Just started "1883". VERY confusing. Watching 2nd episode, better get better quick of we are ditching it. Who is who? No names and of those said no first names are given or spoken. We are scrolling through and pausing the credits and using conjecture to see or try to find out who is who.
Okay, the young boy is John Dutton (perhaps John's Grand-Dad considering the timeline 1883 vs. 2020's).
Margaret (Faith Hill) and I can't remember the Dad's name, James? (Tim McGraw) are young John's and Elsa's parents.
I agree that it is confusing if you are trying to link to Yellowstone.
We made it through all of the episodes and went back later and watched it a second time and it made more sense.
The story needs to stand on it's own. It tells the story of John Dutton's ancestors crossing Tennessee,Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. heading to Oregon with a wagon train of immigrants from Germany, Russia and Slavic areas. They have never been free and are determined unto death to live free in this country.
It is hard to watch some of the pain and tragedy that is part of our country's history, but I think they did a good job.
My biggest criticism is Elsa's Tennessee accent. How in the world did she not pick up on Faith and Tim's real life accents?
Bill said it is because she is from Santa Monica....
On the plus side, that girl can sit a horse and reminds me a bit of me at that age as I also had no fear, loved horses and love adventure.
It broke my heart in several scenes, but the last episode does take you to where the Dutton Ranch began.
Bill says Closed Captioning / Subtitles helps....