Taylor Sheridan made Westerns cool again. Nobody asked for it, but everyone needed it. Yellowstone is his crown jewel, and with spin-offs like Marshals and The Madison recently gracing our TV screens, he has built an empire around the American West the way Marvel built one around superheroes. Except with more whiskey and much better cinematography.
But in the middle of all that Dutton family drama, it’s easy to forget that the neo-Western genre is thriving outside the Paramount ecosystem as well. TV shows that don’t have the budget, the marketing, or Kevin Costner’s sharp bone structure have something Yellowstone trades for scale. Some are grittier, others are morally ambiguous. However, none of them are trying to be Yellowstone, and that’s exactly why they’re worth your time.
8
‘Godless’ (2017)
A seven-part Netflix miniseries created by Scott Frank and set in 1884 New Mexico, Godless follows outlaw Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels) as he hunts down his former protégé Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell). The twist comes when Roy finds refuge in La Belle, a town run entirely by women after a mining accident wiped out most of the men. Michelle Dockery’s Alice Fletcher and Merritt Wever’s Mary Agnes form the story’s emotional core.
The show’s wide and painterly cinematography feels equally intimate and mythic. Also, Godless doesn’t reward its characters with catharsis if they haven’t earned it. Yellowstone often saves its characters at the last moment because audiences love the Duttons. Godless, being a limited series with nothing to lose, lays everything out on the table. It’s stranger, tighter, sadder, and it trusts its audience to sit with ambiguity.
7
‘Joe Pickett’ (2021 – 2023)
Based on C.J. Box’s novels, Joe Pickett follows Wyoming game warden Joe (Michael Dorman) as he navigates political corruption, family struggles, and the brutal realities of rural life. While this series could have become a generic procedural, it blends crime drama with frontier survival and shows how the wilderness itself can become a character. Season 2’s arc, where Joe uncovers a string of gruesome murders tied to hunters, pushes the show into darker territory.
Dorman, a New Zealander best known for his role in For All Mankind, played Joe incredibly well. He leads with his conscience and not his instincts, which makes him both admirable and occasionally infuriating to watch. Both seasons of Joe Pickett earned a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes before Paramount canceled it in October 2023. We’ve seen how John Dutton operated in a world where power is something you exercise and hold on to. Joe, on the other hand, lives in the same small town landscape but works very differently. He can’t call in a favor or buy silence, and when local enforcement fails him, he has to improvise. That friction and institutional limitations make Joe Pickett more grounded and more honest.
6
‘Outer Range’ (2022 – 2024)
At first glance, Outer Range looks like another ranch drama. However, it’s more textured. Prime Video’s two-season sci-fi western centers on Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin), who is fighting to protect his Wyoming land. Then, a void arrives… a literal, inexplicable hole in the ground that warps time and reality. Blending Western imagery with sci-fi unease creates a sense of dread that lingers after every episode. While it’s not always perfect, it’s consistently intriguing.
The Abbott family plays a huge part in anchoring subplots. Royal’s son Perry (Tom Pelphrey) is hiding a killing and his wife Cecilia (Lili Taylor) is watching her faith erode in real time. And then there’s a rifter named Autumn (Imogen Poots) who has set up camp on their land and refuses to move. Yellowstone is always expanding forward with more land, more enemies, more plot, and more plot. But Outer Range keeps collapsing inward, which makes it messier and less comfortable, but still brilliant to watch.
5
‘Tulsa King’ (2022 – 2025)
Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King drops Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a New York mobster fresh out of prison, into Tulsa, Oklahoma. Over the course of three seasons, Dwight builds a criminal empire from scratch. He recruits misfits and outsiders while clashing with rival gangs and adapting to a world that’s moved on without him. Sure, it’s a Western crime drama, but Tulsa King mixes fish-out-of-water comedy into the story to deepen Dwight’s conflicts with both family and foes.
