Goodbye Yellowstone and Tulsa King, Then ...

Now before I begin this post, I said in yesterday's post regarding Pete Hegseth that for reasons I can't explain, it really bothers me when men who have never been cowboys, never set foot on a farm or ranch, can't ride a horse, are not from the West or South, nor are even a country singer, wear a cowboy hat.

I'm not saying I'm an expert myself, by any means, far from it - I barely learned how to saddle a horse properly -  but I did ride Saddlebred (English riding, 3-gait) when I was a child/pre-teen and have ridden my husband's thoroughbred several times, over the years - enough experience to be able to tell when actors have little or no horse-riding experience. 

So let it be known that at the very least, Taylor Sheridan - who grew up in Texas and learned how to ride on his grandparents' cattle ranch, eventually competed in "cutting" competitions - only casts men that have extensive ranch/farm riding experience (even competition experience), because he knows it will show if you're not an experienced rider (at least to other true riders). 

(Of course, he loves to show his riding skills off by putting himself "cutting" in nearly every production he makes, stroking his own ego, too.)

Thus, all the men I'm about to mention check this box, including even  Sylvester Stallone (who used to compete in polo, which isn't exactly cowboy, it's English saddle/riding (which some say is harder), but he absolutely can ride, he even rode at a competitive level ...

So there's THAT ... but now that that's out of the way, the writer of all of these shows, Taylor Sheridan, is a heck of screenwriter (though he does leave some loopholes or shark-jumps and is not the best director) and theme-song picker  -  BUT - he's also a huge egotistical, control-freak, super douche!

He sues his own cast members for their side projects and side business ventures as if he owns them, and he couldn't get along with Kevin Costner, to the point that apparently, the two are no longer even on speaking terms, super bad blood between them.

Who doesn't get along with Kevin Costner?

(Well, his ex-wives might beg to differ, but in the business, he's got a pretty good reputation for being easy to work with and being pretty laid-back, and he's typically pretty good about finding common ground with Republicans, too, enough to agree to narrate a series about the American West for the Fox News Network.)

And Taylor's other show, The Mayor of Kingstown (which I only watched once, super dark, nearly humorless), found many of his big stars leaving after the first season, vowing never to return - so good luck, Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Hamm with Taylor's latest, "Landman."

(As a side note, I found the prequels to Yellowstone - 1883 and 1923 - super boring, despite two of my favorite actors being in them, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.)

So despite this previously being my husband's favorite show, we haven't watched the new/last season of Yellowstone yet and likely aren't going to -  not only because Taylor moved the streaming rights from from Paramount Plus (CBS's plus app) to Peacock (NBC's plus app), which I'm not signing up for, as there's nothing else there we want to watch - but because we learned they killed off Kevin's lead character in the first show in the first few minutes!

Kevin Costner himself reportedly didn't even know about it until it aired, finding out through friends, because he's supposedly not even on speaking terms with Taylor and the rest of the cast is under a gag-order like NDA. 

Kevin Costner carried the show, he was the glue that held the family together, for better or worse - and though we like the Rip and Beth sideline story, they're not enough to carry the show!

Plus, Taylor increasingly started making hints in his shows about leaning politically right, which really turned us off.  

He still keeps the anti-racism/anti-racial-profiling storylines in about Native Americans and people of color, as well as pro-women storylines, but other things were becoming increasingly pro-right-wing - and he started giving us hints at Trump support.

Now, Kevin is a famous Democrat, with family ties to the South, which means he's a 2nd amendment supporter - but everything else is left - which leaves us speculating if politics had anything to do with it, because he took a lot of flack from some fans for being a Democrat. 

Then Tulsa King star, Sylvester Stallone - who I actually liked as a person better than Arnold Schwarzenegger in that age-old debate  - came out of the Trump closet, on Thursday night, at Mar-A-Lago, stating Trump is the "second George Washington" for "defending his country."

What the ...?

Nope, can't do it.

If I can find several fact-based arguments against your belief - on video - that not only is this NOT the case, but that Trumpism is the exact opposite defending democracy, with Trump instead behaving like tyrant king or fascist dictator ...

... then you've proven your belief to be irrational, illogical delusion, rather than based on actual historical fact - and I have zero interest in hearing anything you have to say further on Trump or politics in general because you can't be taken seriously.

We can chat and find common ground on other subjects, but I have zero interest in your opinions about Trump or politics in general, nor will I be giving your business ventures any patronage or platform  - sorry.

So we were midway through the second season of Tulsa King, which is admittedly a well-written show, about a mafia made man (Stallone as Dwight Manfredi) who spent 25 years in prison for a murder he regretted (which was actually a mercy killing after someone else in "the family" messed up) - without ratting anyone out - only to find that after his release, his reward for doing so was being sent off to Tulsa to "start business" by the psycho son of the don, who convinced his ailing father to do so, out of jealousy/fear that Dwight would run the family now instead of himself.

He also discovered that his wife and daughter were NOT taken care of by "the family" as promised, while he was in prison - they were left penniless, and his daughter had been sexually assaulted by a member of "the family" as a child.  The mafia family claimed not to know or they would've taken care of it themselves, but he doesn't believe them.

So sending him off to Tulsa was was like sending somebody off to Siberia, in mafia language, and thus, Dwight increasingly cuts ties with the NYC mafia and does his own thing, with more heart. 

Anyway, despite being an interesting twist on a fish-out-of-water former mafia guy, I don't care how either story ends anymore - I am NOT giving patronage to Trump supporters in any way, shape, or form - sorry.

I will find common ground and work with them, chat with them  in my neighborhood etc (as long as we don't discuss politics), but giving them support or patronage?

Nope - sorry. 

Also, I wonder what his 3 intelligent, outspoken daughters think about his Trump support?

We may hear about that on the reality show that is "The Family Stallone" - or not - because his 3 daughters are actually the stars.

It also appears that he was a great kid dad, but has no idea how to be a growing/grown daughter dad (other than to protect them from men), or really, how to relate to teen, young adult or grown women in general.

However, not even sure I'll watch that, I'm so disappointed in him!