Taylor Sheridan has a formula for success. Get some decent actors and actresses on board, right a gritty story often with strong characters and make a series out of it. Yellowstone, Dutton Ranch, Landman – they all do it, and do it well. So when The Madison came out we duly waited till we had time to watch it!
The Madison has Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell in the title roles, and it follows the Taylor Sheridan formula pretty closely. I do have to say though that it isn’t a nice watch, it has a lot of grief and anger, and even the few happy parts of the story are quickly squashed. It pretty much shows grief in a bad way, not that grief is ever nice, but it still makes for a hard watch as it is so gritty and real! Kurt Russell does a Sean Bean as well (if you know, you know) and although he appears sparingly this is pretty much the Pfeiffer show from start to finish. We thought it was OK, but not the best Taylor Sheridan show – Dutton Ranch isn’t jolly either but we are enjoying that more for example!
The Madison Review
Another Taylor Sheridan show, another similar series…
Good, but better is out there!
Pros
Star Appeal – both Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell are decent!
Nothing wrong with the show, just it is very dark and grief is the whole point of it…
Cons
It is slow and each episode feels long
Hard story, and yes grief is hard. But virtually zero respite
It feels like it just could have been better somehow. A missed opportunity