Amid high-stakes Dutton family drama, it was Yellowstone showrunner and series creator Taylor Sheridan’s storyline that became a talking point following the Dec. 8 episode.
Sheridan, who also has a minor acting role as horse trainer Travis Wheatley in the series, stirred online conversations among his fanbase when he appeared in the penultimate episode and cast supermodel Bella Hadid as his character’s girlfriend.
In addition to the bit of stunt casting (Hadid has recently joined the cowgirl fray herself), the two also happened to spend their screen time playing strip poker with “half-naked women” at a time when fans are eager to see storylines tied up ahead of what Paramount+ is calling the show’s “special season finale event” on Dec. 15.
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Female fans, in particular, vented their frustrations on social media.
“As if Taylor Sheridan wasted one of the last episodes of this show by inserting himself so he could parade around with half-naked women. We could have had 8 more episodes of Kevin Costner instead of this bs,” one person posted on X.
“Last nights episode of #Yellowstone really displayed the size of Taylor Sheridan’s ego,” another person wrote.
The episode has also raised questions about the way women in general are portrayed in Sheridan’s library of TV shows, which he mostly writes himself.
“Sheridan casting [Hadid] as his girlfriend, first and foremost, is just like a display of confidence and a certain form of machismo that I think people, in general, are a little like, ‘Oh, OK, you really, really feel that way about yourself,’” Elle culture writer Lauren Puckett-Pope, who wrote about Hadid’s cameo, told Yahoo Entertainment.
“One of the main points of contention was the significant age gap between Bella Hadid, 28, and Taylor Sheridan, 54, in their onscreen relationship. This dynamic is an overplayed Hollywood cliché, where older men are often paired with much younger women, which many found to be self-indulgent,” Billie Schwab Dunn, a pop culture and entertainment reporter for Newsweek, told Yahoo Entertainment. “For female viewers especially, this choice seemed emblematic of a broader issue in Sheridan’s work — female characters often being underdeveloped or used in ways that serve male-driven narratives.”
Puckett-Pope said that Hadid’s character also served a self-aggrandizing function on Sheridan’s part.
“When you put someone like Bella Hadid in your show, and you don’t give her an actual character that has any meaningful background, we don’t learn anything about this character apart from her name, and that she’s his girlfriend,” Puckett-Pope said. “She is truly just there to be a representative of Travis’s, i.e., Taylor Sheridan’s, allure.”
She added, “All of her dialogue is intended to elevate the kind of mythology, almost, around Travis himself. And so, of course, when you have a female character whose sole purpose is to do that, and it just so happens to be the character that the creator of this universe plays, it’s going to invite some criticism.”
That said, Sheridan could have been poking some fun at his own reputation, based on Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Sadie’s (Hadid) dialogue.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, in the episode, Beth says to Sadie: “[Travis is] probably the most arrogant man I’ve ever met in my life. Misogynistic. Condescending. Twenty-five years older than you. Can you please explain the appeal?” Sadie replies, “You ever seen him ride before?”
Sheridan has not responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.
Hadid’s character is only the latest female role in the Sheridan TV universe to come under scrutiny. Some have also been vocal with their criticism of Sheridan’s newest series, Landman, which stars Billy Bob Thornton as a middleman between oil company executives and rig workers.
Michelle Randolph and Ali Larter in Landman. (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)
While Thornton’s performance, and Sheridan’s writing of his character, have been praised (Thornton recently received a Golden Globe nomination for his work on the show), the actresses who play his ex-wife and daughter — Ali Larter and Michelle Randolph, respectively — have been described as “mostly empty caricatures” and the onscreen representation of “male fantasies.”
“The objectification of women onscreen has been a norm really since the inception of Hollywood,” Claire Sisco King, chair of cinema and media arts at Vanderbilt University, told Yahoo Entertainment.
She noted that in Sheridan’s case, in which his shows operate in “traditionally masculine spaces — the ranch, the prison, the oil fields,” he also employs tactics to target “a presumptively heterosexual male audience … where women are hypersexualized and really put on display.”
