The Madison (Paramount+)

Paramount+ ^ | 14 March 2026 | Taylor Sheridan

[Vigilanteman]

The Madison is a neo-Western television series created by Taylor Sheridan for Paramount+. The series follows the Clyburn family, originally from New York City, who relocate to the Madison River valley of southwest Montana for emotional recovery following a major life-changing tragedy that both shocks and permanently changes the family.

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TOPICS: Outdoors; TV/Movies; Travel
KEYWORDS: culture; montana; newyork

[Vigilanteman]

Just wondering who has seen this new series and what they thought. I was actually impressed with how the series portrays the civility of rural Montana with the superficiality of New York and am looking forward to future episodes.

My favorite line: "The only way you could get me to go to New York is if it succeeded from the union and they drafted me in the army to go and bring them back."

[rktman]

Can’t afford Paramount+.

[spacejunkie2001]

I honestly couldn’t stand it.The parents allegedly have a ‘conservative’ bent but the daughters and granddaughters are mental. That’s not realistic. Taylor always has to add smut in as well; totally unnecessary

[KC_for_Freedom]

We liked the first season, it was a little predictable, but also brought out the healing aspects of rural life. I will watch more if I manage to make it to the next season. I seem to realize more and more that watching eposodic shows may be a bad idea as I age. But that’s life.

[ChiefJayStrongbow]

I thought it was as good overall. The way paramount app itself was very glitchy, however. In every episode, the streaming would glitch at least one time per minute, including loss of sound, frozen picture, etc. Also, pause, rewind, and play sometimes did not work at all. The problem with was not our connection speed.

Series itself was very good, especially Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfiefer.

(Spoiler ahead)

Major complaints:
- Burial scene where Pfieffer’s character (Stacy) has nothing to say. Nothing about how her husband loved that spot and why he loved it. Not even a thank you to the gentlemen who dug the holes by hand and carried the caskets.
- the cabins had to be reasonably close to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole… near enough that at least one family vacation could’ve included a visit to those spots and a side trip to the cabins.

[Fledermaus]

Wife said it was so so.

[Eli Kopter]

Loved it.

[Wilderness Conservative]

I like most everything Taylor Sheridan produces and directs. I really tried to like The Marshals but the wokesters with badges turned me off. I didn’t think I’d like Tulsa King but it’s got me hooked now. Sylvester Stallone in his greatest role.

[Biblebelter]

I subscribed to Paramonut on a yearly promotion late last summer.

And I haven’t seen The Madison, but I’m just not a fan of Taylor Sheridan even though he purportedly goes against the Hollywood flow.

I couldn’t make it through the first episode of the Landman nor Tulsa King.

I never got into Yellowstone.

I haven’t tried Mayor of Kingstown but it doesn’t appeal to me.

There was a buzz, unmerited in my view that Paramount takeover by the Ellisons was some kind of movement toward “conservative” values.

Maybe it is, but I really haven’t seen anything particularly with Bari Weiss and CBS News that doesn’t seem like “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”

[mass55th]

I watched the whole series on my laptop, and had no problem with glitches. That being said, I enjoyed the series, and am looking forward to the second when it airs.

I too was surprised that no thank you's were exchanged at the burial site. I wondered if Sheridan put that in on purpose, for future episodes. I know Pfeiffer's character was devastated and angry over the death of her husband. She deliberately stayed behind at the burial site, going over to Paul's coffin to state that he had murdered his brother Preston.

[Savage Beast]

I've seen some good foreign episode shows:

The Seaside Hotel (Danish)--excellent!

The Adulterer (Netherlands)

The Accident (Spanish)--excellent!

The Silence of Water (Italian)

The Paradise (Italian)

[mass55th]

"I haven’t tried Mayor of Kingstown but it doesn’t appeal to me."

The Mayor of Kingstown is the only series by Sheridan that I haven't watched. I started watching the first episode because I like Jeremy Renner, saw it included scenes from the local prison, and I turned it off. I spent 25 years in uniform in NY State's prison system. I cannot stand any program or movie that revolves around a prison.

[faucetman]

The Madison is GREAT! Can’t wait for the next season/part 2.

The acting is superb!

It’s an unusual concept, but you get used to it pretty quick.

