1923 (2022)
WATCH TRAILER
SEASON 1
1923Critics Consensus
Distinguished by the ineffable star power of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, 1923 is another solid if unrelentingly grim addition to Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone universe.
92%
TOMATOMETERCritic Ratings: 37
75%
AUDIENCE SCOREUser Ratings: 216
AND REVIEW
WANT TO SEE
EPISODES
1. 1923
Air date: Dec 18, 2022
Following a new generation of Duttons; Jacob quashes a dispute between cattle ranchers and sheep herders; Cara informs Liz of the sacrifices of marrying into the Dutton family; another Dutton finds himself far from home.View Details
2. Nature's Empty Throne
Air date: Dec 25, 2022
Jacob and the Yellowstone cowboys save one of their own before deciding their next move; Teonna continues to endure at the hands of Sister Mary; Cara and Emma discuss Elizabeth and Jack; Alexandra makes a bold decision.View Details
3. The War Has Come Home
Air date: Jan 1, 2023
Jacob, Cara, and the Duttons go into town to take care of some business and pleasure; Spencer and Alexandra decide they won't waste any time and later find new danger; the Duttons realize the feud with the sheepherders is far from over.View Details
4. War and the Turquoise Tide
Air date: Jan 8, 2023
In the wake of the attack, Cara and the Duttons carefully plan their next move; Spencer and Alexandra enjoy the pleasures of Zanzibar, unaware of what has happened back home; Banner Creighton seeks a powerful ally.View Details
5.
Air date: Feb 5, 2023
The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.View Details
6.
Air date: Feb 12, 2023
The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.View Details
7.
Air date: Feb 19, 2023
The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.View Details
8.
Air date: Feb 26, 2023
The Duttons face a new set of challenges in the early 20th century, including the rise of Western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.View Details
1923: SEASON 1 VIDEOS
4:13
1923: Season 1 Featurette - A Closer Look
0:45
1923: Mid-Season 1 Trailer
1:00
1923: Season 1 Featurette - Behind the Scenes
1:30
1923: Season 1 Trailer
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Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren shine in a brilliant new TV western
ByMichael Idato
December 20, 2022 — 12.03pm
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1923
★★★★
Of the many genres of Hollywood storytelling, the western is perhaps the most beloved in American culture, but also perhaps the most easily misunderstood. Indeed, it’s not immediately certain that Taylor Sheridan’s new series 1923 is entirely a western in the accepted sense.
Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton and Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton in 1923.CREDIT:PARAMOUNT+
Spun off the Yellowstone franchise, it stars Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton, the Dutton family patriarch and owner of the family’s Montana ranch, Yellowstone, and Helen Mirren, as his wife, Cara Dutton. It’s almost a soap, but you pause before you say it, lest you offend against the calibre of its stars.
In a sense, 1923 also serves as a bridge connecting the modern world of Yellowstone, and the franchise’s already released origin story, 1883. 1923, just as the title suggests, is set in the early 20th century, when the old western world and the modern world, still in its infancy, are beginning to collide.
Most striking to the Australian viewer might not be that 1923 is itself the latest chapter of an expanding franchise, but that there is even a franchise at all. In America the Paramount Network, which served as its launchpad, is the off-piste analog cousin of the studio’s digital platform, Paramount+. Consequently, it does not get the media love that, say, shows like The White Lotus, The Bear or Andor get.
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In the Yellowstone world, it never rains, but it pours sequels. It might be the NCIS of the wild west. The original series, Yellowstone, which premiered in 2018, series stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton III. 1883, the first of several spin-off stories, stars Tim McGraw as James Dutton. At this rate, can Yellowstone: Las Vegas and Yellowstone: Miami be far off?
Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton in 1923.CREDIT:PARAMOUNT+
1923 is a sprawling saga of land, power and ambition. But fused with the near-modern world and an emphasis on interpersonal relationships, it is less a western in the classic sense, and owes more perhaps to the western-style television family melodramas of the 1960s such as Bonanza and The Big Valley than it does, perhaps, to more rigid genre series like Gunsmoke or Maverick.
In Mirren’s Cara Dutton we find an easy spin on The Big Valley’s Victoria Barkley, a woman whose substance, style and inner strength is not diminished, either by the harsh landscape which seems to crush everyone else fool enough to try and tame it, or the men in her orbit who think it is theirs to rule.
