‘Dutton Ranch’ review: Paramount+’s latest addition to the ‘Yellowstone’ universe has enough meat on the bones

From the moment Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) looks out over the Montana landscape to sigh, “Did you ever imagine we could have this? This peace?” And to her equally satisfied husband, we know that their peace cannot last long on this earth. There wouldn’t be a show if it were. And here it is: We’re not even into the opening credits before a fire rages to destroy the couple’s hard-earned serenity, forcing them to start over.

Well – kind of fresh. It also hit key figures from Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount Network YellowstoneBeth, her husband Rip (Cole Hauser), and their ward Carter (Finn Little) can’t help but bring the baggage of many seasons with them to their new Texas cattle ranch. But the change in scenery was enough to allow the latest of the series’ many spin-offs, Paramount+ Dutton Farmopening its doors to newcomers in the four hours (of the nine) it was sent to critics, while still offering familiar TV series.

While the Duttons and their various dramas are well known in their corner of Montana, they are complete newcomers to the small town of Rio Paloma, located a few hours north of the Mexican border. From the moment they arrive, they make new friends and new enemies as quickly as creator Chad Feehan can come up with them.

The former camp includes a pair of loyal ranch workers, the friendly Azul (J.R. Villarreal) and the sad-sack Zacarias (Mark Menchaca), as well as Everett (Ed Harris), a brave Navy veteran turned vet. (It tells you something about a straight facial tone and insistence Dutton Farm They refrain from making even the smallest joke about Everett being a vet.)

The latter camp consists mostly of people associated with 10 Petal Ranch, the larger and more organized cattle operation on the route. At the top of that food chain sits Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening), a dour matriarch who is less than happy to learn that the Duttons have purchased the property she was hoping to carve out for herself.

As the list of names in parentheses might suggest, Dutton FarmThe biggest blessing is the cast. Harris settles into this dusty landscape as comfortably as a foot slipping into a broken shoe, and his quiet decency lends the entire endeavor a welcome touch of gravitas. Bening’s performance feels more engaging (so far, at least, it seems like this “gray in Gucci” could have been played by any other actress of similar star power and age range). But she’s still Annette Bening, and so it’s quite entertaining to watch her walk around wearing giant belt buckles or smiling veiled threats to the mutinous employees.

This is truly Riley’s show, and she rises to the challenge with ease. The best example of her special appeal is perhaps the scene in which Beth strolls around a posh Dallas hotel in Louboutin shoes while carrying an old cooler with a “Don’t Be Silly” sticker on it: here is a charming, confident lady who doesn’t mind the dirt under her fingernails, and a savvy business mind with startling directness.

Beth is so watchable that it’s almost enough to make up for the fact that her main assistant barely registers at all. Rip’s favorite romantic advice is: “Don’t do anything, don’t say anything, just listen”; Judging by how forgetful he is, you can’t accuse the man of not walking.

Put these big personalities (and Rip) together, and… Dutton Farm It comes away with a tangled set of storylines that often fall a bit flat. Its heroes and villains may lack the psychological depth or emotional complexity of the best TV characters, since they simply vocalize their motivations. But the simmering rivalry between the two ranches — as well as the growing animosity between Beulah’s sons, the competent Joaquín (Juan Pablo Raba) and the drug-addicted Rob Will (Jai Courtney) — scratches some of the interest. succession– Mild itching.

The Duttons’ struggle to grow their business offers both a picturesque fantasy of rural life (debut director Christina Alexandra Foros never misses an opportunity to capture a beautiful sunrise over a sleeping field) and a look at its hard realities (a story about a disease spreading through a herd ends in devastating fashion). It helps on both fronts that the self-important tirades that have been a hallmark of the wider Sheridanverse are reasonably restrained here, as is any politically coded criticism about the decadence of cities or the naivete of liberal elites.

On the other hand, there are some puzzling character decisions that exist only to set up later narrative developments (there’s no other way to explain Rip’s response to finding a body on his property), and some plot beats that have already begun to repeat themselves. And the show seems to be as interested in Carter as it is in the benignly neglectful Beth and Rip. He spends most of his time distracted by a boring romantic subplot with a spoiled girl (Natalie Alyn Lind Urena) who seems less like a real woman than a teenage boy’s fantasy.

And that’s a little less than halfway through the season. Dutton Farm It has not yet gone from sowing to reaping. It’s possible the series could jump to another level once it did, bringing all of these disparate themes and arcs together to produce one outrageous reveal or explosive confrontation after another. As it is, there has already been one literal explosion, defined by two characters who manage to walk away in one of those on-screen clichés that are too hackneyed but too wonderful for the mind to contemplate.

It’s just as possible that all of that potential will fade away, undone by an emphasis on character twists or self-mythologies over crowd-pleasing, until nothing going on with the Duttons doesn’t seem worth caring about anymore. Maybe Beth and Rip would prefer that – to hear them tell it, all they want to do is leave in peace to find their happiness. But where would the fun be for us in that?