1923 - Season 1

I can understand all the objections from die-hard fans of Yellowstone and 1883. Yes, it's a little more difficult with 1923, because it's moodily disjointed, emotionally sprawling, with several story lines developing to too much breadth, and the ending of the first season is actually far from what one expects after the first two or three episodes. Of course, if 1883 was about a crude loner and a homage to the western, 1923 is a homage to all the glorious adventure films. At times I felt I was seeing the best of Africa and some moments made me think of the legendary The Ghost and the Darkness, at other times the romantic twisting of the central couple (Brandon Sklenar is perfectly cast, by the way) was reminiscent of Out of Africa. Taylor Sheridan simply plays out a bigger and more colourful story here than in its previous work, and he's not afraid to soften it in the form of a rather breezy romance that is strikingly reminiscent of the one in Titanic. Even so, the spiritual father of the franchise doesn't forget about moments of pure violence and ultra-violent villains. Above all, Timothy Dalton is excellent. Well set to a second season. (09/06/2024)