(no spoiler alert here)

It’s sad, it’s funny, it’s as serious as a heart attack (or plane crash), it’s a love story, a dysfunctional family story, Do you really KNOW your spouse/family story.

One of the best series from Taylor Sheridan and that’s saying something.

The Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan (now often referred to as Paramount+ Premium) is a top-tier, ad-free streaming bundle costing $13.99/month (or $139.99/year). It features Showtime originals, movies, and live feeds, along with Paramount+ content, live local CBS, and offline downloads, typically with no ads (except live TV and some specific content).

Well worth the money. Cancel something else. I did (Hulu)

[rickomatic]

Hallmark goes fly fishing…..

[faucetman]

You can poke holes in every story. Just sit back and enjoy the show

[faucetman]

I agree. The Marshalls is a bit of a disappointment, but its just “okay”. I stalled watching Tulsa King as my wife wanted to watch it. I thought I would hate it, I didn’t, it was very good.

I don’t really care for Stallone, but he was made for this part.

[nathanbedford]

This Taylor Sheridan neo-Western is a soap opera, but it contrives enough compensations to overcome that off-putting fatal female navelgazing that otherwise would make it impossible for men who are not under heavy sedation to watch.

Even though a soap opera, the production is redeemed by wonderful acting across all characters and by artistic use of scenic vistas.

As with all Sheridan's works, he cleverly places the point of view or the main character to be that of a woman. That was true in 1883, with the daughter as the main character. The story 1923 was told through the eyes of the matriarch. Likewise, in Sirocco (?) The main character was a female. And in Wind River a female is the one through whom we learn of the realities of a Wyoming winter.

Although the main character in Landman is an archetypal cowboy in spirit, his wife and daughter provide more than enough to hold a female audience. Yellowstone is a saga brilliantly stolen by the female character, Beth. So Sheridan combines a setting, such as the West or Africa, with a female perspective so that he serves up enough adventure and violence to hold male viewers' interest while making sure that his female audience will stay tuned to see if boy gets girl-or how girl contrives to get herself got.

His ratings secure with female interest, Sheridan writes well. He especially draws characters well. Rarely does a character appear in any of his works who is not interesting. But his characters are shown, not described, as must be done in a cinema production, that is, the burden is on the viewer to psychoanalyze the character and understand his/her motivations from events rather than from description.

Although Sheridan demands perhaps too much suspension of disbelief when he manages to find a Western rancher who had a brother who committed suicide and a Western Sheriff whose wife died just when needed to console the widow.

The Madison certainly serves up interesting characters and, like Sheridan's other works where the action occurs in the West, in Africa, or in violent Mexico, Sheridan places his characters in the West, which in this story assumes mythic importance. He extends the myth and particularizes it with the Madison River itself. One cannot escape comparing Sheridan's use of the river as a dramatic device to Huckleberry Finn.

The camera takes us back again and again to the river with wonderful cinematic images of the dramatic Montana landscape. We will have to see how the river continues to play in the story.

We can make some guesses about character development and plot. For example, it is likely that the younger daughter will be attacked by a bear, which will require her husband to act, or fail to act, heroically. Each will probably find maturity and self-confidence in the test.

The elder daughter will be redeemed from squandering the rest of her life in the course of her relationship with the sheriff when we will see if she gets boy back, or if she grows up to the point where she can free herself from such an obsession.

The main character may or may not find ultimate solace in her bereavement. Certainly, the myth of the land and the river will play a part in bringing her to that clarity. Along the way, one would expect her to decline an emotional relationship with her shrink, a decision to be a stepping stone in the right direction.

Whatever devices and plot turns Sheridan employs, good drama will require that each be tested and, through the test, reveal their true character.

Finally, it will be interesting to see if Sheridan uses this vehicle to reveal profound truths about the meaning of life and, in this case, death.

[faucetman]

Watched every season of Mayor of Kingstown. The wife and I both enjoy it. It is full of violence, so if you don’t like violence you won’t like this show.

How “real” it could be is unlikely, but again, just sit back and enjoy it.

[ChiefJayStrongbow]

Guy asked for opinions, I gave him mine.

[silent_jonny]

Taylor always has to add smut in as well; totally unnecessary

All of his female characters are Beth Dutton.