Taylor Sheridan has found his way into television viewers' hearts. With blockbuster dramatic series like Yellowstone, Landman, the new Yellowstone spinoff Marshals, and The Madison, he has deftly reimagined the way we think about the modern American West. Sheridan has smoothly fast-forwarded the genre from the era of John Wayne into this century. You might assume that he would be eagerly trying to ingratiate himself with TV critics. Not really. Sheridan recently said that he definitely is not looking to cozy up to those who offer their opinions on small-screen fare. In fact, quite the opposite. He loves playing the antagonist.
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This is how Taylor Sheridan presents his philosophy about TV critics. "The madder you are, the madder your review will be. The more people read it, the more curious they'll be. Every time I get a bad review, I'm like, 'Thank you.'"
That is really taking a profound, counterintuitive risk. Although someone as massively successful as Sheridan is can afford to take a few of them.
Sheridan Went Into Detail About This Topic
He was a guest on The Show with Tom McCutcheon recently. Sheridan explained his thought-process concerning critics. "'Yellowstone,' there's a lot of petulance in there, and lot of things that are digs at my business that only my business is aware of being a dig. I stick a lot of them in 'Landman' too. I stick a lot of them in a number of other things too..."
He went on, "I should have trigger warnings on my shows (that read), 'If you are a television critic or a Hollywood executive, this is meant to traumatize you. I'm trying to piss you off. If you think I'm trying to piss you off, you're exactly right. I am trying to piss you off.'"
He is signaling loud and clear, in the most unmistakable terms, that he is not playing by Hollywood's or the industry's rules. Taylor Sheridan is boldly writing his own playbook. Audiences by the millions are sitting up and taking notice. So are the execs who lead the business. Sheridan is blazing a new path - and he's sure not looking back.