Harrison Ford’s Jacob Dutton is a more by-the-book cowboy grappling with unrest on the land: grazing land lost to locusts, angry ranchers wanting to carve up the remains and the looming shadow of a range war. He seems like an inscrutable and cranky man, but Ford lends him gravitas and complexity.
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Woven around that are other story threads: a strict Catholic boarding school on the frontier in which Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves) endures horrific abuse, that of and Jacob’s nephew Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), who is in Africa. Still to come: the arrival of Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), a TV arch-villain as surely as J.R. Ewing once wore a Stetson hat.
1923 is brilliant. Taylor Sheridan’s writing is so taut it feels like the tension could snap at any moment, and Ben Richardson’s crisp and economic direction suits the weary, almost sullen mood. The premiere episode succeeds because of its small notes, even if the double-whammy A-list casting of Mirren and Ford will intentionally distract most people.
Corrin Hodgson’s cinematography is lush, an intriguing palette of colours which slowly emerge from the inescapable dirt and grit of the near-sepia which is written into the DNA of the western genre. It also helps that Sheridan finishes the first episode with a slap-your-face moment which almost demands you tune in again to see what happens next.
1923 is streaming on Paramount+.
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Michael Idato is the culture editor-at-large of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via Twitter or email.
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‘1923’ Review: Leisurely Paced ‘Yellowstone’ Prequel Off to a Promising Start
Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren play Dutton ancestors in the latest Paramount+ expansion of the franchise
Thelma Adams | December 19, 2022 @ 4:43 PM
Harrison Ford stars in "1923" (Paramount+)
Montana hasn’t seen the likes of Helen Mirren behind a shotgun before – until now. The Oscar-winning Dame, a pioneer in the film-to-TV migration with her BBC show “Prime Suspect,” plays Cara Dutton, the family matriarch in Taylor Sheridan’s “1923,” the “Yellowstone” prequel and “1883” sequel. As it turns out, the tough-but-tender Mrs. Dutton can chase an injured interloper crawling across her land and pull the trigger while looking the villain in the eye as he begs for his life. Nevertheless, the killing leaves her wailing at the sky like an agitated mama wolf pushed to her limits. Fortunately for the clan’s future, Cara’s antagonist has given his last shout.
And then we get to meet the Mister, Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford). He’s the ancestor of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III and brother to Tim McGraw’s James Dutton. Binoculars in hand, surrounded by cowboys, surveying his dying cattle, flies feeding on their bovine eyes and locusts dotting his neckerchief, we see the star in all his Fordiness. This is a face for Mount Rushmore: so craggy, every wrinkle exposed and scar earned, no hint of doubt behind his eyes. And then he speaks: and he has that rumble whisper that brooks no bullshit that audiences love. Let’s ride!
The Duttons have already built an empire in the American West. They’re sitting on a pile of land that stretches as far as the eye can see. But, as always, there are problems: locusts and drought and land-wars; Scottish sheep herders versus Irish cattle ranchers battling for dominance of the (free) range; the coming Depression; and damn danger-seeking, bronco-riding kids that can’t settle down. This is not a bunch that’s into peaceful coexistence.
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Helen Mirren Joined ‘1923’ Without Reading a Script: ‘I Signed On Without Knowing What I Was Getting Into’
Even the prodigal son, Spencer (Brandon Sklenar), who’s taking his time and breaking his mother’s heart returning from the killing fields of WW1 by way of Kenya, gets a shot off. He slays a lion (I am hoping the awkward visual effects were just temporary). And tracks man-eating jaguars in a very Ernest Hemingway (24 in 1923) parallel plot that will have you pulling out your Norton Anthology to read his great white hunter stories. Or dressing in safari khakis and buying vintage camp furniture.
Reviewing a series from a single episode requires a psychic, but from what I can tell from the premiere Paramount + made available to press, we have a lot of expository ground to cover. The ranch. The conflicts among the men who’ve controlled the land for generations, and the incomers who still believe in the freedoms they were promised by Lady Liberty. It all seems pretty standard, male-dominated stuff with an aproned Mirren a pop of dusty blues and roses among the dirt-clod brown – and then Jennifer Ehle arrives as a sadistic nun.
