The Canceled Western Series That Could Have Been Better Than Yellowstone's 1923 Spin-Off

The hugely popular "Yellowstone" and its spin-offs have resulted in a resurgence of interest in the Western genre. Had 2017's "Damnation" debuted amidst that resurgence, however, it might've been far more successful than it ultimately was. What's more, the 1930s-set series had the potential to surpass the Harrison Ford-led "Yellowstone" offshoot "1923," which often seemed more concerned with setting up future "Yellowstone"-verse events, rather than telling a self-contained story.

Created by Tony Tost, who more recently became the showrunner for season 2 of Peacock's "Poker Face," "Damnation" aired on USA Network in the United States and was made available on Netflix in other countries. The Western period drama is set in 1931 during the early years of the Great Depression and is partly based on the real-world Farmers' Holiday Association campaign for a farm strike. It stars Killian Scott as Seth Davenport, a man posing as a preacher who secretly has plans to foment an uprising in Holden County, Iowa. Davenport isn't a fan of the industrialists encroaching on the area, nor is he all that fond of the corrupt businessmen that have taken advantage of the townspeople, and he's determined to fight back.

The show opens on a local farmer strike orchestrated by Davenport. Things quickly get out of hand, however, when his partner Sam Riley (Rohan Mead) is killed by Creeley Turner (Logan Marshall-Green), an ex-con who's been tasked with stopping the strikes by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He also happens to be Davenport's older brother, but none of the locals are aware of their relationship. Throughout the show, the estranged brothers essentially act as avatars for two diametrically opposed forces: big business interests and collective action by everyday people. Unfortunately, that story was limited to one season, as the series was swiftly canceled.

The Western genre is never likely to return to the kind of prominence it enjoyed in the first half of the 20th century, but it does seem more popular than it's been for some time — most of which is arguably down to Taylor Sheridan and "Yellowstone." Netflix is now readying its "Yellowstone" replacement series "The Abandons," which comes in the wake of another Western series, "Ransom Canyon," dominating the streamer's charts, much like yet another show set in the Old West, "American Primeval." These latter examples prove that it's not just modern-day neo-Westerns that can flourish in the wake of the Duttons' domination. But Sheridan himself also proved as much with the "Yellowstone" spin-offs "1923" and "1883," which told the story of previous Dutton generations and, in the case of the former, dealt with similar themes to those of "Damnation."

In "1923," Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) and his wife Cara (Helen Mirren) essentially play out a 1920s version of the mothership series as they try to protect their land from rivals and weather life in the harsh Montana plains. While the show benefitted from the kind of stellar performances you'd expect from its cast, much of it felt like a rehash of "Yellowstone" itself, with Jacob Dutton representing a stoic patriarch similar to that of Kevin Costner's John Dutton, both of whom are essentially forced to do what's necessary to protect their land. The only difference was that while John was fending off neighboring ranchers and land developers, Jacob was doing the same while also dealing with the effects of Prohibition and the Great Depression. That puts it in similar territory to "Damnation," yet the latter series arguably did a better job of tackling the sociopolitical issues of its historical setting.

Whereas "1923" often felt like it was drawing parallels between itself and "Yellowstone," "Damnation" drew parallels between the corrupt institutions of the early 1930s and modern day politics. That automatically made it feel more relevant and aware than "1923," which, depending on your sensibility, might give it an edge over Taylor Sheridan's series. That said, "1923" did have its share of uncomfortable modern-day parallels, with Timothy Dalton's mining tycoon Donald Whitfield representing the determined megalomania that unfortunately characterizes so much of today's business and political dealings.

Ultimately, "Damnation" wasn't given much of an opportunity to build its audience. But you've got to wonder whether it might have fared better had it debuted post-"Yellowstone." Sheridan's series wasn't just popular, it was a runaway success that's since given rise to a true TV empire (if you count the forthcoming spin-offs and other Sheridan shows). More importantly, it prompted us all to consider whether the Western really is as dead as it's supposedly been for decades.

Just like the Duttons trying to preserve their land and values in a rapidly changing world, "Yellowstone" seemed to be trying to preserve the Western genre itself in a world where the Marvel Cinematic Universe had become the most successful blockbuster franchise of all time — and it worked. In the wake of "Yellowstone," we've seen multiple Western series succeed, and had "Damnation" arrived later than it did, it might well have been one of them. Alas, while the show did garner modest ratings when it first started, those numbers soon slipped (according to Deadline), prompting USA Network to cancel the series in January 2018. At the time of writing, the show isn't available to stream, but the entire season can be bought from the usual platforms.