Madison: How Taylor Sheridan’s Grief Fest Missed an Opportunity To Do What He Does Best..

April 2026

 

Watch Michelle Pfeiffer cry...

And then ten minutes later... watch her cry again...

That basically sums up the plot of Madison.....

 

So, seriously, Taylor Sheridan......

 

You really are phoning it in this time...

 

And not just because the opening theme music...

Sounds just like what you used for Yellowstone...

 

So what happened to that screenwriter....

Who usually writes such great roles for women...

 

Because the three women in this series...

Are the least interesting female characters you have ever written...

 

Paige is a twenty-something toddler constantly having tantrums...

 

But at least she has a job...

 

And while her older sister Abby may be more self-aware...

But she spends her days taking her daughters to dance class...

And drinking espresso martinis with her friends at lunch...

 

At least the women in Landman had ambition...

Even if it was to be a cheerleader and marry the quarterback...

Or to walk away from their divorce with the Bentley...

 

And don’t get me started on Beth from Yellowstone...

 

But the mom in Madison...

 

Seems to spend the bulk of her days at lunch...

When she isn’t in the bathtub...

Soaking in her affluent lifestyle...

 

And not doing much else...

 

And let’s be real here...

 

No doyenne of NYC philanthropy...

Would ever be called Stacy...

 

Because if she had been given that name at birth...

I can guarantee you she would have changed it by now...

 

But I suspect Sheridan had a thing for Michelle Pfeiffer when he was a teenager...

Which was when she was hot...

 

Because there is no other explanation for why he made her the star of this series...

Since Pfeiffer has never carried a film on her own...

 

And Sheridan has a track record of finding little-known but compelling female actresses...

And then writing parts that raise their profile...

 

Just ask Kelly Reilly and Ali Larter...

 

But I guess if all you are going to have Stacy do is cry...

It didn’t matter who you hired...

 

But Stacy gets so much screen time...

She drags this series down...

 

Now at first, I was going to blame Pfeiffer for this...

But then I saw her in Margo’s Got Money Troubles...

And realized that the problem was the character...

And not the actress...

 

So this is all on Sheridan...

 

Which made me wonder...

 

Did someone he care about die?

Because Madison is about little other than coping with grief...

 

And that kind of focus on an emotion...

 

That isn’t white hot anger or blinding ambition...

Is out of character for a Sheridan series...

 

And this is a shame...

 

Because Madison had potential...

 

It’s the story of three coddled woke women from NYC...

Dealing with the death of their husband and father....

 

Who supported all of them...

Quite well BTW...

 

But let’s be honest here...

No rich dude in NYC is that nice...

 

Because Kurt Russel’s portrayal of Preston borders on the panegyric...

Never a hair out of place, never an unkind word...

The worst you can say about Preston is that he spoiled his daughters...

 

So to say the characters in this series lack nuance...

Is an understatement...

 

But Preston loved to fly fish in Montana...

 

And Madison is a love letter to A River Runs Through It...

 

Which is what brings his women...

 

Out West...

 

Where they get to interact with the natives...

Who all seem rather simple.. but nice...

 

But... Sheridan...

 

You know only an idiot would build a cabin that close to a river...

 

Now he could have had a lot of fun...

With the clash between the entitled judgmental New Yorkers...

And the Salt of the Earth Montanans...

 

Because poking holes in woke shibboleths is what Sheridan does in his spare time...

 

And there are a few occasions when the man who gave us Landman comes through...

 

As in the scene where the guests at Preston’s memorial in NYC.. .

Carp about the catering...

Which is from a restaurant that was Preston’s long-time favorite...

 

But is now...

 

So last year...

 

So even at their friend’s memorial...

New Yorkers can’t resist a putdown...

 

Which was a classic Sheridan take on the vacuity of the urban elite...

That he contrasts with the kindness of the Montanans toward the grieving family...

 

Which if you have ever lived in a small rural community...

Rings true...

 

And that understanding of how people in those communities...

Help each other out...

 

Is one of the reasons Sheridan is so loved in flyover country...

 

But for most of the series...

 

All we see are long lingering shots of the river...

 

Over and over again ...

 

Like they were being used as filler...

And in a series that is only six episodes long...

 

And then you get to watch Michelle Pfeiffer cry...

 

While hiding in her bedroom in her cavernous NYC townhouse...

Sitting on the porch by the river...

Lying on a hillside...

Or wading into the shallows...

 

And I’m sure I’ve forgotten some others....

 

Because that is basically all she does....

 

So Sheridan...

 

Get off the couch...

 

And write something decent for the second season of this series...

 

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