During a new interview with Gold Derby, Sheridan admitted that the show is “nonsensical” and even shared some insight into why that works. “With Yellowstone, which is nonsensical — there’s a great writer named Gretel Ehrlich, who calls it my horse opera because it makes no sense and it’s not trying to,” Sheridan told the publication “And yet it’s a window into a world. There’s a very sort of loving nature with the camera that attempts to sell this place as the idyllic location to raise a family. I subtracted from that in 1883, and tried to make it look slightly more foreign.”

The key to all this was knowing that there was an empty space on television for Sheridan to fill and he took that challenge on, bringing us the western drama. “I knew there was such a thirst, that a Western done well is a universally loved genre. It captures everything American, this sense of freedom and vastness and independence. And there’s a romance to it. You get on a 1,200-pound animal, and that thing trusts you, and you trust it, and you run 40 miles an hour. It’s just so romantic and brutal and beautiful.”

Yellowstone Really Was a Horse Opera

So don’t worry about defending Yellowstone to people who think it makes no sense. That’s the point! And you can watch the series and see the drama unfold.