S01.E01: 1883

[tessaray]

Air date: December 19, 2021

The Dutton family embarks on a journey west through the last bastion of untamed America; James arrives in Texas, where he and his family prepare to make their way through The Great Plains in search of a new home and the promise of opportunity.

[Moose135]

We were underwhelmed. Production was great, and who doesn't love Sam Elliott, but it just didn't grab us. We won't be subscribing to P+ to follow this one.

[MzLiz]

I loved it! I am all in! Wow, what a start. I hope Elsa is dreaming in that intro scene because I don’t see how she survives that Indian attack. I certainly hope so. Though since she’s the narrator of the story, I suspect she might. You can tell in that one scene that she is her fathers daughter. 

What a cast. I love Sam Elliott. And Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May are killing it. 

This is going to be better than Yellowstone. 

[ShortyMac]

1 hour ago, MzLiz said:

I loved it! I am all in! Wow, what a start. I hope Elsa is dreaming in that intro scene because I don’t see how she survives that Indian attack. I certainly hope so. Though since she’s the narrator of the story, I suspect she might. You can tell in that one scene that she is her fathers daughter. 

What a cast. I love Sam Elliott. And Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May are killing it. 

This is going to be better than Yellowstone. 

I loved it, too.

The one man said that it cost them $200 per family to join the wagon train, ~$5,500 today. 

[NeenerNeener]

7 hours ago, MzLiz said:

I don’t see how she survives that Indian attack. 

She's not in any of the "1883" flashback scenes in Yellowstone, just two boys. If she survived she may be married, possibly even to one of the tribe that attacked the wagon train. Wouldn't that be a kick if half the folks on the rez are her descendants, so they're Duttons too.

[RedDelicious]

2 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

She's not in any of the "1883" flashback scenes in Yellowstone, just two boys. If she survived she may be married, possibly even to one of the tribe that attacked the wagon train. Wouldn't that be a kick if half the folks on the rez are her descendants, so they're Duttons too.

I'm really hoping she's married and has a family of her own. In the Yellowstone/1883 flashback scenes, the older boy appears to be about 12 or 13 years old, so if Elsa is 17/18 in 1883 S1, she'd be about 24/25 by the time of the Yellowstone flashbacks. Fingers crossed.

[Crashcourse]

I was underwhelmed.  I love Sam Elliott but I won't be paying to get Paramount+ to watch this.  

I didn't like the "feisty" daughter at all, and maybe it's the makeup but I thought Tim McGraw looked awful.  I don't think he and Faith Hill are that good as actors.

[rcc]

Not a fan. Will not subscribe to Paramount+ for this.

[mojoween]

We’ve been subscribing to the former CBS All Access for years so is that where we are going to have to watch this series after next week?  I seriously cannot keep track of what shows I can set the DVR for and those I have to turn on the PS4 for.

I’ve never watched Yellowstone but I like what I’ve seen of this so far.  Probably easier since it’s a flashback than a continuation, heh.

I know Captain was mad that the guy had smallpox, but why didn’t he have the translator explain what was going on?  That part was weird.

[rcc]

36 minutes ago, mojoween said:

We’ve been subscribing to the former CBS All Access for years so is that where we are going to have to watch this series after next week?  I seriously cannot keep track of what shows I can set the DVR for and those I have to turn on the PS4 for.

I’ve never watched Yellowstone but I like what I’ve seen of this so far.  Probably easier since it’s a flashback than a continuation, heh.

I know Captain was mad that the guy had smallpox, but why didn’t he have the translator explain what was going on?  That part was weird.

The guy kept saying "What did I do?" But wasn't it said that nobody could speak English except for that one other guy. So he was told he had smallpox and was supposed to understand.

[Moose135]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

We’ve been subscribing to the former CBS All Access for years so is that where we are going to have to watch this series after next week?

It's going to be on Paramount+. I don't know about CBS All Access, haven't heard that mentioned anywhere. 

[tessaray]

1 hour ago, Moose135 said:

It's going to be on Paramount+. I don't know about CBS All Access, haven't heard that mentioned anywhere. 

They are one and the same. The Plus name came about after CBS and Viacom (re)merged.

[Marley]

What that was the daughter in the beginning grown up or older? I didn’t know that until I read that here lol. So that was the future then and  then we went back. I hope not because I hate when shows do that.

