18 Years Later, This Modern Western Gem Is Finally Getting the Love It Deserves

You can almost tell that making Yellowstone was the guarantor that Taylor Sheridan needed to work on his passion project — epic series set in the Old West, paying tribute to the classics of the Western genre. When Yellowstone emerged as the defining television hit of the early 2020s, Sheridan was essentially given a blank check to make whatever he wanted. He created several hit shows across various genres for Paramount+. Each of them — Lioness, Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, and Tulsa King — continues to air successfully to this day. But he also managed to score mammoth budgets for two Yellowstone prequels — 1883 and 1923, which cost more than $500 million combined. The success of these shows facilitated a new wave of interest in Westerns, and one of the most underrated titles of the last two decades is now accessible for free.