Believe it or not… Taylor Sheridan is happy with bad reviews.
The more I read about TV and movie creators, the less I think they care about critics. That’s especially the case for Taylor Sheridan. Sure, people that slap their names on things want people to like their stuff… but more importantly, they just want eyes on it. Viewers are just as likely to tune into something that’s reviewed horrifically as they are productions that are being raved about.
It’s actually quite interesting how all of that works.
In a recent interview with Tom McCutcheon’s THE SHOW, Taylor Sheridan explained why he actually almost intentionally seeks out bad reviews from critics. How does he manage to do that with current series like Landman, or past shows like Yellowstone? It’s simple really… he’s just trying to trigger the TV critics and Hollywood executives that are watching.
Sheridan says he purposefully fills up his shows with little things that are meant to get under the skin of those whose job is to dissect what he’s created:
“‘Yellowstone,’ there’s a lot of petulance in there, and lot of things that are digs at my business that only my business is aware of being a dig. I stick a lot of them in ‘Landman’ too. I stick a lot of them in a number of other things too…
I should have trigger warnings on my shows (that read), ‘If you are a television critic or a Hollywood executive, this is meant to traumatize you. I’m trying to piss you off. If you think I’m trying to piss you off, you’re exactly right. I am trying to piss you off.’
I can’t help but think that, even if Sheridan included that type of messaging directed at critics and executives, it would still manage to go over their heads.
So there’s the how of Taylor Sheridan’s “dig process,” but what’s the why? As he explained later in the interview, the Yellowstone creator believes in the “any publicity is good publicity” mentality. The way he sees it, if someone tries to review bomb a movie or show of his, it’s only going to spark more curiosity in the viewer, and likely lead them to watch anyways:
“The madder you are, the madder your review will be. The more people read it, the more curious they’ll be. Every time I get a bad review, I’m like, ‘Thank you.'”
Interesting strategy, eh?
But think about it… if you’ve ever tuned into a Taylor Sheridan show, you’ve probably caught on to some of those digs before. When he takes jabs at the big wigs, it brings a lot of joy to normal viewers. And when the reviews pour in saying (insert name of Taylor Sheridan show here) was horrible, loyal fans are just going to know that Sheridan must have gone after Hollywood – a place that he’s actually left behind and recreated in his own way in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Taylor Sheridan is playing chess while everyone else plays checkers, and you can hear more about his moves by pressing play on the interview below:
