TV Shows We Love: 1883 by Antigoni Pitta

Not another western, you might sigh. But this one’s different, I promise!

With the genre dominating this year’s Oscars, it was only natural for Yellowstone prequel 1883 to take off immediately. But the show has its own merits, painting a realistic, sometimes difficult to reconcile with, image of what it was like to venture into the American west at a time when it really was wild and untamed.

A fresh take on the genre, the show takes us back a generation or two in the Dutton clan, the same family that stars in Yellowstone, as they lead a group of pioneers to build a new life out west. They encounter conniving bandits and cattle thieves, interact with native tribes, and come face to face with the value and power of nature while shedding their ties to civilization as they know it.

At the centre of the narrative is Elsa (Isabel May), the Duttons’ teenage daughter who is as wild and untamed as the land. Her life is only beginning, and she comes of age during this momentous journey where she experiences love, loss and everything in between. Fearless and curious, she adopts the mindset of a cowboy straight away, diving headfirst into the gun-toting, thrill-seeking, nature-loving lifestyle.

1883’s women are strong, resourceful and fearless, flipping the script on the stereotypes that always see them cast as extras, sex workers or shrinking daisies in westerns. This doesn’t sit well with everyone, of course – the show has caused a stir among some viewers online, who have criticized it for getting too philosophical.

But what they ignore is that the life of a cowboy, in its meditative desolation and respect for nature, is its own philosophy, forged through years of staring at the sun setting over the unspoilt land, before “the dirty hand of man” had a chance to reach it.