Fans of "Yellowstone" have been critical of how hard its creators are pushing the upcoming spin-offs, and for them, being forced to watch a scene from "1883" in an episode of the original series only made matters worse. On Reddit, one user critiqued the length of the flashback. Others echoed this point, commenting on how jarring it was to start the episode with a scene from a different show. Across the "Yellowstone" subreddit, fans admitted they thought they had started watching the wrong show. "I was folding laundry and literally checked twice in the first 5-10 minutes to make sure I hadn't accidentally put on 1883," said u/polkadotcupcake.
"Imagine watching this season years from now not knowin 1883 was/is a thing, and all of a sudden you get that random a– scene?" wrote u/LluagorED, pointing out the irrelevancy of the "1883" flashback to the original show's narrative.
In a lengthy response, u/iangeredcharlesvane2 detailed the problems they have with how promotions for "1883" and "6666" are interfering with the original series. "I was trying to think of spin-off shows that got THIS MUCH screen time in the original show and came up empty — there is a reason they usually don't!" they exclaimed. "Fans get p***** as they are there for the show they like, and if they chose to watch a spin-off that's their choice."
Though "1883" has been a success for Paramount+ so far, "Yellowstone" fans seem to be questioning their loyalty to the franchise, and that should be cause for concern.