The flashback on Yellowstone annoyed me because I was watching Yellowstone and not 1883 so I barely watched it. All I saw was some horse thieves get killed by Tim McGraw and the family in some shack or whatever.

I knew that drunk guy was going to try raping the daughter. I’m glad he got shot in the head. The moment I saw they had separate rooms I knew something like that would happen.

I have a weird crush on Sam Elliott but was confused at the beginning with his family being being dead and sick. I got it after but I was confused cause one was a blonde girl and I thought it had something to do with the blonde girl fighting at the beginning. I guess I’m not paying attention enough lol. 

Thomas is pretty hot too lol.

So James Dutton would be John’s great grandpa then. I always get confused with that stuff. I think I’m brain dead today honestly.

So far I don’t mind the show. I wanna keep watching but if I have to pay for some streaming thing I’m not. There’s too many different ones these days. It looks like episode 2 is gonna be on for me on Paramount next week tho.

[joliefaire]

3 minutes ago, Marley said:

So far I don’t mind the show. I wanna keep watching but if I have to pay for some streaming thing I’m not. There’s too many different ones these days. It looks like episode 2 is gonna be on for me on Paramount next week tho.

Episodes 1 and 2 are free at Amazon if you're a Prime member.

[Dowel Jones]

So James Dutton is the spiritual ancestor of Pete Maverick - "I'll hit the brakes and he'll ride right past me."  Something tells me that he is more than just a migrating farmer, considering his prowess with that telescoping sight on his rifle.

It would be interesting to know how the immigrants got routed so far south as to end up in Fort Worth.  Typically the wagon trains tended to leave from Missouri area.

[Haleth]

We loved it.  I thought it was better than Yellowstone; at least there is someone to root for, and Tim McGraw was better than I was expecting.  It had a Lonesome Dove feeling to it.  Yikes, how many of those German settlers are going to end up dead?

Edited December 21, 2021 by Haleth

[joliefaire]

I was actually pretty impressed with both Tim McGraw and Faith Hill throughout both episodes.  Its easy enough to sneer that they're ' just' country singers pretending to be actors, but of course, McGraw has done quite a bit of acting over the years, he's no rookie at the job.  I read some articles during the production of the show, talking about how difficult and demanding the filming was.  Taylor Sheridan demanded as much authenticity as possible, so the actors had to deal not only with the blazing heat of Texas and the vicious bitter cold of Montana, but also had to learn how to actually drive and steer a covered wagon drawn by a team of horses, etc.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying becoming immersed in the show, hope if continues on and becomes a good long series.

[Crashcourse]

6 hours ago, Haleth said:

It had a Lonesome Dove feeling to it. 

Blasphemy! 😱

[RedDelicious]

36 minutes ago, joliefaire said:

the blazing heat of Texas

I said that to my dad - they even got the sweat right! As a side note he's just so happy to have something different to watch that isn't fire, crime/law enforcement or zombies (I watch the zombies) 😊 Plus he loves Westerns.

I asked him about James's rifle with the sight on it. I thought maybe he had it from the war but obviously the rifle wouldn't have made it through 

Spoiler

three years in a Union prison camp.

Dad said it was a civilian rifle (he knew exactly what it was, I just can't remember what he said) and not uncommon for the time.

[joliefaire]

16 minutes ago, RedDelicious said:

I said that to my dad - they even got the sweat right!

So nice that you've got your dad to share the show with.  I read a funny post by an extra, talking about the problems of the insane heat during the Civil War enactment while wearing wool uniforms and tons of gear.  The chest that Tom Hanks and Tim McGraw sat on was a genuine ammo storage chest in use at the time.  The top was lined and then lidded with copper, since copper doesn't spark and wouldn't accidentally set off all that ammo.  Anyway, it was so hot during that filming that the crew had to keep the top of that chest covered in ice packs and then covered with a tarp, til they filmed the actual scene.  Otherwise, LOL, McGraw and Hanks would have toasted their butts to a red sizzle sitting down on that thing!