Season 1 was viewed for 3.36 billion minutes on Paramount+ and became the network’s biggest to drive new sign-ups. Season 2 landed with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, drew 21.1 million global viewers for its premiere, and broke Paramount+’s all-time streaming record. Season 3, which premiered in September 2025, was just as good, and Tulsa King Season 4 is already confirmed. The series feels warm, and it basically builds something from nothing. And for that, it deserves greater credit than Yellowstone.
4
‘Dark Winds’ (2025 – Present)
Produced by George R.R. Martin and the late Robert Redford, Dark Winds is one of the most consistently brilliant Westerns out there. The story is set in the 1970s Navajo Nation and follows Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), a tribal police lieutenant, and his deputy Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon). Their investigations intertwine with federal politics, culture, and personal grief.
The show’s atmosphere is rooted in dusty landscapes, long silences, and sudden bursts of violence. However, at the same time, it focuses a lot on individual perspectives. While Sheridan’s rich saga often centers on power struggles within a single wealthy family, Dark Winds is all about community and survival. McClarnon, who spent years doing brilliant supporting work in Fargo, Westworld, and Longmire, finally gets his moment to shine, and boy does he make the most of it.
3
‘Wynonna Earp’ (2016 – 2021)
If Buffy the Vampire Slayer were set in the Wild West, you would get Wynonna Earp. That’s the easiest way to describe this cult favorite. It follows Melanie Scrofano as Wynonna, the great-great-granddaughter of Wyatt Earp, who is cursed to battle demons with her ancestor’s revolver. It’s chaotic in the best way and blends supernatural stakes with self-aware humor. While the tone sometimes swings, it never loses a chance to flesh out Wynonna’s messy, reluctant heroism.
Speaking of which, Scrofano is amazing as Wynonna. Although she would rather not be chosen, she leans into the messiness and humor of her role anyway. Katherine Barrell plays Officer Nicole Haught, and her romance with Wynonna’s sister, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), became a beloved queer storyline in the neo-Western genre. Sadly, Syfy canceled the show after its fourth season, and it never got a proper conclusion. However, a 90-minute special, Wynonna Earp: Vengeance, premiered on Tubi in 2024 and reunited the core cast.
2
‘Justified’ (2010 – 2015)
Before Yellowstone made neo-Westerns cool, Justified turned the genre into an art form. Developed by Graham Yost and based on Elmore Leonard’s stories about Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the FX series ran for six seasons and is regarded as one of the best TV shows of the 2010s. It thrives on its cat-and-mouse dynamic between Raylan, an old-school cowboy turned U.S. Marshal, and Boyd Crowder, a charismatic outlaw with shifting loyalties.
Three of the show’s six seasons hold a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and each one builds its own ecosystem of crime and consequences. Yellowstone puts its characters into moral grey areas, too, but it ultimately always protects the Duttons. In Justified, Raylan provokes the system, bends rules, and operates by the cowboy code. Even Boyd preaches redemption while planning crimes. In its own way, the show proves that nobody is safe from their own choices and that discipline is rare.
1
‘Breaking Bad’ (2008 – 2013)
While it’s not always labeled as one, Vince Gilligan himself has called Breaking Bad a contemporary Western, citing Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West as a tonal inspiration. The Albuquerque desert acts as a backdrop for Walter White’s evolution from meek chemistry teacher to ruthless drug kingpin. Bryan Cranston is the lead, and Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman adds a layer of vulnerability.
Many have argued that Breaking Bad functions as a revisionist Western that flips frontier mythology by denying violence its usual sense of purpose. Sheridan’s masterpiece uses violence as a way of asserting that the Duttons are serious and mean business. However, in Breaking Bad, every act of violence compounds the next, and the costs accumulate in ways that Walter can’t outrun, no matter how far he drives into the desert. He’s not protecting a ranch or justifying his choices. For good reason, Breaking Bad received sixteen Emmy Awards across its run and is still considered peak TV.
Did your favorite neo-Western TV series make the cut? Let us know in the comments.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
