It is a little hokey. All of the "Them & Us" BS. The Cowboys hate the transplants, the American Indians hate the cowboys, the transplants hate all of the natives. I just came from Montana in May and the scenery is the best part of the show and everyone seemed to be getting along pretty well. The funny part is that I know and am friends with another type of local business baron who reminds me a lot of Dutton (Costner's character). He is rich beyond belief, flies around in a fancy chopper and private jet. Drives a 4x4 Ford around home while the Roll Royce and AMG sit in the garage. He drives some of the fastest drag cars on earth for fun and is damn good at it. Has a whole heap of kids and grand kids, most of whom are in the business in some form or fashion. Has a grand-daughter who was hell on wheels when she was younger. Wild enough to shoot at as they would say. Over all though, he and his family are good, honest, local people who just happened to succeed in business. Their empire is important but so is family and community, etc. So, as a whole the Yellowstone seemed kind of real life familiar to me.
Some of the plot and scenes are far fetched to pure BS. Like re-routing the river by blowing up one of the mountains. Would take more dynamite than a pack horse could carry to do that. The pansy-ass lawyer son is painfully pathetic. The slutty daughter is a bad boy's dream but those type of gals are hard to find and harder to keep. The baby boy/former seal seems to be a character who has not yet been fully unpeeled. Seems a little too quick to kill. In first episode he kills his brother in law to save his brother who died anyway. In about episode 3 he kills two more lowlife types. Outside of combat or some really rough police assignments, most go thru life with only a handful of such life/death encounters. Poor ole Casey has had multiples in three weeks. That level of violence might exist in Chicago but Montana? Doubt it. I still think I will watch it a bit longer. But I liked Sons of Anarchy too and it was pretty hokey also. It is fantasy, and not much more.
Irish