV.