1923 is an American Western drama television series that premiered on December 18, 2022, on Paramount+.[1] The series is a prequel to the Paramount Network series Yellowstone and serves as a sequel to the series 1883, with Isabel May reprising her role from the latter as narrator Elsa Dutton. In February 2023, the series was renewed for a second season of eight episodes.
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| Created by | Taylor Sheridan |
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| Narrated by | Isabel May |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
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| Running time | 47–69 minutes |
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| Network | Paramount+ |
| Release | December 18, 2022 (2022-12-18) – present |
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The series follows a generation of the Dutton family in 1923, during a time of various hardships including Prohibition, drought, and the early stages of the Great Depression, which affected Montana long before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
| No. | Title [15] | Directed by | Written by [16] | Original release date [17] | |
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| 1 | "1923" | Ben Richardson | Taylor Sheridan | December 18, 2022 (2022-12-18) | |
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In a flashforward,[18] Cara Dutton hunts down a man for attacking the Dutton family, and kills him in a standoff. In Africa, her nephew Spencer, a big-game hunter for hire, shoots a rampaging lion, then travels to Nairobi where he is hired to kill a leopard in a safari camp. In Montana, Jacob Dutton and his men pause to observe the destruction of drought and locusts over the grasslands before riding into Bozeman. Jacob presides over a meeting of the Montana Livestock Association, ruling against Scottish ranchers, led by Banner Creighton, who are trespassing on cattle ranches in order to feed their starving sheep. Back at the Yellowstone ranch, young Jack Dutton is set to marry a neighbour Elizabeth, but is called on to help run the cattle to higher ground, leaving Cara to smooth things over with the bride's family. In the hills, Jack encounters a herd of sheep, and gets shot. Meanwhile, at a Catholic-run Indian boarding school, Teonna Rainwater, suffers physical and mental abuse at the hands of Sister Mary. She fights back, only to face the wrath of the headmaster Father Renaud, and further repercussions from the nuns.
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| 2 | "Nature's Empty Throne" | Ben Richardson | Taylor Sheridan | December 25, 2022 (2022-12-25) | |
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Jacob and the Yellowstone cowboys save Jack from the sheep herders. They hang five of them as justice for trespassing and for attacking Jack, although Banner manages to escape. Jacob orders the sheep to be driven down the mountainside and handed over to Native American riders to take to their struggling Reservation. Teonna continues to stand up to abuse at the hands of Sister Mary. Her grandmother Issaxche visits the superintendent of government boarding schools, seeking Teonna’s custody. Meanwhile in Kenya, after killing a pair of leopards, Spencer meets a British woman named Alexandra and the two become smitten with each other. She leaves her fiancé and joins Spencer as he heads off on his next assignment in the Serengeti.
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| 3 | "The War Has Come Home" | Ben Richardson | Taylor Sheridan | January 1, 2023 (2023-01-01) | |
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Jacob and his nephews return to the ranch. Banner stumbles his way back home and gathers the sheep herders to plot revenge against the Duttons. Jacob goes to town and speaks to the sheriff about the herders, while his family observes the modern trappings that Yellowstone National Park is bringing to Bozeman. On their way back to the ranch the next day, they are ambushed by the herders. John is killed, and Jacob and Elizabeth are seriously wounded. Reinforcements arrive and kill the herders, but Banner and several others escape. As the doctor tends to Jacob, Cara writes a letter, at Jacob's request, begging Spencer to come home to defend his family's land. Meanwhile in Africa, Spencer asks Alexandra to marry him, then saves her from a charging elephant and a pride of lions.
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| 4 | "War and the Turquoise Tide" | Ben Richardson | Taylor Sheridan | January 8, 2023 (2023-01-08) | |
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The fallout from the rifle ambush by the sheep farmers is severe. Jacob is bedridden, while Jack and Elizabeth face her mother's insistence that she move east. With so many of his allies dead, Banner meets with the mining magnate Donald Whitfield to gain support for his war against the Dutton family. Jacob counsels Cara to take over the ranch's affairs, but to leave the fighting for Spencer's return. Telling the group that Jacob has gone to Wyoming to hunt down cattle thieves, Cara represents him at a meeting of livestock association and convinces the members to agree to Dutton's plan for a new police force. After incessant abuse from Sister Mary, Teonna finally kills her before fleeing the school. Spencer grows closer to his fiancée and receives Cara's letter that a range war is in progress.
