Let’s be honest, Yellowstone never really got better than this episode

Later seasons of Yellowstone are criticized by even the most loyal fans, but it managed to get everything right with its pilot episode.

Despite the overall show getting picked apart and prodded more than the Duttons’ cattle, there’s no denying that the Yellowstone pilot is a brilliantly crafted piece of television. True, there’s no need for it to be feature-length, but we should consider that a treat and be on our hands and knees, thanking God — Taylor Sheridan — that he decided to do it that way because it doesn’t get much better than the pilot.

Where the rest of the show dips and dives into an unnerving blend of unprecedented action and long, winding episodes filled with legal negotiations, Episode 1 is one of the most balanced and well-articulated parts of Sheridan’s Western universe.

Yellowstone’s introduction does everything an effective first episode of a TV show needs to do. Namely, it’s got a killer opening scene. In fact, the first scene was what convinced me to entangle myself in the Duttons’ questionable and inconsistent world in the first place. The rest is history.

Yellowstone’s brilliant opening scene

The slow, confusing opening shot focuses on a horse trapped in an overturned trailer. As the camera pushes back, we’re met with a bloody, battered John Dutton.

Slowly, Sheridan lets us in on the scene. A car accident has occurred, leaving a driver dead, John bruised, and his horse mangled. John does the only thing he knows he can: put his horse out of its misery (the same can’t be said for his often-struggling ranch.) When the police arrive, one of the officers says in disbelief: “Jesus, that’s John Dutton.” In these opening minutes, we know everything about John Dutton. He’s important, he’s a rancher, and he does what needs to be done.

Paramount

This snippy, effective character-building continues throughout the pilot. Jamie is introduced smooth-talking his way through a court hearing, but he can’t get through his first scene without mentioning his father. He’s good at what he does but is never given the opportunity to prove that.

Beth gets the same treatment; she’s where we see her throughout the rest of the show, talking down to some emasculated businessman and making bank. She’s cut-throat. Kayce has been called to wrangle a wild horse that’s wandered onto a building site. He lives simply, away from the luxury of the Dutton Ranch. We’re literally told, “Kid’s f*ckin’ crazy.”

The only Dutton who doesn’t get a full intro is Lee — one can only imagine why!

Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone playbook

By the time we get to Rip’s first scene — in which he brands Jimmy in his classically unrelenting way — Sheridan has introduced his characters, his setting, and his stakes perfectly. When the pilot comes to an end, we know exactly what Yellowstone is about. If there’s any doubt, John says it himself: “Leverage is knowing that if someone had all the money in the world, this is what they’d buy.”

Really, the top-notch pilot shouldn’t be a surprise. Sheridan comes from a film background, first and foremost. Prior to Yellowstone, he wrote Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River, with the first two earning multiple Academy Award nominations — including one for Best Original Screenplay.

Paramount

Taylor Sheridan knows how to write a movie. The Yellowstone pilot — at one hour and 32 minutes long — is a movie. It sets out every goal it accomplishes. This same sense of rhythm and punchiness is lost as the show goes on, never quite finding the same footing as the pilot promised it would.

In a very on-brand move, Episode 1 goes against the unspoken rule of television. Usually, the pilot is a rocky landing ground (“Just get past the first few episodes” is something we’re often told about a new undertaking).

But with Yellowstone, Sheridan throws all his cards on the table right away. It’s just a shame that the show never quite managed to outdo itself on that front.

For more on the Duttons, check out our guides to the best Yellowstone deaths, the Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 release date, and the Yellowstone cast.