Is ‘The Madison’ Taylor Sheridan’s Best Show Ever?

If there’s a problem with The Madison, it’s the thing that makes the show brilliant. Taylor Sheridan‘s new exploration in grief is too real.

• Season 1 of the Madison wrapped with Ep. 4-6 last weekend.
• Season 2 is filmed but not confirmed by the network. Both Michelle Pfieffer and Kurt Russell have agreed to participate.
• The show streams on Paramount+.

The scenery is majestic and the acting is award-worthy. Sheridan’s scripts are patient, clean and emotional, and director Christina Alexandra Voros probably deserves an Emmy for her work at making small moments cathartic.

For example, midway through the season there’s a scene where Stacy Clyburn (Michelle Pfieffer) walks into the third cabin on the property and realizes her husband Preston (Kurt Russell) built it for his family decades ago. Old stuffed animals stare back at the camera and we, the viewer, understand what it all means before she does.

Parenting is an act of taking three slaps to the chin for every emotional win, yet somehow it’s still worth it in the end. Preston’s daughters never got to experience a place he considered heaven, but the cabin represented a hope they would someday.

Consider this a spoiler alert. If you’ve not yet watched all six episodes of the The Madison, come back when you’re ready. The Dutton Rules podcast team will breakdown the series on Tuesday (March 24) at 2PM CT.

The Madison Ending Explained, Season 1 Recap

Episode 1-3 of the Madison focused on the tragedy. Ep. 4-6 focuses on the funeral.

Best friend Lily (Rebecca Spense) arrives to console Stacy and confirm that Preston wanted to be buried exactly where Stacy hoped to bury him.

READ MORE: Dutton Ranch Premiere Date Announced!

So, it’s funeral planning time and the locals are beyond supportive. Neighbor Cade and Sheriff Van plan everything — they even dig the holes by hand! — and a very short service is held along a windswept hillside.

Of course, there’s a ton of emotion attached to each scene, but I’m not about to try to re-write a masterful script in journalistic tones.

During Ep. 5, Van and Abby breakup because neither will abandon their lifestyle for what the heart wants. Everyone is pretty much ready to go home at that point, and they do.

Back in NYC, Stacy begins to visit a therapist played by Will Arnett.

These scenes are tremendous — in fact, I’d argue no two characters on this show have better chemistry than Pfieffer and Arnett — and he helps guide her toward doing what makes her heart full again.

The rest of the family is struggling in their own ways (Paige gets fired for punching an insulting co-worker), except for Abby, who is showing emotional growth during these difficult days.

Ep. 6 ends with a memorial at the Clyburn apartment, but Stacy leaves without saying a word to the assembled mourners and — as it turns out — charters a flight back to Montana without taking her cell phone or alerting family.

At this point, Abby, Paige, Russell, Lily, etc. … have no idea where the matriarch is. A missing persons phone call is placed, Stacy wakes up alongside her husband’s grave, and viewers are left to assume she lives there now, permanently.

The Madison, Season 1 Review

The Madison isn’t just a snapshot of grief. The show zooms in closer, focusing on the three to six days it takes from death to wake.

It’s as close to planning and attending a funeral as you can get without a body, and that comes with emotions unique to each individual.

I’m 46, married for 18 years this August. I can’t imagine what watching this show at age 75 must be like.

Can an elderly couple get through each episode, or does it cut too close to the bone? I suspect it does. My wife and I struggled at times.

Can a 20-something appreciate this kind of grief without having lived it? Can anyone in the funeral industry attach proper empathy, or does it all feel like another day at work?

My role at funerals is often the eulogy, so watching this show filled me with anxiety typically reserved for cramming a loved one’s life story onto paper in three days time, knowing I can always grieve later. As I’ve aged, I’ve learned that nobody really knows what to do, but somehow it all gets done.

Taylor Sheridan nails the emotions and order of events with uncanny precision.

At funerals, families fight, and sometimes it gets physical. A dear friend does more than her share while an under-appreciated in-law (in this case Russel McIntosh, played by Patrick J. Adams) steps up huge without any need for appreciation or gratitude.

Random food shows up. A few insensitive comments are made. Everyone kind of forgets about the grandkids as they cry in a corner. There may be 150 people in the room, but it’s all wildly lonely.

Important elements are overlooked and in the everyone just sort of wings it.

The Dutton Rules podcast team grades each season of a Taylor Sheridan show on a 1-10 scale.

I give the The Madison a 9, if only because nothing unexpected really happened beyond Paige punching that co-worker. I needed a reminder that this is indeed a television show, but appreciate how Sheridan avoided clichés.

Preston didn’t have a secret lover, and his finances weren’t in shambles. There wasn’t an emotional drug overdose and the wildlife stayed away. We’ve seen those tropes before — heck, we’ve seen them on Sheridan shows.

I need more time to decide if this was Sheridan’s best show, but I know for sure that Season 1 of the Madison was his most consistent.