After five twist-filled, guns-blazing, addictively melodramatic seasons of television, “Yellowstone” hung its cowboy hat on December 15, 2024, leaving a bit of a hole in the hearts of Western-loving viewers. Thankfully, the Taylor Sheridan Universe is a vast one, with several spinoff shows centered on the Dutton family’s legacy, including already-existing prequels like “1883” and “1923” and upcoming dramas “1944,” “The Madison,” “Y: Marshals” and the Beth-and-Rip spotlight “Dutton Ranch.”
If that’s all a little overwhelming to keep up with, but you still want the same sweeping Western vistas, strained family dynamics, slow-burning romance and sense of frontier justice you know and love from “Yellowstone,” “Longmire” might just be the next watch for you. Based on the “Walt Longmire Mysteries” series of novels by Craig Johnson and led by Aussie actor Robert Taylor, the modern-day Western centers on a world-weary sheriff navigating the vast, rugged landscapes of Wyoming as he cracks cases and calms tensions between the town and the nearby tribal reservations.
What is ‘Longmire’ about?
At the center of this contemporary crime thriller is Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor), the sheriff of Wyoming’s fictional Absaroka County, who doggedly patrols the region’s mountainous terrain and the local community, all the while trying to overcome the deep grief of his wife’s recent death.
Both professionally and personally, Walt finds much-needed assistant from fellow sheriff and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear (Lou Diamond Phillips), his new deputy Vic Moretti (Katee Sackhoff) — a transplanted Philadelphia homicide detective with whom Walt shares simmering romantic tension — and his attorney daughter Cady (Cassidy Freeman), with whom he shares an emotionally distant relationship after her mother’s passing.
As Walt and Co. work to solve crimes, they also must contend with the jurisdictional and cultural tensions between their own country and the bordering Cheyenne Indian Reservation, which has its own police force.
Why you should watch ‘Longmire’
Running for six seasons and 63 episodes, “Longmire” actually ran for longer than “Yellowstone” and while both candidly deal with the communities, corruptions and conflicts of the American West, the former feels slightly more grounded and lived in than that more over-the-top Sheridan juggernaut, with a strong sense of place, sturdy story construction and small-scale mysteries that feel like they could play out in the real world.
That restrained realism was widely praised by critics: “‘Longmire’ arrives as silently as a dust devil kicked up by a high wind on the Wyoming plains,” Newsday’s Verne Gay wrote of the Western drama. “With little in the way of fanfare and a lead actor unacquainted with household name status, it must instead rely on a quiet fortitude, much like its namesake.” He added: “Unassuming ‘Longmire’ doesn’t shout ‘Love Me!’ but instead works its charms subtly, quietly.”
Watch “Longmire” on Paramount+ now
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