Prime Video's 15-Episode Sci-Fi Western Is Yellowstone Meets Dark

Published Aug 25, 2026, 7:34 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. While a Prime Video show that blends the Neo-Western family feuds of Yellowstone with the time travel sci-fi of Netflix’s masterpiece Dark might sound appealing, this cult classic was sadly canceled after only two seasons, leaving its intriguing story unfinished. Although his earlier screenplays for Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River earned some critical accolades upon their original release, it is fair to say that no one could have predicted how successful Taylor Sheridan’s Neo-Western Yellowstone would be when the show began. The story of a billionaire ranching family using criminal means to hold onto their land at any cost, Yellowstone billed itself as a dark crime drama in the vein of Breaking Bad or Ozark. However, as the series continued and the show kept justifying the actions of the Dutton family while vilifying their enemies, it became clear that Sheridan’s soapy melodrama was more like an R-rated update of Dynasty or Dallas. The silliest deaths in Yellowstone might have stretched credulity, but this clearly wasn’t an issue for the show’s fan base. The successful series spawned the prequels 1883 and 1923, as well as the sequels Marshals and Dutton Ranch, while Sheridan continued to expand his TV empire in every direction. Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, The Madison, and many more Sheridan shows cropped up in the wake of Yellowstone’s success, although one of its most inspired competitors, Prime Video’s Outer Range, never shared its mainstream popularity. Outer Range’s Twisty Mystery Mixed Dark’s Time Travel Sci-Fi With Yellowstone’s Neo-Western Story Set in Wyoming, Outer Range has a lot in common with Yellowstone. Its main character, Josh Brolin’s obstinate rancher Royal Abbott, is the patriarch of a dysfunctional ranching family who refuses to sell his land to rivals, and his difficult relationships with his family make maintaining control of his land all the more difficult. What sounds like a straightforward homage to Yellowstone soon takes a turn, however, when Royal discovers an inexplicable black void has appeared in the middle of his land. The appearance of this void in Abbott’s grazing pasture coincides with the sudden appearance of a strange drifter named Autumn, and the disappearance of his daughter-in-law, Rebecca. This plot might sound familiar to fans of acclaimed time travel TV, since Netflix’s three-season masterpiece Dark told a somewhat similar story only a few years earlier. While this earlier cult classic didn’t have any of Outer Range’s Western elements, Dark did also focus on a small group of multi-generational interconnected families whose lives are flipped upside down by a cave that facilitates time travel. Without giving away the entire story of Outer Range, suffice to say that the later Prime Video show borrowed from this premise with its twisty, Neo-Western story. Outer Range’s Two-Season Run Cut Prime Video’s Sci-Fi Mystery Story Short Image via MovieStillsDB However, while Dark's complex, technically impeccable approach to time travel was comparable to Shane Carruth’s infamously dense 2004 indie sci-fi movie Primer, Outer Range had a looser, more diffuse handle on its sci-fi story elements. The show never fully explained the appearance of the void nor how it functioned, a decision that could be credited to intentional ambiguity or its sudden cancellation, despite stellar reviews, in 2024 after only two seasons and 15 episodes. Much like Prime Video’s underrated Spielbergian sci-fi Tales from the Loop, Outer Range evidently didn’t have the viewing numbers to justify another outing of the series despite its critical popularity. Season 2 ended with a string of massive twists, setting up numerous cliffhangers that season 3 needed to resolve immediately. This means that, while the Yellowstone franchise’s story continues to sprawl out in every direction, Outer Range’s Dark-influenced sci-fi spin on the Western genre feels frustratingly unfinished. Release Date 2022 - 2024-00-00 Network Amazon Prime Video