Life Is a Promise

Sometimes I get anxiety watching the last episode of a series, because you just don't know if it's going to be disappointing, weird, or leave you saying, whaaat the heck just happened?!

But this episode, was perfect! Even though I went into it with and an idea of how it was going to end, I still laughed, cried, clutched my pearls and gasped while watching this one.

All the actors were truly phenomenal and the story line was moving and gripping. I've never seen a better ending!

It was the perfect wrap up to this inspiring series! Not to mention the epic cinematography and stunning music that was featured! It exceeded my expectations in every way!

Yellowstone was well written stories, great acting, and strong characters and solid development throughout the series. This one kicked off all of the other spin-offs (which have all been excellent), and was a really, really good show. That said, I think this series just ran far too long, and its stories were already told.

Season 4 was enjoyable, but not quite as strong as previous ones. Even ending there, would have been good, even if they never did a specific finale episode.

Season 5, with Kevin Costner leaving, should not have been made. Or at least not made without a great story, to do the series the justice it deserved. Instead they just kill him off, start a detective story, and try to wrap it up with the introduction of nefarious characters.

Unfortunately the detective story was rather straightforward, and just stretched out over the season. There could have been so much drama and excitement with it, but there wasn't. It was slow and drawn out.

The entire season felt like it was a 90 minute story, that was stretched out to fill about 15 to 20 hours of television. The finale was the epitome of that. It was so freaking slow, and drawn out, I became bored of watching at the end. I think there was about 25 minutes of a great story, that went on, and on, and on, and...zzz.

The finale was one of the most forgettable pieces of television I've ever watched. It was so slow, predictable and boring. It seemed like a few scenes that were meant to be an homage to MASH, in their finale, but SO paled in comparison.

At any rate, I enjoyed the series, except this final one. I didn't hate it, it was just boring.

What happened had to happen, so that what was meant to be could be. A very fitting finale with plenty of defining moments that captured the spirit of the show and, in my opinion, did the entire series more than enough justice. An ending that left no loose ends and nothing to be desired. Couldn't ask for more. Well, I take that back. Of course I desire more and I wish it wasn't over. But there will never be any amount of episodes or any last episode that feels like "enough". Series finales (of GOOD series) always remind me of that country song, "One more day, one more time. One more sunset, maybe I'd be satisfied. But then again, I know what it would do. Leave me wishing still for one more day with you." I'll miss Yellowstone, the characters, the plots, and the beauty of the scenery. It was a legendary show, there's no question about that. But all good things must come to an end, and they did a good job with it. Like I said, no loose ends were left, with perhaps one exception. I won't give it away, but it involves Beth's conversation with the detective. That would've been a great plotline to start the next season off. But I understand why they chose not to. To the creators, writers, actors, directors, producers... thank you ALL for this show! So looking forward to more spinoffs (I hope!) and to watching Kevin Costner's and Taylor Sheridan's future endeavors in TV and cinema.

Ah Yellowstone... we laughed, we cried, we watched people get the crap kicked out of em. Speaking of which, without giving too much away... what an EPIC scene between Beth and Jamie. Talk about things coming to a boil! I wasn't sure how all that was gonna go down, but boyyy did it, and it did not disappoint. I imagine that was a fun scene to film. Yellowstone went out with a bang... some happy tears, some sad tears, some sass, and some laughs... everything that made Yellowstone great.

The final 6 episodes of "Yellowstone", delayed by the writer's strike and thrown into chaos by the departure of Kevin Coster have finally arrived, around a year after the initial 8. Whilst it's hard to shake the feeling that this is a bit of a rushed job, to find an ending from the departure of the shows leading man it's a satisfactory reset for a series that seems like it is essentially going to continue in various spin offs.

Governor Dutton apparently commits suicide in his mansion, though neither Beth (Kelly Reilly) nor Kayce (Luke Grimes) believe that this is the case, with Beth immediately blaming it on Jamie (Wes Bentley). She is technically correct, though Jamie is initially unsure about how explicit his instructions to Sarah (Dawn Olivieri) were. The rest of the ranch team are in Texas participating in a cattle saving relocation, alongside the Four Sixes Ranch, this provides some new concerns for them and means that Rip (Cole Hauser) isn't around when the news about the Governor breaks.

These last episodes do feel like they're truncating several aspects of the story, particularly the airport storyline and the reaction of Market Equities to what happens. Naturally the stories involving John and the specifics of his Governorship are dropped, and Summer (Piper Perabo) gets just a single scene to finish off her interest. It's all complicated by these episodes, certainly the first three or four, jumping backwards and forwards in time, to accommodate the fact that most of the 'cowboys away' storyline has to take place before the assassination, but they couldn't just do that whole storyline first and ignore all the rest of the characters.

Other than the rapid pace - though still finding time for a few interminable musical performances - generally this was as decent a ending as the show was going to get, given the extenuating circumstances and I look forward more to resetting with the spin offs in the near future.

For me, the biggest failure of Season 5.2 was the mismanagement of expectations. I first heard of this term when 'The Killing' was on years ago viewers were led to believe it was a one season show. We suddenly found out it wasn't. Viewers were furious.

I watched 'Yellowstone' from the beginning, because it was supposed to be a modern day western set in Montana starring Kevin Costner. Then this last season Costner left. Much of the season was set in Texas at the Four Sixes Ranch seemingly starring Taylor Sheridan with some characters building up his mystique. The Texas scenes were pretty boring. If I wanted to see this kind of horse training, I would watch Sheridan's reality show 'The last Cowboy'. I watched a couple of episodes of that show and found them boring.

To me, Costner's John Dutton grounded 'Yellowstone', Beth was the backbone, Rip the heart, Kayce mostly irrelevant, Jamie almost a guest star type villain. I never liked him. With the characters that were left, the prophecy that after seven generations the land would go back to the native Americans, Kayce's lack of interest in the ranch, Beth and Rip relocating, this ending was predictable. There was little dramatic impact, plus it was an insulting disservice to Costner, his character, and viewers expectations from a show that many viewers started watching, because of Costner. This is how I feel. It was a betrayal of trust.