So I binged this over the last few days and got to the finale last night. As a precursor, I have never seen Yellowstone and have never had the desire to--I may be wrong, but I always got a "Dynasty" set in the modern west vibe with it, so had no interest.
This show, however, was fantastic. I liken it to a mix between Deadwood and Lonesome Dove. Not as gritty as Deadwood and not as saccharine as Lonesome Dove (and I loved Lonesome Dove and Deadwood is a top 5 show all time for me).
I liked everything about it, except for one major thing -- the narration. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but why have this narration from a character's "journals" and never show her actually writing in a journal? And she ends up how she ends up? To be fair, that's not a big deal to me, what was a bigger deal was the unusual fact that the journal "entries" were so poorly written. All these deep philosophical musings -- her language was much too flowery for someone who was trying her hardest to be a cowboy/tomgirl. Her words on death were especially cringe-worthy late in the run.
A lot of big surprises in the show, not the least of which was the quality of Faith Hill's acting. I already knew Tim McGraw could act, his turn in Friday Night Lights was absolutely fantastic. But Faith Hill was pretty great herself. And the makeup crew did a VERY good job making her look haggard and beaten down. I also thought every single one of the cameos was great. And finally, I can't fail to recognize how utterly spectacular the music is in this show.
Will this show make me start to watch Yellowstone? Perhaps, but I still have my reservations about the show. I might wait for the next "season" and sort of watch the shows in chronological order.