The Madison Is Taylor Sheridan’s Biggest Hit Ever — And It Has Almost Nothing in Common With Yellowstone

The Madison’s trailer did something out of the ordinary for a Taylor Sheridan film: it omitted any reference to Yellowstone. There are no recurring characters, no Dutton family history, no references to Kayce or Beth, or the never-ending political intrigue of the high Montana plains. Instead, Kurt Russell appeared somewhere behind Michelle Pfeiffer, warm in flashback, and she stood in front of a river that seemed too big and too cold for the extent of her grief. For a creator whose entire brand had been built on the franchise he was now consciously stepping away from, it was a calculated decision that carried some risk. Paramount+ made it clear that the series would be stand-alone.

In the first ten days, there were eight million views worldwide. According to figures Paramount+ released this week using Luminate data, The Madison is now Taylor Sheridan’s biggest series debut. Additionally, it’s his largest freshman launch among women over 35, which is the story, not just a footnote. The show revolves around three generations of Clyburn women dealing with grief following the death of Preston, the family patriarch, in a plane crash. Russell plays Preston in the series of cozy, lived-in flashbacks that keep the entire structure together. Pfeiffer’s character, Stacy Clyburn, moves her family from Manhattan to the Madison River valley in southwest Montana, where the scenery appears to be providing some of the healing that the characters are unable to accomplish on their own.

The choice to shoot in Three Forks and Boulder, Montana, as well as Fort Worth, Texas, which serves as a stand-in for New York City, gives the show the texture that Sheridan’s outdoor productions consistently have. There’s something about the flat, massive western Montana light that makes human grief seem suitably small. All six episodes are directed by Christina Alexandra Voros, who has a talent for capturing the quiet moments that occur between dialogue, when the land has more significance than any words.

Preston, played by Kurt Russell, mostly comes to mind as a scheduling necessity that evolved into an artistic choice. In order to accommodate Russell’s schedule, Sheridan and Pfeiffer allegedly went straight to Paramount+ executives and asked for an early second-season renewal, filming both seasons back-to-back while Russell was filming the second season of Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The emotional architecture of the show was created by the logistical impossibility: the husband is always remembered, never fully present, and always just out of reach.

Spending a moment on Pfeiffer is worthwhile because, despite their diversity, the reviews tend to converge here. Pfeiffer appears to be functioning in a different register than the show around her, “playing a suffering matriarch on HBO while” her younger costars “bring a dull, low-level Netflix quality to what’s at hand,” according to Empire’s review, which called the show “stagnant, awkward and predictable” at the writing level but made a clear distinction between the material and the performance.” The performance was described by Parade as “deeply emotional, poignant and powerful.” It received four stars from the Times of India.

Even though the surrounding material didn’t quite live up to Pfeiffer’s performance, the difference between the 60% critics score and the 74% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes tells its own story: the people who came for what Sheridan was promoting stayed for her performance and thought it was worth the trip.

Preston’s brother Paul Clyburn is portrayed by Matthew Fox, who has already stated he won’t be coming back for the second season. In an interview this week, he gave a fairly straightforward explanation: he spent six years on Lost and is not interested in making that kind of long-term commitment again. He prefers to come and go, which is precisely what he does in this situation. Filming for season two was completed just before Christmas 2025, despite a schedule that had to accommodate Russell’s other obligations. Although a premiere date has not yet been revealed, late 2026 or early 2027 appear to be the most likely window.

Watching The Madison gives the impression that the show is making a great effort to be the kind of thing that is discussed in quiet, serious tones—a grief drama with genuine literary aspirations and the appropriate casting. When it does work, it’s because Pfeiffer is using her body and face in ways that the script doesn’t fully explain, creating a sense of genuine loss in between lines. When it doesn’t, the Montana backdrop does the heavy lifting that the dialogue was meant to do, the writing lands a little too neatly, and the emotional beats arrive on time.

In and out of six episodes. A neat, contained narrative. The second season is already in the works. For Sheridan, who usually creates expansive ten-episode worlds, this is an unusual model. It’s genuinely unclear if Pfeiffer alone or the compressed format contributed to The Madison’s success. Most likely, both explanations are partially correct.