Filmmaking legend Quentin Tarantino has controversially labeled Taylor Sheridan’s hit Western series Yellowstone “a soap opera.”
The Kill Bill director, 61, made the observation during a recent appearance on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast while speaking about the current state of television.
“Everyone talks about how great television is now. And it’s pretty good, I gotta say,” Tarantino said. “But it’s still television to me. What’s the difference between television and a good movie? Because a lot of TV now has the patina of a movie. They’re using cinematic language to get you caught up in it.”
The Oscar-winning director used Sheridan’s five-season drama as an example of how television will never be as effective as movies.
“I didn’t really get around to watching Yellowstone the first three years or so. Then I watch the first season and I’m like ‘Wow, this is f***ing great!’ I’ve always been a big Kevin Costner fan, he’s f***ing wonderful in this.’ And I get really caught up in the show, I’m having a great time watching. And the first season, I’m kind of talking like, ‘Oh, this is like a big movie,’” he said.
“While I’m watching it, I’m compelled. But at the end of the day it’s just a soap opera,” Tarantino explained, sharing how he felt there was no climax — instead, in theory, storylines could go on and on.
“They introduce you to a bunch of characters, you learn their backstories, you know everybody’s connection with everyone else… and then everything else is just your connection to the soap opera,” he continued.
“I’ll see a good Western movie and I’ll remember it the rest of my life. I’ll remember the story, I’ll remember this scene or that scene. It built to an emotional climax of some degree,” he said.
“There’s a payoff to it. But there’s not a payoff on this stuff,” Tarantino argued. “There’s just more interconnectional drama. And while I’m watching it, that’s good enough. But when it’s over… I don’t remember any of the details of it.”
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While the Inglourious Basterds helmer is best known for his long list of acclaimed movies, he has, in fact, directed a handful of TV episodes, including a single 1995 installment of ER and two 2005 episodes of CSI: Criminal Scene Investigation.
Tarantino was also working on his debut TV series Bounty Law, which would be an expansion of his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood… universe. However, in 2021, he confirmed that the pandemic had delayed the production and admitted he didn’t know what would come of the project.
“I have those episodes written,” he told Deadline at the time. “Sony, with Tom Rothman said, ‘We’ll make that show if you want to do it.’ It will probably be in a couple years from now, so we’ll see.”
The series is based on Jake Cahill, the movie role played by Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton in the 2019 Oscar-nominated Once Upon a Time in Hollywood…
