I spent a disproportionate amount of last night with Michelle Pfeiffer, which at one point in my life would have been a fantasy come true. Ever since she slithered her way across a piano in THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS, one of many breakout roles that complimented her striking beauty anmd ultimately defined her as one of the most bankable female stars of the 80s and 90s, I’d gleefully pony up to see her in whatever movie she happened to be fronting in order to do my small part in reaffirming that status. And when I’d sometimes see her on the FOX lot and at events, frequently merely playing the role of doting wife to the prolific David E. Kelley–who I once had the pleasure of educating on the then-new Nielsen peoplemeter methodology because he was one of the rare producers who actually wanted to know about such specifics–she was practically accessible. Not that I was able to capitalize on any opportunity to even speak to her–Kelley had long forgotten me, and I was far too intimidated by her aura to even speak.
So I was certainly a sweet spot for curiosity sampling when one her rare television efforts, THE MADISON, debuted on Paramount Plus last night. The fact that it was yet another effort from the fertile mind of Taylor Sheridan made it all the more appealing at first blush. I can’t say I’m as much of a fanboi of the Taylorverse than I am of the Pfeifferverse but I have recently loved me some LANDMAN and I at least appreciated his most recently launched effort MARSHALS which has finally produced a hit for the most-watched entity in the Warnermount world.
But I was also drawn it out of curiosity because of the ambiguity of how Paramount Plus was choosing to market it. The first warning sign that I noticed was in the otherwise positive review that DEADLINE’s Dominic Patten dropped on Friday:
In The Madison, like all the shows in the Taylorverse, the men will be men (or what they think men should be), and the women will be smarter. In fact, doubly so when your lead is Michelle Pfeiffer and her grown daughters are so resolutely portrayed by the not-to-be-trifled-with Beau Garrett and Elle Chapman. However, unlike most series from the prolific lord of Landman, this time the mirror Sheridan is holding up to America is much more concave.
Due to the stringent spoiler restrictions Paramount+ has insisted on for reviews of The Madison, there is actually very little more about the March 14-debuting six-episode first season that I can discuss.
That last sentence should have given me some pause, especially in light of other red flags which COLLIDER’s Chris McPherson pointed out in the preview he authored earlier last week:
The Madison stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell as Stacy and Preston Clyburn, a married couple from New York who relocate to Montana’s Madison River Valley after a family tragedy. Paramount+ and recent coverage describe the show as “a drama about grief, healing, and human connection”, with the family trying to adapt to a totally different life in rural Montana. When The Madison premieres on March 14, 2026, it will do so with only six episodes in its entire first season, with the first three dropping on March 14 and the final three arriving on March 21. That makes it the shortest season yet for any show connected to the broader Yellowstone orbit.
To me that seemed like a particularly potent pairing, right in line with the combo of Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren that made his Yellowstone prequel 1923 surprisingly compelling and theatrical, and indeed has been the highest-scoring Sheridan series via the ROTTEN TOMATOES metric that Paramount Plus tends to push to justify a “hit”, since rarely if ever will they share actual viewing metrics. If that’s the case, why would a platform starved for success (and, for that matter, now jockeying for corporate endorsement in the wake of recent business tidings) choose to order so few episodes and drop them in aspirationally bingeable batches on the lowest TUT level night of the week?
As I watched, and especially after the post-embargo stories began to drop over the past few hours, it became painfully evident why. We get scant little of Russell, and save for Pfeiffer the acting is simply not good.
It turns out Russell’s contribution is merely a brief cameo, as SLASHFILM’s Kieran Fisher confirmed:
After a storm cuts their fishing trip short, brothers Preston (Kurt Russell) and Paul Clyburn (Matthew Fox) get into a plane crash on their way back to civilization and bite the dust. It’s a dramatic introduction to the series, and somewhat surprising even though Sheridan’s shows are synonymous with tragedies…(E)pisode 1 leads us to believe that Preston and Paul are going to be major players on “The Madison,” as they get a lot of screen time prior to the crash. This is also Kurt Russell we are talking about — one of the biggest actors in Hollywood — and Sheridan disposes of his character not long into the premiere.
What’s left is Pfeiffer in the role of grieving yet fiercely strong widow woman, with her family and friends joining them in the stunningly scenic and tranquil Big Sky country that Sheridan prefers to set his work and his life in. What we also get–sadly in a heavier dose than we get storylines exclusive to Pfeiffer’s character– are a series of “fish out of water” stories where Garrett, Chapman and their annoying kids are whining about practically everything that’s different from their cushy upscale New York existence, including a particularly painful dissertation on the joys and horrors of gluten-free bread. These seem to resonate with some reviewers, but they likely don’t remember how GREEN ACRES handled the very same issues. There’s hints of a budding romance beyween Garrett and a hunky sheriff, but aside from the obvious physical stimulation it sure seems like the real attraction is merely the presence of something new in an otherwise dreadfully dull world. Whenever Pfeiffer wasn’t on the screen, my attention drifted and my eventual exhaustion got the best of me. It didn’t get much better even when I finally woke up and rewatched.
It appears my level of disdain has been confirmed by FORBES’ Paul Tassi via the complete RT lens on the Taylorverse to date which he provided yesterday:
- 1923 – 94%
- 1883 – 89%
- Tulsa King – 88%
- Yellowstone – 83%
- Landman – 80%
- Lioness – 73%
- The Madison – 67%
- Mayor of Kingstown – 64%
- Marshals – 47%
He also snuck in the fact that THE MADISON indeed does have a second season forthcoming, and the telling tidbit that Pfeiffer claims the second season will be “even better than the first”. My experience with such spin suggests the full order has already been filmed and that Paramount chose this release strategy and seasonal nomenclature, coupled with the shroud of secrecy that accompanied the launch, as a way to delay the inevitable as much as possible. And since Sheridan already has one foot out the door on his way to becoming a Universal feature film provider–and with a whole bunch of Warner and HBO talent heading in–there’s little motivation for either side to do anything about what’s clearly lacking in this effort at any point.
Which might just mean that said second season could be rolled out even more unceremoniously than this one, and with far less old fashioned bait-and-switch to even attempt to get attention. Overnight on the Fourth of July weekend might not be off the table, especially if the quantitative metrics wind up as unfavorable as the qualitative. And unlike MARSHALS, it won’t have the reach potential of CBS to make up the shortfall.
They most def won’t have me. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Sorry, Michelle.
Until next time…