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| 5 | "Ghost of Zebrina" | Guy Ferland | Taylor Sheridan | February 5, 2023 (2023-02-05) | |
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The Dutton ranch settles into a melancholy routine, and John's widow Emma takes her own life. In Africa, Spencer and his fiancée Alex begin the long journey to Montana. In Mombasa, hearing that travel by ocean liner with take months, Spencer signs on as a deckhand on a local tugboat that will get him to the Suez Canal, where he will arrange onward passage to America. Alerted that Sisters Mary and Alice have been murdered, Father Renaud brutally interrogates Baapuxti, then sends three priests after her friend Teonna. In the Badlands, Teonna fends off a wolf, then encounters a Crow shepherd Hank who offers to help her. Meanwhile, Banner attaches his fortunes to Whitfield's gold mining plans, as the cattle business declines. Having missed their wedding, Jack and Elizabeth say their vows alone on a hillside. Later, Elizabeth reveals she is pregnant. Jacob slowly recovers from his wounds. Meanwhile, Alex insists on joining Spencer. On the way to the Suez Canal, their tug boat is struck by an abandoned French cargo ship and capsizes.
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| 6 | "One Ocean Closer to Destiny" | Guy Ferland | Taylor Sheridan | February 12, 2023 (2023-02-12) | |
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Spencer and Alex barely survive the tug boat capsizing in shark-infested waters and are eventually rescued by the S.S. Lambridge, which will take them to Marseille. Its captain agrees to marry them in international waters, offering his wife's ring for the ceremony. Back in Montana, Cara and Sheriff McDowell begin the process of hiring livestock agents. When Cara reluctantly admits that Jacob is alive and on the Dutton ranch, the sheriff visits and warns Jacob that he'll get to the bottom of the herder killings. Jacob's desire for revenge is overtaken by his realization of the mining magnate's intentions to squeeze the Duttons out, and he vows to stop the encroachment. Marshals raid Issaxche's home, killing her while searching for Teonna. Meanwhile Hank gives Teonna male clothing and the name Joe, and burns her possessions from the school.
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| 7 | "The Rule of Five Hundred" | Ben Richardson | Taylor Sheridan | February 19, 2023 (2023-02-19) | |
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Jacob, Jack and the ranch's posse go with Sheriff McDowell to arrest Banner at the luxurious home given to him by Whitfield. Surprised to see that Jacob is still alive, Banner promises that their war is not over. One of the recently-hired livestock agents informs Whitfield about the situation, who then sends his lawyer to help Banner. Runs His Horse, Teonna's father, finds Issaxche dead in her cabin. As he finds the attackers tracks, Hank's son Pete arrives to inform him that Teonna is in hiding in the Badlands. They end up in a bloody encounter with the priests sent to retrieve her. Two of the priests find Teonna, and Hank saves her, but he is killed. Meanwhile, Spencer and Alex find themselves in Sicily, where they unexpectedly encounter Alex's former fiancé.
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| 8 | "Nothing Left to Lose" | Ben Richardson | Taylor Sheridan | February 26, 2023 (2023-02-26) | |
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After the priests do not return, Father Renaud and Marshall Kent search for Teonna. Runs His Horse and Pete Plenty Clouds find Teonna and take her south with them. Banner is released without bail, and he and Jacob again threaten each other. Alice, the wife of Dutton ranch foreman Zane, is arrested for miscegenation and Zane is beaten by police. Meanwhile, Spencer and Alex board the SS Majestic bound for London. Alex's former fiancé Arthur challenges Spencer to a duel, which Spencer wins. However, Arthur attacks him and Spencer kills him in self-defense. Although not charged, Arthur's father, the Earl of Sussex orders the captain to remove Spencer from the vessel at the nearest port. Alex learns her parents have arranged for her to return to London and that she cannot leave the ship. Seeing Spencer taken away, she declares she will find him in Bozeman, Montana. Back at the Dutton ranch, Whitfield arrives to announce that he has paid their property tax, and if they cannot pay him back by the end of the year, the deed for the land will default into his possession. Elizabeth suffers a miscarriage.