We’ve seen this kind of menacing scene before, too. The strict sister disciplining a Native American girl, and demanding the young woman explain soap’s ingredients (that’s not on the SAT). What the heck is lye anyway? But this irate Bride of Jesus has her own vicious agenda and a wicked way with a stick. She’s intent on breaking this proud young woman’s spirit, and watching her fellow students crack along with her. Oddly, this is when the plot shifts – and the pupil fights back. When was the last time you saw a girl come out swinging and clock a nun? And it only gets stranger when Sister and student visit the principal and the real lesson begins: this holy father is a man without mercy.
The first episode introduces some intriguing characters and cultural dynamics. I look forward to seeing what happens with the nun, and savoring the easy rapport of Jacob and Cara Dutton as age-appropriate husband and wife. The drama so far is leisurely paced and there’s a lot of chunky exposition. When “Yellowstone” came out in 2018, it had time to find its audience before it became a hit. Now, as 2023 looms, there are more eyes watching “1923” from the first episode, but I, for one, would follow Mirren and Ford anywhere. Let’s see what happens.
“1923” debuted on Paramount + on December 18, with new episodes premiering weekly on Sundays.
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REVIEW
1923, review: forget Succession – let Helen Mirren lure you into the 'Taylorverse'
4/5
Even those new to Taylor Sheridan's macho TV dramas could be enticed by this Yellowstone prequel, which stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren
ByAnita Singh, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR19 December 2022 • 6:00am
The most popular cable show in America is Yellowstone, an epic saga about a family of ranchers in Montana. Think of it as Dallas but with cows. The studio behind it says it has “hit a cultural nerve”, by which they mean it has reminded TV executives that shows like Succession may be beloved on social media, but there is a massive audience of ordinary folk out there who would rather have Kevin Costner in a Stetson. It is old-fashioned storytelling of a high order.
The show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, is a real-life Texan cowboy who has become one of the most powerful people in television by understanding what people want to watch. He has already written one Yellowstone prequel, 1883, and now here is 1923 (Paramount+), the latest addition to the “Taylorverse” (a third Yellowstone spinoff, titled 6666, is in production). In a casting coup, Harrison Ford plays the head of the family, Jacob Dutton, with Helen Mirren as his wife, Cara.
Is it worth you signing up to Paramount+ to watch it? (This is easier said than done, if my experience of trying to register and log in via my Sky box is anything to go by.) Well, a working knowledge of Yellowstone isn’t necessary; I couldn’t really tell you how Jacob is related to Costner’s character (a great-great-grand uncle, I think?). Just take it on its own merits and it’s a classy product.
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This is the first major TV role of Ford’s career, believe it or not, but he looks entirely comfortable here. That’s because 1923 has the cinematography and scope of a film, and because Ford gets to play the kind of gruff, understated leading man that has sustained his career. The Duttons have established themselves but they face the same problems as everyone else on the Great Plains: locusts and drought have ravaged the land, and the Great Depression is looming.
Ford and Mirren have a comfortable chemistry as husband and wife, and Mirren’s character is an attractive blend of tough-as-old-boots, gun-toting cattle rancher and sympathetic matriarch. Her Irish accent is pretty terrible, though (albeit nothing like as bad as the abomination that is Jerome Flynn here, attempting to sound like a Scottish sheepherder).
The first episode lays the groundwork for the series, also introducing us to a convent run by nuns who treat their Native American charges with breathtaking cruelty, and a Dutton nephew who served in the First World War and is now a big-game hunter-for-hire in Africa. The African scenes are a letdown: CGI animals and comical British toffs are just plain ropey, interrupting this prestige series with scenes that play like George of the Jungle.
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With "1923," the "Yellowstone" universe grimly enlists Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren
Ford and Mirren. What more does the Dutton family need? How about a more cohesive narrative and a smidgen of joy?
By MELANIE MCFARLANDTV Critic
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 18, 2022 3:30PM (EST)
Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton in "1923" (James Minchin III/Paramount+)view in app
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Five seasons into "Yellowstone" it's easy to see that all of its offshoots are possible because of Kevin Costner – not necessarily the actor himself, but our idea of him.
