This article contains spoilers for the “1923” Season 2 premiere.
We are only one episode in, but “1923” Season 2 has already set up some intriguing drama for its upcoming episodes. The Duttons are low on numbers as Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton) and Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn) up the ante in an effort to claim their land, made worse by the fact wolves and lions are invading the family’s sought-after property. Elsewhere, newlyweds Spencer (Brandon Sklenar) and Alexandra Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer) have been separated in Europe and must find a way to get to Montana on their own, which won’t be an easy task. Then again, when is life ever easy for the Duttons?
Despite this season boasting some compelling storylines, however, it isn’t all good. Much like Season 1, this second installment already includes some unnecessary gross-out moments — namely, Whitfield and his habit of making sex workers Lindy (Madison Elise Rogers) and Christy (Cailyn Rice) brutally punish each other for his own amusement. These scenes were polarizing the first time round, and at this point, they aren’t enhancing the story. This begs the question: is the show being gratuitous for the sake of it?
Lindy and Christy’s scenes stand out for the wrong reasons on 1923
“1923” is often justifiably brutal. For example, the Native American boarding school abuse scenes are extremely difficult to watch, but they play a key role in the story of Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves), while simultaneously highlighting a brutal time in history. However, the scenes involving the mistreatment and humiliation of Lindy and Christy have received plenty of criticism, yet it seems they’re set to continue for the foreseeable future, as the women are still locked up with Donald Whitfield when the Season 2 premiere ends.
That said, Whitfield’s seedy exploits served their purpose the first time we saw them in Season 1. The first scene arguably provided some insight into the rich capitalist’s sadistic nature, but the rest are nothing more than pointless torture sequences that would have been more suited to Taylor Sheridan’s forgotten horror movie, “Vile.” As one Redditor put it, “[They’re] completely pointless. Lazy writing. We saw the same exact scene in [‘Game of Thrones’], except way better written and part of a gradual character development with huge payoff in the end.”
While “Yellowstone” lost its way eventually, at least the show wasn’t short on ideas and surprises. “1923” is strong, for the most part, but the series would be more interesting if it didn’t double and triple down on its worst elements, such as this one, and instead found other ways to showcase Whitfield’s wickedness during his personal time. Maybe these scenes will lead to an interesting storyline payoff down the line, but for now, they appear to be leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths.
New episodes of “1923” premiere Sundays on Paramount+.