Grading ‘1883’: The ‘Dutton Rules’ Team Offers Praise and Criticism [Watch]

1883 was undeniably dark and dramatic, but was it any good? The Yellowstone origin story was uncompromising in its attention to historical detail to the point that many fans had to look away, but rarely did anyone look away from the show's stars: Isabel May, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliott.

Recently, the two hosts of Dutton Rules: A Yellowstone 1883 Podcast were joined by Yellowstone and 1883 insider Sterling Whitaker to talk about 1883 from a critical perspective. The conversation — heard below or in the video above — was recorded days after the Feb. 27 finale, thus allowing enough time for emotions to give way to perspective (hopefully). Did you think 1883 was great, good, pretty bad or somewhere in between? As always, it's a conversation.

Without giving too much away, marks were high from Whitaker, Billy Dukes and Adison Haager, but it wasn't a straight-As report card. Taylor Sheridan's vision was flawless but perhaps too ambitious. A viewer's longing to repeat the show matters — was this show addicting?

The three writers are from different generations and thus bring different perspectives to their assessments.

Click play to listen, or, if you would rather listen later, find Dutton Rules on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and look for archive interviews with 1883 stars including Elliott, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, plus Yellowstone stars including Cole Hauser. Also, check out some of our recent video recaps and analysis below and join the conversation with an email to staff@tasteofcountry.com.

1883 is available for streaming on Paramount+.