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It was announced in February 2022 that a second Yellowstone prequel series had been ordered titled 1932 that would succeed the series 1883.[19] In June, the title was renamed to 1923.[20] In December 2022, Taylor Sheridan explained "No one has had the freedom I've had since Robert Evans ran Paramount," and discussed the 1923 production cost: "I would argue that 1883 was the most expensive first season of a TV show ever made. This was much more expensive. Much more expensive."[21] In February 2023, Paramount+ renewed the series for a second season.[22]
Sheridan's writing in the series was influenced by the other spin-offs from Yellowstone; for example, both prequel shows are written as being narrated by Isabel May, who in the 1883 series played Elsa, the daughter of James and Margaret Dutton.[23][24] May is the only actor who has main cast credits on both prequel shows.
In May 2022, Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford were cast to star in the series.[25] They had previously starred together 36 years ago in The Mosquito Coast. Ford, as revealed in a February 2023 interview with James HibberdofThe Hollywood Reporter, took up the offer to play Jacob Dutton despite saying in 2002 that he worked only once a year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and his commitments to the titular role of the long-delayed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reasons why he had not done as much work as he wished and wanted to try new things. As with his role in Shrinking, Ford accepted the role before there was a script, trusting that Sheridan would deliver a good one.[26]
In a Deadline Hollywood interview, Sheridan explained he got Ford to fly down in his own plane to Sheridan's ranch, and told him "[the script] ain't written yet and you got to commit to it now. I need to know who I'm writing for... I poured about two bottles of wine down him. He said yes". Then Sheridan continued, "Then came Helen [Mirren], and same thing. Have a glass of wine".[21][27]
In September 2022, Sebastian Roché, James Badge Dale, Darren Mann, Marley Shelton, Michelle Randolph, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, and Julia Schlaepfer were added to the cast.[28][2]
Pre-production began in Butte, Montana in July 2022,[29]
Filming was scheduled to begin on August 22, also in Butte, since that city was the stand-in for Bozeman, Montana.[30][31] Principal photography took place across Montana, with many Montana-set scenes shot in the same locations as Yellowstone.[32] Additional scenes were filmed in Kenya, Malta, South Africa, and Tanzania.[33][34] Some of the scenes that take place on the ocean liner RMS Majestic, were actually filmed at the RMS Queen Mary which is now a floating hotel, docked in Long Beach, California.[35]
The show was predicted to cost between $30–35 million per episode.[36]
The series is set to run for two seasons with eight episodes each.[37] In February 2023, the series was renewed for a second season.[38] Filming of the second season was delayed due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike[39] and it is supposed to start on late 2024.[40]
The first season was broadcast in two blocks of four episodes each, with a month-long gap between the fourth and fifth episodes.
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 1923 holds a 90% approval rating with an average rating of 7.0/10, based on 39 reviews by critics. The website's consensus reads, "Distinguished by the ineffable star power of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, 1923 is another solid if unrelentingly grim addition to Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone universe."[41]OnMetacritic, which uses a weighted average, the series has received a score of 67 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[42]
According to Paramount, the debut episode brought in 7.4 million viewers in both linear and streaming telecasts, making it Paramount+'s biggest debut ever.[43][44]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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2024
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AACTA International Awards | Best Actress in a Series | Helen Mirren | Nominated | [45] |
| Astra TV Awards | Best Streaming Series, Drama | 1923 | Nominated | [46] | |
| Best Actor in a Streaming Series, Drama | Harrison Ford | Nominated | |||
| Best Actress in a Streaming Series, Drama | Helen Mirren | Nominated | |||
| Best Directing in a Streaming Series, Drama | Ben Richardson | Nominated | |||
| Best Writing in a Streaming Series, Drama | Taylor Sheridan | Nominated | |||
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Television Series – Drama | 1923 | Nominated | [47][48] | |
| Best Actress – Television Series Drama | Helen Mirren | Nominated | |||
| Satellite Awards | Best Drama Series | 1923 | Nominated | [49] | |
| Best Actor – Drama or Genre Series | Harrison Ford | Nominated | |||
| Best Actress – Drama or Genre Series | Helen Mirren | Won | |||
| Women's Image Network Awards | Outstanding Drama Series | 1923 | Pending | ||
| Best Actress – Drama or Genre Series | Helen Mirren | Pending | |||
| Best Actress – Drama or Genre Series | Aminah Nieves | Pending |
The production took over the streets of Uptown Butte, one of Montana's most historical cities, which doubled as Bozeman.
That stunt actor absolutely deserves a medal. Because we threw him off the boat repeatedly, right into the water
"1923" has lassoed a second season at Paramount+
