As for Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly)... well...
Posted on 12/20/2022 5:14:43 PM PST by Rummyfan
We’ve been meaning to devote an episode of the 3WHH podcast to a consideration of “Yellowstone,” which has been a monster hit on streaming TV the last few years. One problem is that I am two seasons behind, as is my typical TV viewing practice. At some point we’ll all get caught up and try it. The fact that the New York Times and other typical media morons have run puzzled stories about why the show is popular with conservatives makes it suitable fodder. (Besides, Beth Dutton is Lucretia’s spirit animal and role model, needless to say.)
How to describe it? The Godfather as reimagined by John Wayne? Not really, but beyond the family aspect of the show, a careful viewer will pick up here and there some specific conservative themes. This is not a coincidence. I happen to know that executive producer and showrunner Taylor Sheridan has kicked around certain story ideas and details with knowledgeable friends of mine in Montana who can close down a bar for a week about the defects of federal land policy and the perfidy of environmentalists.
In the current season, which to repeat I have not yet seen, John Dutton has contrived to become governor of Montana, and in the scene below, starting at around the 28-second mark, heads in to meet with his “policy advisers.” It is a microcosm of the administrative state in action.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
As for Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly)... well...
...than to ever encounter, let-alone exist in the presence of...
...a real-life Beth Dutton.
I’ve watched much of it. Not bad and has some good moments. Cosner doesn’t do much in this one and didn’t find his character that interesting. The series is sort of a copy of Longmire which is also worth a watch.
Beth Dutton gives me many pleasant dreams at night.
The character that portrays his younger self is pretty good
The show ran out of steam after Season 3. Season 4 was a joke, with the first episode time jump. Haven’t bothered with Season 5.
I just got tired of Beth being so over the top. Was hoping that happy and loving marriage to Rip would soften her, but no, she’s actually become a caricature of herself. I’ve stopped watching.
If Perry created all the problems that Dutton is now having to deal with, and get rid of, I don't understand why he is being so polite to her. As the outgoing Governor at his inauguration, she's there in that capacity, but she's also the new U.S. Senator for the State. John Dutton introduces her to the crowd, and she says a few brief words. Beth Dutton who is also in attendance at the inauguration has been very kind to Perry as well, which is surprising, because Beth doesn't like anyone, and if Perry has been involved in creating the problems her father as Governor is having to deal with, I don't understand why there would be anything other than animosity between Beth and Perry.
If Governor Perry is responsible, as it has been hinted in the show, for the previous policy issues John Dutton is against, what the hell is going on? Did I miss something in the story? I never liked her character. She's an obvious politician, and willing to cut deals that aren't good. He's slept with her in the past, and in episode 6, when the ranch is hosting a get-together, she's there. There's a bit of a jealously problem when she realizes that the environmental activist Summer Higgins has been released from prison by John, and is staying at his ranch. The only cat fight that occurred was between Summer and Beth.
Yellowstone is The Big Valley on steroids, set in the 21st century
It’s just a soap opera with high production values.
There is no “there” there.
If you haven't watched Season 5, you've missed Beth and Rip's memories of their younger years. Beth has been miserable remembering how bad she treated Rip, and apologized to him for being such a bitch, when they should have had that time to be together. He basically told her not to dwell on the past, because it was their time together now that truly mattered. Attorney General Jamie continues being an easily-lead dumb ass, all for a piece of ass.
I’d take a chance on Beth.
and they just started “1923”, the Duttons during Pprohibition - starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford . We find out what happened to James and Margaret Dutton, the original settlers from “1883”.
Great series.
We enjoy it for the most part. But it’s kinda evolved into a big long country music video imho.
As the story unfolded, a cascade of permits and approvals secured by a wealthy and politically savvy development company presented Governor Perry and the state government with little choice but to accept the project or face expensive court action and an eventual loss. John Dutton then emerges as a conservative, even openly reactionary opponent of progress. When elected, he undoes the entire chain of permits and approvals for the project, starting at the state level and extending to the key local county commission approval. In one episode that you may have missed, Governor Perry recruited John Dutton to run and succeed her in order to undo the project, so they had no need to discuss its merits and details in later episodes after Dutton became governor.
In broad terms, the Yellowstone plot line is plausible. Large development projects are commonly so hard to stop because of the political and economic power they have behind them and because, by the time organized opposition emerges, key early permits and approvals have usually been quietly secured.
My brother and I once beat a major toll road project in a fight that spanned more than ten years. A key stage in the toll road fight was when my brother got elected to the city council and as mayor of a small town in order to fight the project.
There was a victory in court on appeal that killed the project, with a fight then ensuing in the state legislature to block revival of the toll road at that level; there were dire threats of personal retaliation from development interests that backed the road; condign humbling of various public officials; and then a final revocation of local planning council approval that ended any prospect of it rising from the dead.
In sum, the machinations over the development project in Yellowstone are credible as storytelling. And so also is your point. My brother still grumbles at how I ended up on good terms with the trial judge who ruled against us and with a member of the US House who was politically treacherous as a state legislator. Unreliable judges and politicians are just part of the ecosystem and it serves no purpose to be forever angry at them.
There is just too much “suspension of disbelief” in this show. Examples:
The newly elected governor and the newly elected senator can go have lunch in a public restaurant, and no one notices them, speaks to them, or seems to care about them.
Main character, now governor, commutes the prison sentence of his girlfriend and places her on house arrest, IN HIS HOUSE. The media scum in Montana are as far left as anywhere else, they would be having a field day with that.
The Dutton family and ranch hands are basically the Montana mafia, they have murdered so many people (enemies) I have lost count, but none of the bodies are ever found and no one ever talks.
The attorney general is the governor’s adopted son, he has committed at least 2 murders including his own father. But no one ever misses these people and no one ever asks questions.
Where did the attorney general’s girlfriend/campaign manager disappear to, along with their new born child? Did they just vanish into thin air so that the atty general can have a new squeeze?
Montana is a huge state, but to watch this show you’d think Bozeman is maybe 20 miles from Billings, and Miles City is just a few miles further. Just jump in the pickup and you are at the next city in a few minutes. In reality, it takes several hours to get from one large MT city to then next.
Plus, the plot lines are getting very stale in season 5.
Beth Dutton makes the show. I’ve been watching it since the beginning and this season was boring and short. Only 7 episodes.
I believe the upcoming ‘final’ episode in January was called the half-season finale, so it will return next year I assume to finish out the season.
I guess that is the part I don't understand. With the amount of money involved with those deals, when those permits were handed out, surely a Governor would have been aware of them, and been in the loop regarding their approval. Usually a Governor is in on granting permits, especially when they pertain to the development of a new airport, new Indian casino, hotel, and massive residential housing. I don't understand how Governor Perry was caught off-guard on those things, to the point where the developers had her by the tit, and the State government was forced to go along with it all. That makes no sense to me.
Andrew Cuomo, made a lot of million/billion dollar deals with developers during his terms as Governor. Just in the Syracuse area, he cut deals for two businesses to set up shop there. Buildings were constructed with tax payer funds at no cost to the developers as an enticement to move their business there. The developers backed out, never occupied the buildings, and tax payers got screwed. One of the buildings later sold for $1. It wasn't long after that, that one of Cuomo's top aides, and a couple of the developers were charged with fraud, and sent to prison.
In regards to Yellowstone, if Governor Perry wasn't aware of those permits being issued, then I say she was a pretty incompetent Governor. And if those permits were wrongly issued, then why wasn't the person who approved them held accountable? I don't recall hearing anything on anyone being held accountable for granting those permits, during the five seasons I've been watching the show. There just seems to be a lot of the backstory missing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.