{"id":337585,"date":"2026-03-13T17:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/337585\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:46:15","slug":"taylor-sheridans-michelle-pfeiffer-drama-is-thin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/337585\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Sheridan’s Michelle Pfeiffer Drama Is Thin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGrief is, unfortunately, a core component of the human condition, because no matter a person\u2019s background or social status, loss is universal. Taylor Sheridan<\/a>\u2019s latest family drama for Paramount+<\/a>, \u201cThe Madison<\/a>,\u201d follows the Clyburn family in the aftermath of an unimaginable tragedy. The series is about the horrific shock of unexpected sorrow, how death can divide families (or bring people together) and how navigating pain can alter perspectives and paths forward. The show has interesting themes and a powerhouse performance from Michelle Pfeiffer<\/a>. Unfortunately, it\u2019s rather thin on story, relying more on stunning landscape shots and dramatic music than dynamic dialogue and narrative.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Madison\u201d opens in Madison River, Montana. Though the series is set in the same universe as \u201cYellowstone,\u201d this tiny town feels light-years away from the towering Dutton dynasty.\u00a0 Two men, Preston (Kurt Russell<\/a>) and Paul Clyburn (Matthew Fox), are enjoying their time fishing. Though the brothers own the land and cabins together, and obviously revere this very special place, only Paul lives in Montana full-time. Preston\u2019s life is 2,000 miles east in New York City.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn New York, viewers meet Preston\u2019s no-nonsense wife Stacy (Pfeiffer). She\u2019s attending a charity event when she gets a call from her distraught younger daughter, Paige (Elle Chapman), claiming she\u2019s been robbed on 5th Avenue. Ever the dedicated mother, Stacy runs to her adult daughter\u2019s aid, fussing at her for not using a driver for her errands. (According to Sheridan, New York City is some unspeakable war zone where wealthy white one-percenters are getting attacked and robbed in broad daylight.) Later at a restaurant, the rest of the Clyburn clan is more engaged with their devices than conversing as a family. Paige\u2019s husband, Russell (Patrick J. Adams), is rendered a perpetual outsider at a table full of women, a reflection of the script\u2019s underdeveloped supporting characters. The eldest Clyburn daughter, Abby (Beau Garrett), and her two children, 15-year-old Bridgette (Amiah Miller) and elementary-age Macy (Alaina Pollack), round out a family dynamic painted with broad, predictable strokes.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor reasons this review cannot reveal, the Clyburns of New York find themselves in Montana to confront an unfathomable accident and all the gut-wrenching emotions and paperwork that come amid loss. Through these sequences and in flashbacks, the audience is offered additional details surrounding the Clyburns\u2019 history. Preston and Stacy have a 45-year-long romance that began humbly and has flourished as their family and finances have grown. Though Paige initially appears to be the bratty younger sister, it\u2019s clear she is the more career-focused and ambitious of the Clyburn daughters. By contrast, after becoming a mother at a young age, Abby has never figured out who she is or what she wants. Aside from a failed marriage and her two children, she seems rather directionless, relying on her parents to sustain her and her girls\u2019 lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\n\tSadness is typically the baseline in depictions of grief. However, \u201cThe Madison\u201d also talks about rage as another symptom of anguish. In the aftermath of the tragedy, many of the Clyburns lash out, even against those who offer condolences, including their Madison River neighbors, Cade (Kevin Zegers) and Kestrel Davis (Danielle Vasinova), Montana Sheriff Deputy Van Davis (Ben Schnetzer) and even Stacy\u2019s best friend, Liliana Weeks (Rebecca Spence). Seeing the array of emotions and how they spill out of the Clyburns and onto others are the most compelling elements of the show. Still, when the plot shifts away from mourning, it begins to fray.<\/p>\n

\n\tOverall, \u201cThe Madison\u201d accurately depicts how lonely, frightening and infuriating confronting death can be. The still-living members of the Clyburn family act out their heartbreak in a variety of ways. There are, of course, the expected sobbing spells, the exhaustion that grows while trying to move forward and all of the legal and logistical red tape that sprouts forth when someone\u2019s life comes to an end. Yet, instead of a thoroughly unpacked first season, the six episodes feel like a prologue of what\u2019s to come, perhaps because a second season of \u201cThe Madison\u201d\u00a0 has already been greenlit. It will be interesting to see how the Clyburns\u2019 story expands and if it can do so in a way that sustains the narrative and characters over many seasons. For now, it all feels much more trite than profound.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first three episodes of \u201cThe Madison\u201d debut March 14 on Paramount+, with the remaining three episodes streaming March 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grief is, unfortunately, a core component of the human condition, because no matter a person\u2019s background or social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,48350,83606,4523,38689,131796,411],"class_list":["post-337585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-kurt-russell","tag-michelle-pfeiffer","tag-paramount","tag-taylor-sheridan","tag-the-madison","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}