In John Dutton III, Taylor Sheridan has a part requiring someone heroic to such a degree as to allow him to get away with distasteful acts. John Dutton is great, but he's not a good guy; his determination and independent streak appeal to an audience that admires the model of success that prioritizes legacy over sentiment and power over people. Costner has played an assortment of Western protagonists, but Sheridan's wealthy rancher is a second skin enabling him to play against type.
The match between actor and role is potent enough to inspire a whole family tree of prequels featuring Dutton forebears portrayed by Middle America's heroes. "1883," an instant hit for Paramount+, stars one of country music's best-loved couples Faith Hill and Tim McGraw as John Dutton's great-great grandparents Margaret and James Dutton, initially introduced in "Yellowstone."
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Increasing the legendary cowboy quotient is Sam Elliott's Pinkerton agent, with Tom Hanks and Billy Bob Thornton passing through to sweeten the deal. How do you step up from there? "1923" answers by enlisting Harrison Ford, the nation's favorite cowboy-swashbuckling archaeologist-president rolled up in one perennially scowling Dutton ancestor named Jacob.
One episode does not a series make. But "1923" tests our faith.
This being a Sheridan product, there must be a fierce, respected lady figure to balance out Jacob's life on the ranch; enter Helen Mirren as his Irish wife Cara. "Ford and Mirren" reads like quite the Golden Age cinematic duo, doesn't it? And with the two of them in the place and an entire Montana prairie as their stage, what more do we need?
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The premiere answers that by crying out for a cohesive point.
One episode does not a series make, even one of the limited variety. But "1923" tests our faith by presenting subplots running on separate tracks in various places on the planet. In one hourlong sweep, we're transported from Montana to Kenya, where a relative is running from psychological damage inflicted by his tour in World War I by tracking apex predators, and back to Jacob Dutton's locust-decimated land.
Aminah Nieves as Teonna in "1923" (James Minchin III/Paramount+)Montana's population has changed, and its conflicts are now between rival groups of European immigrants, with Dutton and his lawmen holding the badges and gavels of the "we were here first" class. Sheridan's series take pains to remind viewers that isn't true, but in "1923" that notion takes on bloodier implications.
Mirren is no shrinking violet, and neither is the woman she portrays.
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While sheepherders and cattlemen battle over their right to graze their stock on land that can't sustain them, Indigenous children have been forced into government boarding schools designed to strip them of their culture. As if to disabuse his viewers of any fantasies about how those places operated, Sheridan introduces Aminah Nieves' Teonna Rainwater by having her spend most of her time onscreen being beaten bloody by a nun.
I'm merely a casual "Yellowstone" viewer, so I'll leave tracing the family tree to others and discovery, especially since a few transformational changes transpired between "1883" and "1923" that are explained by a familiar-sounding narrator.
Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton in "1923" (Emerson Miller/Paramount+)The unifying thread joining the now of "1923" and "1883's" version of then is violence, established in both prequels by having its female stars survive some type of nastiness before doling out pain in kind. Mirren's wrath rips through the screen in a heart-stopping scene I'm guessing will be explained later in the season but in the moment isn't quite connected to anyway. That's fine; its main purpose is to remind us of how physically imposing she can be when her characters are messed with. No shrinking violet, this performer, and neither is the woman she portrays.
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Ford's stoicism leads the "1923"' mood, a match for the land nature has turned against Montana's cattlemen. But it doesn't make for the most compelling flavor over an hour that struggles to prevent the casual viewer's attention from wandering. People lacking the stomach for history-inspired fiction that overcorrects for the years of whitewashing by showing the few non-white characters suffering horrendously may want to look elsewhere, too.
Others can take heart in what the Sheridan-verse holds as a central truth, which is that the spoils of the land are won by those willing to do terrible things to earn and keep it, and the rest can either bend to that way or take their shots. It's a rough philosophy, but it frequently makes for riveting TV.
Sheridan's track record leads me to guess that most people will trust that the scattered plot of "1923" will eventually knot into a story worth noting in the Dutton family Bible. For now, it proves that appreciating life in the present, as seen in "Yellowstone," is preferable to gazing backward, no matter how starry that view may be.
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"1923" premieres Sunday, Dec. 18 on Paramount+. New episodes stream weekly.
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