“Yellowstone,” a Western drama that revolves around the fictional Dutton family, broke records with the premiere of its fifth season, becoming the most-watched drama on cable television with 12.1 million viewers (live and same day).
This season, however, has caused quite a stir on the Internet with the airing of its seventh episode, which features the first lesbian kiss of the series.
‘Lesbians on the range!’
The show stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, who has become the governor of Montana this season. In the seventh episode, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) makes a plan to replace his father as governor, and the family decides to take a trip to the fair in town to blow off some steam.
The intensity of the episode was broken when the character Clara Brewer (John Dutton’s assistant) kisses a woman wearing a cowboy hat at the fair. Actress Lilli Kay portrays Clara, and she spoke to Deadline about the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
“It was written that Clara is making out with someone in the background behind John and Summer, and we were trying to figure out who was easy and comfortable [to cast] who was also in the testing cycle,” Kay explained.
She continued: “My partner, Juli Kocemba, was there with me in Montana so they said, ‘oh, let’s just have you guys make out in the background.’ My partner’s non-binary, so we’re like, ‘well it’s a gender fluid make out in the background.’ We thought, nobody’s gonna make a big deal about it.”
“And then a lot of people made a very big deal about it,” Kay said. “It was very funny because I did not expect anyone to even really catch it. And then people were like, ‘lesbians on the range!’ It was very, very funny. But it was a fun little evening.”
What’s the ‘big deal’?
Though there were positive reactions to the brief scene, some have already expressed disdain for the choice. Fans who were less than impressed with the same-sex kiss took to Twitter and slammed the show for ‘going woke,’ with one user going so far as to say that the show was ‘ruined.’
Other fans defended the show amid ‘woke’ remarks: “It’s not woke. People are up in arms because 2 lesbians kissed for like a split second. Big deal. I know lesbian conservatives. Doesn’t have anything to do with wokeness,” one user said.
Maybe this is what had co-creator Taylor Sheridan so amused about his show being described as right-wing last month.
“They refer to it as ‘the conservative show’ or ‘the Republican show,’” he told The Hollywood Reporter. Sheridan’s reaction? “I just sit back laughing. I’m like, ‘Really?’”
Sexuality-wise, the show seems generally interested in playing it straight, but the lesbian kiss signals progress in terms of its LGBTQ+ representation.
The mid-season finale aired this week, and plenty could still happen in the next half. The series may face yet more backlash if it continues its small strides.