The biggest show on cable TV limped across the finish line on Sunday night, and there were plenty of fans who weren’t all too pleased with how things ended. Yellowstone experienced a frustrating slog to its finale over the last couple of years, with star Kevin Costner leaving and production delays stretching Season 5 out for more than 25 months. The main series as we know it is now over (though a sequel is on the way). While it has broken records and made a massive impact on TV overall, the finale has left a bad taste in the mouths of some, and you have to wonder if that will affect the upcoming spinoffs.
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Fans of Yellowstone were not shy about sharing their feelings about the final leg of the show over the weekend. While some took to social media to share their sadness of the show coming to an end, many others had no trouble putting the series on blast for not only its finale, but the entire final storyline.
Perhaps the biggest criticism was the sudden emergence of Travis as a main character. Travis, as you might know, is played by series creator Taylor Sheridan. While he has only had a small role over the course of the series, Sheridan’s Travis became a fixture in the latter half of Season 5, following the death of John Dutton. It almost felt like the series traded Costner’s character for Travis, and that didn’t sit right with a lot of viewers.
“Some day I hope to find someone that loves me half as much as Taylor Sheridan loves himself,” one fan wrote. “These final episodes of Yellowstone are so centered on him it’s crazy and cringe at the same time.”
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Another fan lamented the fact that Travis became a focal point in the final episodes, saying that fans “could have had 8 more episodes of Kevin Costner instead of this bs.”
While Travis drew the most criticism from fans, there was also plenty of frustration about the ending given to a certain fan-favorite character. Without spoiling too much, Kayce became something of a scapegoat for the other characters in the show, taking the fall for so much of what happened throughout the last couple of seasons. This left other characters free to continue (and possibly return for the follow-up series).
One fan called it “lazy writing” to pivot so many things in Kayce’s direction. “Sure ok,” they wrote.
There is a massive mixed response to the ending of Yellowstone, especially amongst those that have been dedicated fans of the series for years. It’ll be interesting to see how many of these folks come back for the planned sequel series.
