Kevin Costner's 3-Part Western Is Like Yellowstone & Deadwood In One

Six years before he became John Dutton in Yellowstone, Kevin Costner played another family patriarch in a TV Western in which a violent struggle for territory is also of central importance. It was Costner’s first major role on the small screen, at the age of 57. Until then he’d spent almost his entire acting career working in cinema.

The series in question blends the siege mentality of Yellowstone’s Dutton family with the historical detail, gritty realism, and Old-Western lawlessness of HBO’s Deadwood. Fans of either show will find a whole lot to enjoy in Hatfields & McCoys. This three-part docudrama intermingles action with historical review, to tell the story of the most notorious blood rivalry in 19th-century America.

Among Costner’s movies and TV shows of recent decades, it’s the one which sees him most immersed in the character he’s portraying, paying reverence to a remarkable piece of actual history within the screen genre dearest to his heart. Much like Deadwood, Hatfields & McCoys is populated by real-life figures, with William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield and Randolph "Randall" McCoy the most significant.

Although it tends to be excluded from discussions about the best Western TV shows of the present century, the show is a compelling work of historical drama that’s worthy of its legendary lead actor. It looks the part, and has the measure of the action sequences at the heart of the decades-long feud between its title characters and their dependents.

Hatfields & McCoys Feels Like Yellowstone Crossed With Deadwood

Located in an especially unruly part of the Wild West after the American Civil War, Hatfields & McCoys has much the same tone as Deadwood, only set against the greener backdrop of the Big Sandy River that separates Kentucky from West Virginia. Famously, the Tug Fork section of the river also separated the show’s two titular families from each other.

“Devil Anse” Hatfield and Randall McCoy had both for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but when Randall’s brother joined the Union Army, it sowed the seeds of a bitter, bloodthirsty rivalry between the two clans that would last in the 1890s. Hatfields & McCoys covered this rivalry in three episodes lasting roughly an hour and a half each.

Produced by the History Channel, it features an all-star cast including Tom Berenger, Jena Malone, and Powers Boothe. Ultimately, though, it’s Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton who dominate proceedings as the patriarchs of the two warring families.

For those who’ve watched Yellowstone, Costner frequently comes across like a 19th century version of John Dutton, laying down the law with his own charges, and exacting merciless vengeance on those his family is pitted against, all under the banner of being a good family man. Hatfields & McCoys has one major advantage over both Yellowstone and Deadwood, though.

Because it runs for around five hours in total, the miniseries is one of the few Western shows that can be bingewatched in one weekend. It’s an immersively gripping watch, too, getting us to sympathize with the desperate violence of its feuding families as well as explaining the basis for it.

Kevin Costner Had Never Played The Lead In A TV Show Before Hatfields & McCoys

It’s incredible to think that Kevin Costner had never played more than a bit-part role in a TV drama before this one. Costner soon followed Hatfields & McCoys with Yellowstone, but prior to this History Channel miniseries he’d almost exclusively devoted his time to the big screen. Things have changed in the age of streaming, however.

The actor is arguably best-known to younger viewers as the lead character in Taylor Sheridan’s hugely successful neo-Western family drama Yellowstone. Those who enjoy his portrayal of John Dutton should give Hatfields & McCoys a chance, since Costner’s performance as "Devil Anse" Hatfield is even more impressive by many measures.

Release Date 2012 - 2012-00-00

Network History

Directors Kevin Reynolds

Writers Ted Mann, Ronald Parker

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  Bill Paxton

  Randall McCoy