IR TV Review: THE MADISON - EPISODES 4, 5 & 6 [Paramount+]
The balance of time continues to weigh on "The Madison" in the second batch of its episode count of six. Again the series works in a more novelistic approach but frontloads smartly the first episode (#4) to reacquaint the audience with its ideas and what was lost. Taylor Sheridan, although a little more soapy with this compared to say "Landman", is no less pointed and clear in his writing, which when there is less drama or action (per se) and it is more situational simply gets the job done better. Whether it be Michelle Pfeiffer and her attorney/friend (Rebecca Spence) or Abby (Beau Garrett) and a deputy along the side of the river, the series knows its voice and reverberates it against its setting. A float trip down a river is a good setting for this. But it is also scenes like Pfeiffer's Stacy reading her husband's journal and trying to fly fishing with her granddaughter reading the instructions that works well without the melodrama. Granted because it is a trauma show, some aspects will split in there. But small details tend to work.
Elle Chapman as Paige, the pouty spoiled Daddy's girl is the hardest one to integrate because she represents the entitled who just is still just a baby and yet is a grown woman. And yet Preston (Kurt Russell) seemingly worries more about Abbey, who maybe made some bad choices but is at least level headed. The scene above the valley in Episode 4 is telling and speaks to the divide but is also an ode to the old Westerns as well as maybe Russell's own "Tombstone". The eventual repercussions in episodes 5 and 6 are expected but again the brief scenes between Matthew Fox and Kurt Russell are telling and are more chapter structures in this novelistic structure. It is what starts off Episode 4. We get a sense of what is lost (or has been lost) even in these men's lives but there is still more story to tell. Some later scenes that take place in the city, sort of set the stage for what might be expected.
There is a bit of levity found in a situation that is part of both 5 and 6 with an actor that is sort of the perfect fit but one you would not think of opposite of Pfeiffer. One detail and a vivid flashback scene inside a vanity with one key detail speaks a lot about the relationship between Preston and Stacy. And yet there still is a lot to unpack. Grief doesn't just go away. Different people react to grief in certain ways and certain people have ambition more than others (see the men in Stacy's daughters' lives). It is an interesting progression. Sheridan wrote all six episodes and the consistency shows, which is tricky when sometimes you do have to hand off the writing duties to different people. The director of "The Madison" is also the same for all six episodes (Christina Alexandra Voros) who also worked on many of Sheridan's other Yellowstone shows as a cinematographer and a director. As a result, the six episodes, though again soapy at times -- and with one character [Paige] who is a little too much -- are solid and very specific to their voice...and with exceptional writing, even as it does have to hit certain beats. B+
By Tim Wassberg
