SEND IN THE CLONES

 

Yellowstone … the gift that just keeps on giving. Dutton Ranch is the latest incarnation and it most definitely qualifies as one of those semi-guilty pleasures. It looks almost as pretty as its paternity would indicate but takes place in Texas … not Montana … and for sheer beauty, it is tough to compete with the more mountainous “Big Sky Country” of the “Treasure State.”

There is more than one reason they call Montana “the Last Best Place”… sorry, Texas, “Remember the Alamo” says it all as a concession in any beauty competition.

Like Yellowstone, the actors who play the cowboys and gals in this modern-day western really know how to mount and ride horseback and it is so noticeable that in the unlikely event I would ever make a western of my own there is no way I would do so without making every effort to get the wrangler who has done such a great job of teaching his craft to the thespians on the Taylor Sheridan troika of Yellowstone, Marshals, and now, Dutton Ranch.

All these can be seen on Paramount + but pretty and pleasurable though they be, none of them are as good as the other two Taylor Sheridan series, Landman, and The Madison, proving once again that really good actors can definitely enhance really good writing. Who woulda thunk it?

It should also be noted that although Dutton Ranch owes its lineage to Taylor Sheridan, he is not the writer on this series … and it shows. The format owes its allegiance to melodrama and a pretty heavy-handed version at that. “Creator” Chad Feehan really has a hard time creating a scene or a character that isn’t fraught with possibilities of an ugly back-story, a birth defect, or both … but then, with folks, scenery, and photography pretty enough… that is sort of what goes into the basic makeup of a guilty pleasure.

And it is pretty to look at, as are Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser who reprise their Yellowstone roles and are well suited to the parts and each other. Ed Harris is as grizzled and semi-folksy as you could ask, while Annette Bening has one of those thankless roles that sorta make you wonder why she said “yes” to her agent’s phone call.

It could be she had a yen to channel Barbara Stanwyck in her waning years, but I don’t think so. If that was her motivation Ms. Bening would be having more fun than she exhibits here.

I have seen three of the episodes which will now start popping up one a week on the aforementioned Paramount + which will provide you with plenty of time to switch over to Amazon Prime Video and The Boys … one of the best series I have seen in a long while.

I have come late to this outlandish political satire and have now completed two of the five seasons. Each episode is worthy and the cast is beautifully assembled. The language is rough as are the sexual and action sequences and you will (I think) be amazed, despite the show’s grounding in the world of superhero fiction, how true to life and how real the human condition can be, even in this outlandish, garish, and gory series.

I cannot recommend it highly enough and find it disconcerting that something this good has been shown for five seasons with so little buzz… at least in my limited social circle.

Research shows that season 1 received high praise from critics and Rotten Tomatoes and was (correctly in my view) praised as sharp, irreverent, and great satire. Season 2 got even better reviews. Where have I been? And, what’s your excuse? This is good stuff, no matter how over the top violent. A wonderful cast, terrific writing, and a show remarkably well-produced. You really have to see it. The Boys on Amazon Prime.

The critics are all aglow over the final episode of Hacks on HBO but I am not one of their number.

Please … I do not want any misunderstanding … I am a Jean Smart fan and felt she reached something like career perfection in her role as Deborah Vance on the outstanding comedy series that has just completed its fifth season comprised of 47 episodes having already won multiple awards, including Ms. Smart’s four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards.

But, as far as a final episode goes, this one does not even make entry level points in the Happy Endings Hall of Fame.

The Homeland finale almost always heads my list, but there are those who will tell you with some solid reasons that it is VEEP that is the all-time champ. The Newhart Show was one of the most talked about conclusions ever and The Americans and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have to be in anyone’s top five.

The most costly (to the owners) endings are usually attributed to The Fugitive and Gilligan’s Island as back in the days of yore and heavy syndication, catching the one-armed man and getting off that Island in the final episodes were decisions that were regretted by anyone who held stock in the outcome of those shows as audiences turned away in droves once their hero found the one-armed villain of his existence and Gilligan and his shipmates were rescued.

Seinfeld, The Sopranos, and Game of Thrones … three of the best series ever made, are generally credited with the most disappointing endings unless you count Deadwood, which years after the fact, came back with a two parter to end that prematurely cancelled classic in very poor fashion.

Others that received great notices at the time or, conversely enormous backlash were M*A*S*H, Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad which all came out on the positive end of this while Dexter, and How I Met Your Mother joined the aforementioned list of great disappointments. Which brings us back to the present day. 

All hail Jean Smart and her fellow actors and the creators of Hacks. A wonderful series, with a very nice (and, lest it go unsaid, incredibly lush) finale. Goodbye, and amen.

The reference to a Cole Porter lyric is doubly appropriate, as in this case the Hacks finale was fun, but …. in the pantheon of good-to-great endings  “… just one of those things.

 

 

Barney Rosenzweig