Take Thornton’s onscreen daughter, for instance, who is supposed to be 17 years old.
King recalls a “very conspicuous moment of the male gaze,” in which Randolph’s character Ainsley is “walking around in her underwear” while a friend and housemate of Thornton’s character watches.
“He feels uncomfortable about it, but we still see him taking her in,” King said. “So the sort of gaze is doubled. Like we’re looking and we’re watching men look at them.”
This is in addition to another criticism of Ainsley’s portrayal, this time of the character sleeping in the same bed as her father during an episode.
“The fact that Tommy Norris’s [Thornton] 17-year-old daughter is also being sexualized in the show is leaving viewers with a bad taste in their mouth,” Dunn said.
Thornton recently defended both Sheridan and Larter’s role on the show.
“Taylor’s had a hard way to go with the critics over the years. I mean, he’s such a powerful guy. It’s easy to knock him down. But he’s had the best reviews he’s ever had for Landman,” the actor told Deadline. “Some of them mentioned the women and how Ali’s character may be a little cartoonish or whatever. And I got to tell you, I was raised down there in Arkansas and Texas, and women like Ali exist.”
Larter previously praised Sheridan to Yahoo Entertainment, saying he adapted the role for her as it evolved.
“What is amazing about Taylor is that he does start writing for his actors,” she said. “I think that’s really special — when someone does write for you, there’s moments that are close to the vest, which is pretty great. So I love that.”
Whether it’s Yellowstone, Landman or even Lioness, many of the female characters are “identified through some sort of sex appeal,” Puckett-Pope said.
“Some of it’s very traditional sex appeal or stereotypical sex appeal, and some of it’s a little bit more of a different archetype. You know, it might be, oh, the sexy cowgirl, the sexy ballbuster lawyer who tries to pretend she’s a man but really she’s still a woman, the sexy environmentalist who sleeps with the governor of Montana,” she said. “Even some of the older characters still have that kind of presence of beauty.”
One female character who has stood out for her independence and strength is Beth Dutton, on Yellowstone, who plays daughter of patriarch John Dutton. But even Beth has come under scrutiny as her storyline has evolved.
Yellowstone cast members, from left, Luke Grimes, Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Kelsey Asbille, and Cole Hauser. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
“While [Beth] is fierce, independent and multilayered, her story often leans heavily into trauma and serves as a foil to the men around her,” Dunn said.
Puckett-Pope echoed that sentiment.
“I used to, for instance, really feel as though Kelly Reilly’s character in Yellowstone was one of the more nuanced female characters on the show, and I really enjoyed her performance at the time, and I don’t feel that way anymore,” she said.
“The more and more and more that it became about Beth protecting the ranch and saving the ranch and … just like anyone who tries to attack her father’s legacy, it didn’t feel like her storyline was about her anymore and what she actually wants as a character apart from [her husband] Rip.”
In the Dec. 8 episode of Yellowstone, it’s Beth who pleads with Sheridan’s character, saying multiple times that she “needs” him — creating an unlikely savior situation for an otherwise minor character.
As these conversations continue online — amid spin-off confirmation for a show based on Beth and Rip’s characters, as well as another Yellowstone spin-off, The Madison — speculation mounts about what this could mean for female audiences going forward.
“If Sheridan continues in this vein, he risks alienating female audiences who want more empowered and layered portrayals. Viewers are starting to notice a similarity between his work and if this pattern continues, his projects might struggle to maintain a broad appeal, potentially limiting their cultural relevance and commercial success,” Dunn said.
For Puckett-Pope, it’s not “sexy characters” that are inherently a problem.
“When these characters are always defined through the perception of the men around them — and the singular man writing them — there’s a flattening effect,” she said. “That approach can work for a while if Sheridan makes enough noise and enough money, as he certainly is doing now. I mean, props to him for that. But I don’t think it can last forever.”
Yellowstone airs Dec. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on the Paramount Network.
