Taylor Sheridan’s prequel series, “1883,” is a sprawling epic tracing the Wagons West roots of the modern-day Montana ranching ranch family headed by “Yellowstone” patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner).
Sheridan and “Yellowstone” co-creator John Linson (who’s an executive-producer here) have replicated that series’ winning formula in “1883,” streaming on Paramount+: a solid cast headed by Tim McGraw, Sam Elliott (and his mustache), Faith Hill and Isabel May and a gripping storyline and lush photography lending it an air of authenticity.
Elliott plays crusty, world-weary Pinkerton detective Shea Brennan, who’s mourning the loss of his wife and daughter, victims of the smallpox epidemic of 1878. Heartbroken, he throws his energies into helping to escort a wagon train of German-immigrant families across the dangerous Great Plains from Fort Worth to the hoped-for promised land in Oregon, 2,000 miles to the north. He’s joined by his trusted deputy, Thomas (LaMonica Garrett) and they know they’re ill-prepared to lead the innocent group through this dangerous and deadly terrain (murderous attacks, cholera, you name it).
Brennan and Thomas bolster their crew with the addition of the Duttons. James Dutton (McGraw) is a Civil War veteran who spent three years in a Union prison and nearly starved-to-death. He knows how to handle himself (and his gun). He’s also headed north — with no particular destination in mind (he’ll know it when he sees it, he says) — with his wife Margaret (Hill) and their children: fresh-faced 17-year-old dreamer Elsa (May) and her much-younger brother, John (Audie Rick). Their extended family includes Margaret’s Bible-thumping buzzkill sister, Claire (Dawn Olivieri) and her surly, mean-girls daughter, Mary Abel (Emma Malouff), who has it out for Cousin Elsa.
Before too long (you know it’s just a matter of time) tragedy strikes the wagon train, Elsa’s rose-colored view of life is changed forever and the trials and tribulations of Brennan, Thomas, the Duttons and their German-immigrant compatriots is sorely tested as the group continues its trek north — and into the unknown.
The inaugural season of “1883” (I expect we’ll see a Season 2) was filmed throughout Texas and Montana, and both of those locales lend the series a 19th century flavor of sweat, dust, alcohol, tobacco juice and petticoats. Casting Sam Elliott as Brennan was a feather in Sheridan’s cap — you just look at him and think: “Old West.” Married country music stars McGraw and Hill, both of whom guest-starred on “Yellowstone,” hold their own against the cast’s more seasoned actors, as does May, who co-starred opposite Paris Berelc in the Netflix sitcom “Alexa and Katie” (and in a handful of “Young Sheldon” episodes on CBS).
If I have a minor quibble, it’s with the series’ liberal use of profanity, particularly the f-bomb which, to me, strikes a discordant note in a historical period piece. But that’s a small blemish, and “1883” hits all the right notes as an absorbing piece of fiction. As an added bonus, there’s Billy Bob Thornton as a tough, terse US Marshal and, briefly, Tom Hanks, who materializes as a sympathetic Union general in a flashback scene to the aftermath of the 1862 Battle of Antietam, which claimed the lives of nearly 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers — but spared a wounded, dazed James Dutton, still reliving its horrors over two decades later.