1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story – Season One Blu-ray review

Aug 04, 2023- Permalink

At this point, Yellowstone is an industry unto itself. First, there was Yellowstone. Then the prequel, 1883: A Yellowstone Origin Story. Now there’s 1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story. Pretty soon we’ll have 1:07 pm: A Yellowstone Story Slightly After Lunch. Paramount has just released 1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story – Season One on Blu-ray and I had a chance to take a look. This time around, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren star as Jacob and Cara Dutton. Jacob is the older brother of James Dutton, the character played by Tim McGraw in 1883. Besides dealing with their ranch, the Dutton’s world includes drought, Prohibition and the early signs of the Great Depression.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. If you’ve only seen the Yellowstone franchise on Paramount+, then watching it on physical media should be an eye-opening experience. Streaming services send a compressed signal and though, yes, it’s HD, it can’t match the detail of a great Blu-ray. The image is sharp and there’s amazing detail in everything from the facial features and period costumes to the rugged landscape and sets. The colour palette is wide from dark woods to popping primaries. Dark levels are nice and deep with no loss of detail in darker areas.

On the audio side of things, we have an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. The soundtrack immerses you into the landscape with both action and ambient sounds populating the surrounds, while the low end adds some authority to the action. The score is dynamic, while dialogue is clear and centred.

The three-disc set does not come with a Blu-ray code. Each episode gets a featurette that delves into the storyline. There’s a 44 minute look at the story, locations and production, a look at the Indigenous storyline of Teonna Rainwater, a piece on the editing process, and a preview piece on the series and its place in the Yellowstone franchise.

Fans of Yellowstone will be absorbed by 1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story – Season One’s characters and story arcs. With excellent audio and video, this earns a recommendation.