Near the end of “Dutton Ranch‘s” two-part series premiere, something astounding happens — or nearly happens. After a hard day of ranching, Rip (Cole Hauser) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) hit the local watering hole with their fast friend and local veterinarian, Everett (Ed Harris). A proud Navy man whose Seawolves hat never leaves his head, Everett quickly establishes himself as an honest and respected town elder. He knows everyone, but he doesn’t judge them. He works hard for everyone, but he has his preferred clientele.
Rip and Beth are among them. The new couple in town quickly wins Everett over with their compassion for lost causes (Beth) and dedication to the cowboy way (Rip), so it only makes sense to see them sharing a drink at the bar once the day’s duties are done. What makes less sense is what happens next: Everett gets called on stage — to sing. The guitarist who’d been strumming country ditties for the weary workforce wraps her latest refrain and says, “Why don’t we get McKinney up here?,” as though everyone in the bar has been waiting all night to hear the old sailor start crooning.
Now, I don’t mean to question Ed Harris’ musical talent. He’s an esteemed actor, after all, with enough Broadway experience to earn a Tony nomination, and if there’s a role showcasing his melodious vocal range that I’m overlooking, please point it out to me. But the grizzled former Man in Black and man-who-failed-to-ground-Maverick isn’t known for playing the type of gruff ol’ cowpoke who’s about to break into song. So when Harris steps behind the mic as Beth and Rip head to the dance floor, I was on the edge of my seat. Here we go! Kevin Costner would never! “Dutton Ranch” is going for something different!
And then the diegetic sound fades out, the non-diegetic score kicks in, and the scene abruptly shifts away from Everett’s forever-unknown number. For the briefest of moments, you can spot Harris on stage, singing his heart out, but you can’t hear a single note. It’s as disappointing as it is maddening. Why introduce Everett as a singer if not to hear him sing? The plot doesn’t require it, and I surely wasn’t expecting it. If Kevin Bacon or Jeff Bridges were playing Everett, then sure, but no one saw Ed Harris in the opening credits of ‘Dutton Ranch’” and thought, “Oh, boy! I can’t wait to buy the soundtrack!”
Perhaps this doesn’t seem like a point worth stressing in a review of the latest “Yellowstone” spinoff, and that may be true. But the scene — which better turn out to tease a big song-and-dance routine from Harris later on — exemplifies the best and worst of “Dutton Ranch,” a series with a low ceiling, in terms of its potential, but a relatively high floor.
Whereas the first “Yellowstone” sequel, “Marshals,” took a single Dutton family member and stuck him in a routine CBS procedural, “Dutton Ranch” returns two fan-favorites in a drama series rooted in the same open-range cowboy life as its predecessor. There are some bumps in the first four episodes (out of nine total for Season 1), but they’re related to pacing, focus, and follow-through. The core story is a simplified version of “Yellowstone” (which was never that complex to begin with) that sets up its cherished preexisting characters to thrive alongside a cast of newcomers who know how to leave their mark.
If anything, Harris and Annette Bening are already stealing “Dutton Ranch” out from under Beth and Rip. But that’s OK. Those two know how to roll with the punches, and their new series knows what its viewers want.
Mostly. For those who need the refresher, at the end of “Yellowstone,” Beth and Rip started over. Their mammoth family ranch was sold to the reservation in order to preserve the land, and they purchased a smaller homestead (though, really, what could be bigger?) near Dillon, Montana. It’s an ideal set-up for a spinoff, right? Beth and Rip are on their own, starting from scratch, building a new family legacy adjacent to their father’s (and father’s father’s) old one.
Well, for whatever reason, creator Chad Feehan and executive producer Taylor Sheridan decided “Dutton Ranch” should be in Texas, instead. (Perhaps that’s why Feehan was fired three weeks ago, well after production completed but long before an anticipated Season 2? Either way, no need to worry: The last time Sheridan fired a showrunner on one of his programs, it turned out to be the best TV series he’s made.) So the premiere episode opens with a laughably truncated ode to Beth and Rip’s maiden Montana ranch, right before it burns to the ground and they have to relocate to Rio Paloma, a small town an hour north of the Mexican border.
Dutton Ranch is dead, but “Dutton Ranch” is just beginning.
And so is Dutton Ranch, because Beth and Rip aren’t about to change the name of their ranch just because the original was wiped off the face of the earth. Dutton Ranch II is acquired so quickly, the actual transition from one owner to the next isn’t shown until the second episode, even though Rip & Co. are already wrangling cattle in Episode 1.
Similarly clunky execution creeps in when the series shifts into montage mode, aka when creator Chad Feehan and director Christina Alexandra Voros try to recreate the sweeping odes to nature “Yellowstone” relied on to convey the Duttons’ deep appreciation of the soil, the herd, and ranching in general. Here, such extended sequences of cowboys steering their steeds and working their land feel rushed. They don’t fit the existing vibe, even when they’re trying to set it.
Still, their mere presence goes a long way to reminding audiences what they liked about the original “Yellowstone,” as do a few more key facets. Hearing Rip tell someone to “shut the fuck up” with a ferocity that betrays his underlying affection remains strangely endearing. So does Beth’s inability to suffer fools, be it a gaggle of screaming bachelorette partygoers or a restaurant owner who doesn’t respect his staff. There’s a reason these two were tasked with carrying the “Yellowstone” mantle forward, and “Dutton Ranch” gets it.
It also repositions the pair as straightforward heroes. In the original series, John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his children weren’t exactly pure of heart. Kayce (Luke Grimes) spent most of his life trying to escape his toxic family, while his siblings consistently broke the rules in ways that were only justifiable as acts of self-preservation.
Beth and Rip aren’t nicer now, by any means. They’ll still beat the hell out of a guy they’ve never met and burn his house down if they decide it’s warranted, but you won’t feel conflicted when it happens. Maybe that will change as the season goes on, but for now, it’s easy to enjoy them fighting for their place in a territory already claimed by someone else, especially when said someone needs to get cut down to size.
The Duttons got away with a lot of lawbreaking because they were the big dogs in Montana — but everything’s bigger in Texas. Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening) rules the rural area via 10 Petal Ranch, and her corruption is as plain as the nose on her problematic son’s face. Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) is a loose cannon, and when he makes the biggest mistake of a life filled with plenty, it’s clear who’s wearing the black hat and who’s wearing white when the Jacksons and Duttons face off.
Despite an uneven structure, “Dutton Ranch” largely knows how to harness its inherent advantages. Bening gets to sink her teeth into a whiskey-swirling Southern villainess (while filling John Dutton’s shoes as the powerful-yet-compromised old-school boss), and Harris puts on the charm as the generous grandpa-type. Hauser and Reilly are doing their respective things, and even though the Texas landscape is a drier brown than Montana’s majestic greenery, the vicarious dirt-under-your-fingers experience endures. All told, it’s a more straightforward drama than what “Yellowstone” was going for, but given where that show ended up, maybe simpler is better.
“Dutton Ranch” doesn’t need to be different. In many ways, it was designed to be more of the same. but it does need to do one thing: In a figurative and literal sense, it needs to let Harris sing.
Grade: C
“Dutton Ranch” premieres Friday, May 15 on Paramount+ (and the Paramount Network at 8 p.m. ET). Two episodes will be released initially with a weekly release through the finale on July 3.
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