My Official Review Of Yellowstone's Prequel "1883"

If you have watched Yellowstone for one second this season then you've heard of "1883" because every single intro and commercial break has the trailer for this show. Now I don't really know why, but the PR team for Yellowstone/1883 has decided that I am the guy they want to hitch their promo too. It is a mistake by them because I don't really know anything about acting or art or any of that shit, but I am happy to benefit from their miscalculation 

I haven't been casted as an extra...yet

Then they followed that gift up by asking me if I wanted to prescreen the first three episodes of "1883"…uhhh, yeah I do. Thanks for asking. Send that shit my way

Like I said above…I don't really know how to accurately grade shows. Maybe it is because I was raised on a Siskel & Ebert review system that was binary. A simple thumbs up or thumbs down. For me I just ask myself if I was ever bored when watching a show. Through the first three episodes of "1883" the answer is a resounding no. I was genuinely captivated throughout. Never really even thought to reach for my phone except to brag that I was watching the show before any of you. 

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Now…I do love a good period piece and I particularly love this era of American History. I love the West. The idea of the frontier. Natives, cowboys, explorers, and a general sense of lawlessness mixed with frontier justice. This show through three episodes captures all of that and they're just starting on their journey that will end at the Yellowstone Ranch in Montana. The American immigrant and pioneer stories have always enthralled me. I just can't imagine thinking …"You know what…fuck this place where we are from. Let's get rid of everything we own and know and basically walk 2000 miles across plaines, desert, and mountains where natives could kill you, the weather could kill you, other settlers could kill you, animals could kill you, disease could kill you, starvation was a real possibility, and your only protection from all of those things was a wooden wagon with basically a canvas bed sheet over it". Thousands upon thousands of people did that because the Promise Land was just a little further west. 

1883, so far, has done a great job of capturing that danger, hope, and beauty of the American West. I am in. I am hooked. I will be paying for a Paramount+ subscription because this show is worth it and what is another $5/month? 

A few loose thoughts on this show

1) Tim McGraw doesn't get enough credit for being an outstanding actor. He was great in The Blindside. He was great in Friday Night Lights. He is great in 1883. He is the perfect leading man in this series and honestly…I think he should be a leading man in big time big budget movies too. He never falls flat and while you're watching this show he is so good that you forget it is Tim McGraw the fucking mega country music star of the 1990s/2000s. I also don't understand how he is so fucking YOKED. He is 54 years old now and he looks like he could pull the entire wagon across the Oregon Trail by himself. Who needs horses and oxen when you got this dude

2) I want to be Sam Elliott when I grow up. The guy is now 77 years old. Still looks good and has the greatest voice in the history of mankind. I will start dipping and drinking whiskey every day and only put down either thing to puff on a cigar if that is what it takes to get the gravel in my throat. I would just do voice overs until the end of time and live out west somewhere. 

3) The female lead of this show is Isabelle May. She plays Tim McGraw's daughter. I would like to buy stock in her. I think she is going to be a HUGE star. She just has that face. 

James Atoa. Shutterstock Images.

She looks like a cross between Jennifer Lawrence and Blake Lively to me. That picture doesn't fully do her justice. She has dimples that you could lose a nickel in and from my untrained eye she has serious acting chops. I have never heard of her before and the trailer above says "introducing Isabel May" as if she's never been in anything. Her IMBD is pretty light right now, but that will change. I think she will be a HUGE star when it is all said and done. Only 21 years old right now. She's great. 

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That is the review. See you this weekend.