Late season five was what really made me want to do any edit of this show - prior to that I thought it was just okay - some good moments but a bit soap opera at times and some over-the-top plots, but the cowboy parts were really well done and late season five leans into that vibe. You could call this An Ode to Cowboys.
It cuts the five seasons of the show down to around six and a half hours total, split into five episodes, although they aren’t specifically one episode per season because I rearranged some plots to make a cohesive plot arc for the edit. The show does have more seasons to come, but for my purposes the current seasons were plenty for a self-contained story that ends in a satisfying way.
PM, or Email me for info on how to get the edit
At a high level this removes almost all the political plots, much of the mob-style violence along with the the train station and the Yellowstone-brand subplot. Two of the brothers don’t really play a role and are removed almost entirely aside from one or two nameless appearances. And Jimmy is no longer a comic-relief character, although his screen time is reduced quite a bit to focus more on the family.
This doesn’t remove guns and violence entirely though, they’re just woven into a darker and more believable plot that isn’t quite so over-the-top, and is only one aspect of protecting the ranch. The episodes aren’t necessarily in order, their parts are remixed in a way that makes sense for a shorter single-season arc.
High-level change list:
EP1
- Cut Jamie’s first appearance (along with almost all subsequent appearances throughout the show)
- Trim down Beth’s first appearance, a lot of her scenes go on too long after the point has been made
- Cut Kayce/Lee death plot (Lee is cut entirely except for an oblique mention late in the season)
- Cut Beth at bar, and her subplot screwing with the developer and his wife
- Cut Rip recruiting Jimmy (and the entire Yellowstone Brand subplot)
- Cut the bison, doesn’t really come into play in a significant way
- Cut the Rip/Beth courtship period, jump in when they’re in a relationship
- Cut some of the Kayce and Monica home life stuff, keep just enough that it fleshes out their characters but doesn’t feel slow
- Cut the mom death flashback and all other flashback scenes showing the family past
- Cut John sleeping with the governor, some implications and flirting are left throughout where it adds flavor, but we don’t see their relationship
- Cut Kayce chasing kidnapper plot, and other subplots that stem from it
- Cut Rainwater being put in jail
+ Keep suicide scene
- Cut Jimmy being incompetent at wrangling and most of his learning curve, his plot focuses on the rodeo stuff
- Cut the John health stuff
- Cut the train station
+ Reinsert the damming the river
+ Reinsert some of the Kayce army subplot for flavor, skills, and money troubles plot points
+ Reinsert Jimmy being bullied to set up the cowboy camaraderie
+ Reinsert Rainwater property stuff to merge up his plot with the land development without all the messy drama with John early in the season
- Cut a lot of the Kayce as foreman plot stuff, Rip doesn’t get displaced although they do fight once
- Cut Monica being injured and the long back and forth plot that stems from that, including all the divorce stuff
- Cut the dinosaur bones
- Cut the political reporter and John, which ties into Jamie’s plot
- Cut most of the drama with the musical cowboy, he stays as a side character
- Cut Rip killing bear and tourists drama
+ Move forward the Jimmy rodeo stuff from season 2
- Cut Monica being offered the college professor gig, she’s referred to as a teacher several times but it isn’t really shown
- Cut the stripper cowboy (except for her role as a spy), the rodeo girls in the bunk house, and basically any bunk house relationship stuff except for Teeter taunting Colby
- Trim down the slot machine brothers plot so it isn’t quite as overly dramatic (although it still gets pretty dramatic, just starts later without the poisoning cattle and stuff)
- Trim down the corrupt sheriff plotline too
- Cut Jimmy’s past catching up with him
- Cut the hanging subplot
+ Reinsert some family stuff throughout from different episodes
EP2
+ Starting with episode s01e06 as a base
+ Begin inserting the casino brothers plot more heavily, with some other scenes recontextualized to support it
+ Start leaning into S2 content more - Beth moves office to town
+ Intersperse scenes to finish up the Jimmy rodeo plot
+ Intercut the Tate kidnapping with all the other attacks on the family to make it one big incident rather than spread across several episodes
+ Move forward some scenes from S4 to support the attacks on the family, recontextualizing them as attacks from the casino brothers rather than the property group lady
EP3
+ Wrap up the violence with more reworked scenes
- Trim Kasey being shot
+ Lead into S3 content, removing most of the Tate PTSD drama except when it relates to family, primarily keep a lot of the camping stuff
- Cut the whole Providence Hospitality plot that retreads the earlier land development plotlines - there are a few remnants like occasional mentions of the “airport” pasture, but most don’t really feel like they need explaining, we already know development is trying to intrude on the ranch
- Cut the Beth marriage subplot
- Cut the dead horse thieves subplot
- Cut Jimmy’s romance plot
+ Keep John handing livestock com office over to Kasey
+ Reinsert the Monica shopping incident
- Cut Jimmy’s rodeo accident
EP4
+ Reinsert a few Kasey livestock com scenes
- Cut Beth’s orphaned kid plot
- Cut Jimmy Texas plot
+ Keep environmentalist plot, reworked a bit to combine multiple timelines
- Cut a lot of Beth’s office politics
+ Keep biker plot
- Cut Kasey wolf dreams subplot
+ Keep Monica/Kasey baby plot
EP5
+ Wrap up baby plot
+ Primarily base this episode on S05E06-07 cattle drive, and events surrounding it, including wrapping up the environmentalist’s plot
- Cut all John being elected governor stuff
+ Keep yellowstone wolves plot
- Cut president reservation visit/drilling plot
- Cut county fair
