‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Suffers from the Shadow of Kevin Costner’s Exit with Lowest Ever RT Audience Score

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Yellowstone Season 5.

The much-anticipated return of Yellowstone has been met with heavy criticism from fans, with the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for Season 5 being almost half that of previous ones. While critics had remained fairly happy with Taylor Sheridan’s reportedly final season of the flagship series – although several other spin-offs will be continuing – the hyped up conclusion is proving to be a hard slog for many, with one key issue being the absence of its lead, Kevin Costner.

Yellowstone’s Season 5B opener was an intriguing prospect for many, as it has been well documented that Costner was unable to film the second half of the season due to his commitment to his own movie franchise, Horizon. This meant that somehow, John Dutton would need to be removed from the story pretty quickly, and even though Costner was featured heavily in the trailer for the new episodes, his demise came swiftly and not without controversy.

Viewers have voiced frustration at the apparent suicide of Dutton, as many fans of the series have found Costner’s patriarch of the family one of the main reasons for watching the show. However, the circumstances surrounding Costner’s sudden departure from the series left many calling the handling of his character’s exit “a disservice” to the complex and compelling story arc that ran through the seasons that preceded it. In short, for many, there has been such lack of respect and emotion put into John Dutton’s goodbye, that they have seemingly lost interest in what happens to any of the other characters. That being said, there is still the chance that Dutton’s death was not by his own hand, and as previously hinted in the series, one of his own children could have carried out a plan to take out the patriarch in an organized hit.

Kevin Costner’s Exit is Not the Only Issue with Yellowstone’s Finale

The massive success of Yellowstone was always going to potentially see it reach such a peak that it would always have a fall coming before its concluding chapter. While Costner’s departure certainly has not helped, it seems that the “boring” return of the series has other issues that fans just aren’t happy with. Several reviews have slammed the new episodes as nothing more than a rushed out ending for a series that has been so highly praised for its previous seasons. As one reviewer put it:

“Yellowstone has been amazing right up until season 5 part 2. Now it’s ending worst (sic) the game of thrones. I’m so disappointed that relationships broke down and the glue that held the show together was shred in the most unconvincing way. This went from one of the greats then made people wait nearly two years for an episode equatable to a bad soap.”

There are plenty of theories as to why Yellowstone has taken a sudden plunge in the court of public opinion, and it is not all about Kevin Costner’s John Dutton. Several years ago, the Yellowstone franchise was on top with its main storyline and a few spin-offs that gave viewers a deep, rich history of Yellowstone, and the generations who came before John Dutton. However, with Sheridan pumping out more and more new shows, there is a strong belief that the writers are struggling to find anything new to say. Whether the season can pick up in the coming weeks is something that will ultimately decide if fans remember Yellowstone for its years of strong character-led storylines, or a marred run of several weak closing episodes, which come to an end on December 15.

Release Date

June 20, 2018

Cast

Kevin Costner , Finn Little , Brecken Merrill , Gil Birmingham , Denim Richards , Ian Bohen , Danny Huston , Kelly Reilly , Forrie J. Smith , Cole Hauser , Kelsey Asbille , Wes Bentley , Jefferson White , Luke Grimes , Ryan Bingham

Seasons

5

Franchise

Story By

Taylor Sheridan

Network

Paramount

Streaming Service(s)

Paramount+ , Peacock

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