All 5 Seasons Of Yellowstone, Ranked

"Yellowstone" was popular enough to score five seasons on Paramount Network, but not all of those seasons are equal. After all, there's a whole 10 episodes a year in which the Duttons live, laugh, murder and try to upend each other in the family power rankings. Some of those outings will be great and some of them will be horrible, it's just math.

When a show loses its lead actor, however, there's bound to be trouble, and trouble is just what befalls John Dutton (Kevin Costner) when he runs for governor of California. In between there are births, deaths, new faces, and old ones. The rhythms of life keep playing out, and sometimes there are violent intervals of ugliness that make the entire situation more worthwhile.

But that's jumping the gun. In between the bookends of the beginning and the end, there are plenty of stories to be told and plenty of seasons to be judged. Ranked via a combination of audience opinion and critical insight, as well as authorial opinion, here are all five seasons of "Yellowstone," ranked.

Very few shows ever successfully manage to recover from losing one of their main characters, but "Yellowstone" got solid ratings as the final season of the show played out in spite of the fact that Kevin Costner quit the drama mid-stream. But its reputation has gone middling with time; on the Popcornmeter, it sits at 41%, and on IMDb, has a slightly higher average of 7.7. But viewers can easily explain what they don't like about Season 5 of the show: it's the death of Costner's John Dutton.

Said death happened mid-season due to a backstage dispute between Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan, and the show does John no posthumous favors by having him shot to death in his own bathroom at the governor's mansion. Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) smell a rat and end up investigating John's death — a quest that leads them to the doorstep of their own adopted brother, Jamie (Wes Bentley). All flavors of disaster promptly break loose, but even the show's emotional and righteous ending isn't enough to keep this one from the bottom of the pile.

While the show sits at a "fresh" critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, plenty of them didn't like how Season 5 presented itself. "Yellowstone is a show for people who imagine themselves to be John Dutton: embattled, operating with black-and-white certainty, fighting against a world that demands compromise," remarked Slate's Rebecca Onion. Nick Schager from The Daily Beast agrees, "Increasingly, its opposition to forward movement isn't just a cultural and political stance, but a narrative one as well."

The first outing for the Dutton clan doesn't even come close to the very best it has to offer. That said, it does give us a season-long establishing shot of the American West in crisis, introduces the Duttons and their conflicts, and shows some of what makes them tick.

The series pilot opens with a car crash that sets both the feeling and pace of the series, as John Dutton mercy kills an injured horse. The first episode of "Yellowstone" is laden with moments you might not have noticed your first time watching it, but it's a perfect primer that explains who these characters are, what they'll be getting up to for the next few seasons, and what their destinies will be.

At an 8.1 on IMDb and a shockingly low 58% on the Tomatometer, the show did not have a promising start. But the Popcornmeter sports an 82%, hinting at just how high things would climb in the coming years. "Few characters here are particularly likable or compelling," said Eric Deggans of NPR. "Yellowstone gets bogged down in minutia and politics, and generally winds up being about as exciting as watching a zoning-commission meeting," snarked Brian Lowry of CNN.

Though it was still chugging along well during Season 4, this is roughly where the adventures of John and company lose their luster. The worst part of this batch of episodes? John's preachy relationship with environmentalist Summer Higgins (Piper Perabo), who ends up doing community service on Dutton Ranch to pay off her John-related debt to society. The pair fall into an awkward love affair while John preaches at Summer about how terrible her veganism is and of the importance of ranching life. Yet it does also show off John's softer side.

This strident plotline set aside, there's plenty to enjoy about Season 4. It contains the aftermath of the family's last attempt at cohesion in the wake of a coordinated attack on the Duttons and their holdings, Kayce and his wife Monica's (Kelsey Asbille) continued travails, and interesting conflicts in the bunkhouse. Critics and fans both agree that it's great, giving it a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences chiming in at a 81% on the Popcornmeter. On IMDb, it has an 8.1 overall total score.

Critics had nothing but raves for the season. "For me, the show feels like 'Dallas' if it had been produced for HBO," Matt Roush of TV Insider remarked. "It's the oldest story told about the American West, but creator Taylor Sheridan capably reimagines the enemy for late-stage capitalism: land developers, private equity, eminent domain," added Amanda Whiting of IndieWire.

Season 2 of "Yellowstone" plunges the whole Dutton clan into a fight with the Beck brothers, resulting in kidnappings, threats of violence and two very extrajudicial deaths, which leads to one of Kayce's most heartbreaking moments in the whole series. Elsewhere, Jamie gives life in the bunkhouse a try.

Critically — in spite of some strongly-worded misgivings from some of those pros — It sits at an 8.4 on IMDb, and both the Tomatometer and the Popcornmeter has it at 89%. That makes it the second-highest-rated season of the show in the opinion of both institutions.

"It's as grand as Montana's wide and open plains, and as entertaining as any good old campfire tale," declared Alci Rengifo of Entertainment Voice. Agreed Tim Appelo of AARP Movies for Grownups, "Kevin Costner, 64, rides high in the triumphant new season of the most unexpected smash hit of 2018." High praise from the biggest arbiters of Dad TV. But one year of the show outranks Season 2 and takes the crown as the very best spate of episodes "Yellowstone" ever put out.

And here we have it. It's the top of "Yellowstone" mountain, the most fascinating crevice in the alleged "train station": the best season of the drama overall. The third season of "Yellowstone" ended with one of the show's best cliffhangers, a who-will-survive shootout that puts John and his children in major danger. That alone elevates it above the rest of the pack, but it didn't help push Season 4 into second place material, despite this finale's deftness.

Elsewhere in this spate of episodes, audience members learn why Beth hates Jamie so much, Market Equities starts making its move on Yellowstone land, and John's machinations finally result in all of the Duttons facing their doom.

Fans and critics alike absolutely loved this season. It sits at 100% on the Tomatometer and 87% on the Popcornmeter. On IMDb, it holds an 8.3. Though only seven critics have weighed in for Season 3, they all mainly left raves, even if the season did have a few flaws. "It's been a quiet season and, honestly, that's the way I like it: 'Yellowstone' is best when it bathes in a mood, and the mood of this season is of a rattlesnake quietly slithering through the desert," said Dustin Rowles of Pajiba. It all really is "Yellowstone" at its peak, and that earns it the top slot on this list.