[RedDelicious]

42 minutes ago, joliefaire said:

So nice that you've got your dad to share the show with.  I read a funny post by an extra, talking about the problems of the insane heat during the Civil War enactment while wearing wool uniforms and tons of gear.  The chest that Tom Hanks and Tim McGraw sat on was a genuine ammo storage chest in use at the time.  The top was lined and then lidded with copper, since copper doesn't spark and wouldn't accidentally set off all that ammo.  Anyway, it was so hot during that filming that the crew had to keep the top of that chest covered in ice packs and then covered with a tarp, til they filmed the actual scene.  Otherwise, LOL, McGraw and Hanks would have toasted their butts to a red sizzle sitting down on that thing!

It really is - I try to stay over on Sunday nights so we can watch Yellowstone and Succession. We watched House of Cards too. My mom is more into PBS stuff so she usually uses that time to catch up on phone calls 😉 I'll have to tell him about the ammo storage chest!  We'll keep an eye out for it.

ETA: He’s 86 so some of the stuff on Succession is a little awkward 😆 

Edited December 21, 2021 by RedDelicious

[Dimi1]

I thought the actress who played Claire Dutton…the sister of James was excellent…over all I thought it was pretty good

[The Pretender]

I'm in. The entire production was amazing, so well done by cast & crew. 

Since the show, or at least that's how I've understood it, was going to be about the Duttons I did wonder why Sam Elliott's character got such a big chunk there in the beginning. But that also gave us his backstory before he entered the Duttons' trail so no major complaints. And who am I to complain about Sam Elliott getting screen time really!? 

I'm usually not a big fan of flash-forwards - Elsa being speared, James Dutton bleeding (to death?) on his own porch - but I trust Taylor Sheridan enough to know where he's going with it and that it will wrap up in the end in the best way possible. (Please let both characters survive please!?) 

[Sunnykm]

Lol.  The best part??  Sheridan can't give any cross-over to Jimmy at 6666.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

One thing I loved, loved, loved was that Sam Elliott was wrong, wrong, wrong about the progression of the chase/gunfight that introduced us to Dutton.   I don't think I have ever seen a wizened, old, hero-type be so massively wrong at the top of a series.  It was a great demonstration of just how random life was in the wild west.  It still is quite random, but is somewhat ordered by civilization today.  Anyway, kudos to Sheridan for this choice.

The other scene that was tremendous for me was the ho making a move on the Captain.  Watching Elliott fight off a bunch of countervailing and deep, deep, deep emotion and need was fabulous.  That's Emmy stuff, right there.  

One thing that bothered was the stated cost of the wagon train and the train, train.  I've seen references that say a train trip to San Francisco from the great plains was way under $200.  One stated that a First Class ticket from Texas was $135.  So...it seems that the Germans were crazy.  Or, Sheridan was lazy with detail.    ;)

Edited December 24, 2021 by Lonesome Rhodes

[Gemma Violet]

On 12/21/2021 at 12:54 AM, joliefaire said:

Episodes 1 and 2 are free at Amazon if you're a Prime member.

Speaking of these shows, I have a Paramount channel on my cable line-up.  It's not Paramount Plus--it's just Paramount.  I didn't know I had it until I was channel-surfing a few weeks ago and saw an ad for Yellowstone.  I had heard of Yellowstone, so I stopped to see what channel it was on and it said Paramount channel (not Paramount Plus).  They had just started a marathon of all the past episodes of Yellowstone (which I was able to watch), which they will do again this week, but they were also showing the current season's episodes.  They also will apparently show the new episodes as well of 1883, since they showed the premier last Sunday.  So I don't have to get Paramount Plus to watch these shows.  I don't know if this is unusual, because I've never read/heard anyone else having this on their cable lineup.  

[Marley]

24 minutes ago, Gemma Violet said:

Speaking of these shows, I have a Paramount channel on my cable line-up.  It's not Paramount Plus--it's just Paramount.  I didn't know I had it until I was channel-surfing a few weeks ago and saw an ad for Yellowstone.  I had heard of Yellowstone, so I stopped to see what channel it was on and it said Paramount channel (not Paramount Plus).  They had just started a marathon of all the past episodes of Yellowstone (which I was able to watch), which they will do again this week, but they were also showing the current season's episodes.  They also will apparently show the new episodes as well of 1883, since they showed the premier last Sunday.  So I don't have to get Paramount Plus to watch these shows.  I don't know if this is unusual, because I've never read/heard anyone else having this on their cable lineup.  

