Everyone who watched 1923 can agree on three things. First, a review of Season 2 needs to criticize Donald Whitfield’s appalling bedroom behavior.
Second, a review of Season 2 needs to praise the actors, especially Julia Schlaepfer (Alex). If there is one person who deserves an award, it’s her, but Jerome Flynn (Banner Creighton), Helen Mirren (Cara Dutton) and Harrison Ford (Jacob Dutton) were also tremendous.
Finally, an honest review needs to reconcile the — we won’t call ’em plot holes — unanswered questions.
How you make soup with those ingredients is up to you, but in the end, you should come up with a letter grade for this second season of the Yellowstone prequel. The Dutton Rules podcast team is ready to share theirs.
Throughout Season 2, Billy Dukes and Adison Haager have enjoyed a deep conversation about 1923 and its ties to 1883 and Yellowstone. Fan theories have been encouraged (the wilder the better), and respectful criticism was welcome. Thousands listened to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or other audio streaming devices.
Hundreds of thousands enjoyed condensed versions of the pod on YouTube each week. It’s all added up to thousands of comments and emails, which were included as often as possible.
“Taylor’s writing this season was terrible and lazy and in some respects formulated,” says @ehickey1202 on YouTube, leaving a ‘C’ grade. Conversely …
“I loved the finale” shouts @msdanielSJD. “Every single moment of it. I screamed and laughed and cried. It all made sense and makes me want the next installment.”
Sterling Whitaker also joins the show for this bonus podcast episode. He’s been writing the weekly 1923 recaps and is as integral to the discourse as anyone on staff at Taste of Country. Let’s start with him.
1923 Season 2 Review, Sterling Whitaker
I give Season 2 of 1923 an ‘A-‘ overall. I thought it was really, really strong. I enjoyed the second season probably as much as the first overall, for different reasons, and I thought they did a really good job bringing stories home, although in some cases maybe not in the most believable way.
The upside of this season for me was that it was different from Season 1 because Spencer and Alex spent most of the year separated, and so it kind of gave you two different looks of what they’re like together and what they’ll go through to get back together.
I thought they really developed Cara and Jacob this season. That sweetness that’s between them became more deeply rooted. That brings a little bit of a light to a show that has some dark sides — it balances it out.
The downside is the assaults. It was, I think, almost universally disliked, and that’s why this didn’t get an ‘A.’ You could have shown the cruelty of that character without showing us all of that.
1923 Season 2 Review, Adison Haager
I’m going to have to give it a ‘B+.’ Really, up until Episode 7 I feel like it dragged more than Season 1 did. We said it before: “Just get us to Bozeman!” It felt like a lot of the episodes were drawn out and … it felt like the first through fifth episode, it’s drawn out to where it was a little bit of a snooze fest. Then Taylor Sheridan was like, “Oh shoot, we have to get them there by Episode 7,” and the two episodes felt rushed.
Jack didn’t get the homage that I feel like he deserved as a character. We could have spaced things out. It wasn’t like the first through fifth episodes were packed.
To Sterling’s point, I don’t think Donald Whitfield’s really graphic scenes were necessary. We’ve talked before of — one or two times, fine. It got to a point where I would really question Taylor’s (Taylor Sheridan) reasoning for that. It’s too much.
What I did really enjoy is, the first season we spent so much time with Alex and Spencer and we so both of their personalities and we see that specifically Alex is the more fiery personality. She’s going to stand up to Spencer. She’s not someone who’s just going to lay by his feet.
I really loved the individualism that we get to see because she’s not with Spencer this season. I think Julia Schlaepfer did a phenomenal job in the acting role and I felt so many variations of pride and immense sorrow for her and I feel like this story arc with her specifically — and this is why I gave it a ‘+’ — I did love how much depth and just grit we just got to see with her.
Spencer? Yes, I do agree it was cool to see him running with the mafia. We entered into so many different aspects in the journey. It wasn’t just him walking a dirt road the whole time. But I don’t really feel like I left Season 2 knowing a ton about Spencer on a deep level. I’m like, “You’re hot. You kill a lot of people. Great!”
1923 Season 2 Review, Billy Dukes
I had said after Episode 5 or 6 that if Donald Whitfield’s perversions didn’t pay off in some sort of way, the show was going to lose a full letter grade for me, and they didn’t pay off. Even if they had just left some of the more graphic events to our imagination, this show would have been so much better for it.
I’m a creative. I understand wanting to reach to those edges of acceptability. That makes original art, and Taylor Sheridan has been really successful doing that. I think a creative also needs to have a team of people willing to tell him that he’s wrong. Taylor either didn’t have that team or he wasn’t listening to them.
The biggest problem for me was the writing. There just wasn’t enough for all these characters to do to cover seven or eight episodes. Jack and Elizabeth’s love story really floundered to the point where when he died, Aunt Cara sort of shoulder shrugged. The audience didn’t really care, and it didn’t seem she cared all that much relative to Alex, who she never met, who she was weeping for.
I’m with Sterling in that the pace through the first five episodes was slow, but it didn’t offend me. I was here for the long slow squeeze for a great payoff, and I guess we got a pretty good payoff on the surface. Spencer came in guns blazing. The good guys won. There’s an epic tear-jerker. The bad guy redeems himself. All these things are the hallmarks of a great show or movie.
This is a show that asks us to notice the little things … then they ask us to overlook a lot of big things. The way Spencer and Alex reunited was absurd. The train just happens to come by the car?
Alex — I swear she was four months pregnant at Ellis Island but then she was six months pregnant in Bozeman. Did two months pass in Chicago? How did the wolf get in the house?
For all of this, I’m going to give Season 2 of 1923 a ‘C.’ I think it ended up being really middle of the pack among all the Yellowstone franchise shows.