I have Paramount too and so far it’s showing that I can watch the episodes without Paramount plus as well. I’m surprised.

[LadyIrony]

I liked it. Hopefully they will have a longer vision plan than they do for Yellowstone and they won't make it go off the rails with extreme stories and violence. Will be interesting to see how the German immigrants fare. I find them the most interesting as it is obvious Europe is nothing like where they are now. Although I also question how passive they are surely they also had to defend themselves back home. They must be running from something. 

I like how there are really no good guys in this so far. No obvious heroes. 

[MzLiz]

My understanding is they are going to show the 1st two episodes of 1883 on the regular paramount cable channel. The rest of the episodes will be on paramount plus (which you have to subscribe to in order to see them). At least that is my understanding. 

[WeeklyLaugh]

On 12/21/2021 at 2:30 AM, Dowel Jones said:

So James Dutton is the spiritual ancestor of Pete Maverick - "I'll hit the brakes and he'll ride right past me."  Something tells me that he is more than just a migrating farmer, considering his prowess with that telescoping sight on his rifle.

It would be interesting to know how the immigrants got routed so far south as to end up in Fort Worth.  Typically the wagon trains tended to leave from Missouri area.

Central Texas was largely settled by Germans and Czechs.  Texas needed settlers for their new nation.  The founding fathers advertised in German newspapers; touting Texas as the land of milk and honey.  Galveston was one of the largest seaports in the US before 1900.  The Germans would disembark at Galveston.  They would follow the rivers and cattle trails north.  Ft Worth is a major stop on the Chisholm Trail that continues on to other cattle shipping towns towards Chicago. 

Edited January 2, 2022 by WeeklyLaugh

[millennium]

I've never watched Yellowstone.   I think I was turned off because I have seen comments elsewhere politicizing it, as if the show "belongs" to one kind of person and not others.

Anyway, I love the 19th century and have always found the westward migration/Indian Wars period fascinating so here I am.   The show moves pretty languidly  and tends to linger on the scenery a bit too long but I'm okay with a slow burn.   My only gripe is that the main characters look like modern folks who stopped by one of those "Old West" photo shops they have at amusement parks and such.

Just how old is Sam Elliot?  Wasn't he already old in Roadhouse?  And that was like 40 years ago or something. 

In the Fort Worth scenes I couldn't help but look for Dolores.

Edited January 20, 2022 by millennium

[blackwing]

2 hours ago, millennium said:

I've never watched Yellowstone.   I think I was turned off because I have seen comments elsewhere politicizing it, as if the show "belongs" to one kind of person and not others.

Anyway, I love the 19th century and have always found the westward migration/Indian Wars period fascinating so here I am.   The show moves pretty languidly  and tends to linger on the scenery a bit too long but I'm okay with a slow burn.   My only gripe is that the main characters look like modern folks who stopped by one of those "Old West" photo shops they have at amusement parks and such.

Just how old is Sam Elliot?  Wasn't he already old in Roadhouse?  And that was like 40 years ago or something. 

In the Fort Worth scenes I couldn't help but look for Dolores.

I think Sam Elliott must be close to 80.  I'm not sure how old his character is supposed to be on this show, but he looks at least 70.  I'm not sure how old the wife and daughter that died were supposed to be, but the daughter looked about 20.  She was still living at home so was not yet of a marriageable age.  I suppose he could have married late in life but still.

[ShortyMac]

Sam Elliott is 77.

[lucindabelle]

He could have married at 46,  and had several children, not all of whom survived?

[Affogato]

Well i went back to watch the beginning. Does she take the gun from her father’s body? Il

 I cannot imagine her surviving that arrow.
Maybe the brother is taken to sell. It makes sense. 
 

[Sunnykm]

I noticed she had on the bloomers under her skirt which we know she got rid of her skirt for jeans and also where would she need to be that properly dressed?  Also the dress seemed pretty clean.  Makes me wonder if this is a dream/nightmare Elsa is having?

[Affogato]

13 hours ago, Sunnykm said:

I noticed she had on the bloomers under her skirt which we know she got rid of her skirt for jeans and also where would she need to be that properly dressed?  Also the dress seemed pretty clean.  Makes me wonder if this is a dream/nightmare Elsa is having?

I hope so.