Ask Matt: ‘1883’ and Its Controversial Heroine

Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape. (We know background music is too loud, but there’s always closed-captioning.)

One caution: This is a spoiler-free zone, so we won’t be addressing upcoming storylines here unless it’s already common knowledge. Please send your questions and comments to [email protected] (or use the form at the end of the column) and follow me on Twitter (@TVGMMattRoush). Look for Ask Matt columns on many Tuesdays and Fridays.

Would 1883 Be Better Off Without Elsa?

Comment: [Spoiler Alert Regarding Recent Storylines]: I just have to say this! I have never written an opinion before, but I just don’t like 1883! I am sooooo disappointed in the storyline! I thought it would be about “all” of the people making the trip and the ups and downs that they would have to endure! This story is only about a teenage daughter hungry to go to bed with any single guy that shows up! She narrates the entire hour and I can hardly understand what she is talking about! Every hour is mostly about her and her talking! I feel there is no depth to the storyline! I can’t believe they are talking about a Season 2! — Nancy

Matt Roush: For the record, I took out a few of Nancy’s exclamation points (an editor’s prerogative) because it felt like she was expressing her feelings passionately enough without them. And while in this forum everyone is entitled to their opinion (within reason: we attempt to keep politics and bigotry out of the column), I’m going to push back on most of Nancy’s. Isabel May has deservedly become a breakout star as Elsa, and while some of her narration has been a bit too flowery even for my tastes, to reduce her journey to slut-shaming her over the two men she has fallen for along the way is to ignore the premise of 1883: that Elsa is experiencing a freedom beyond the bounds of 19^th-century civilization with all of the pitfalls that entails: emotional and physical and, yes, sexual.

Series creator Taylor Sheridan has said that he wasn’t able to figure out the hook for Yellowstone’s and the Duttons’ origin story until he came up with the idea to tell it from Elsa’s perspective, which is something relatively new for the well-worn and currently underrepresented Western genre. This doesn’t mean other lead characters — most notably the great Sam Elliott as wagon-train leader Shea Bennett — have been slighted. To me, 1883 is one of the best TV Westerns since Lonesome Dove and certainly one of the more fatalistic. To that end, I and many others are quite curious how Sunday’s finale (Feb. 27) will play out, with intimations that Elsa may not even survive being shot with the arrow, an event that was foreshadowed in the premiere. (Does this mean 1883 has been narrated from an omniscient afterlife? Hope not.)

As if to underscore the point, just as I was getting ready to sign off on this column, I received  this in my mailbag from Curt S: “Killing off Elsa in 1883 is down there with killing off Dani in Game of Thrones. Elsa is the main reason that many of us watched the show. I think I’m done. Is that a death knell that I hear?”

I guess we’ll find out on Sunday.

Is the black-ish Farewell Unbalanced by Celebrity Guests?

Question: Why is black-ish so obsessed with celebrity guest stars in its final season? Dre and Rainbow are obviously well-off and they live comfortably, but the last time I checked, they are not celebrities in the universe of the show. So it strains credibility when all of a sudden a parade of famous real-life celebs playing themselves want to pay them a visit. First it was Michelle Obama in the premiere, then there was the episode where Jack got a job working for the Lakers, and this week (Feb. 22) Charlie got married to Vivica A. Fox. A press release from ABC back in January name-dropped them and a bunch of other celebrity guest stars. I understand that these people are probably fans of the show in real life and that ABC wants to make the final season feel like an event. But it isn’t working for me.

It’s not just the parade of guest stars. It’s that the show works best for me when it is about the dynamics within the Johnson family. I don’t mean to slight any of these famous people, but their presence often seems to land the focus on them and less so on the characters we’ve actually been watching all these years. This week’s episode started with the shock that Charlie was marrying Vivica A. Fox but ended up trying to focus on Dre and Charlie’s friendship. So why did the woman Charlie was marrying have to be Vivica A. Fox? The same basic story about Dre’s friendship with him could have been accomplished no matter who the bride was. It didn’t seem to serve any purpose for it to be Vivica A. Fox other than for Charlie’s colleagues to be surprised that she would be interested in him. I didn’t come back to black-ish this season after drifting away to see the Johnsons hobnob with celebrities. I came back to black-ish in order to (hopefully) see the story of the Johnson family come to an emotionally resonant conclusion. I haven’t seen that happening yet. Your thoughts? – Jake

Matt Roush: Not going to argue this one. An occasional celebrity encounter makes sense given the Johnson family’s status in a status-conscious town, but I agree they’ve gone overboard in trying to “event”-ize the final season. Watching the rest of the family embarrass themselves as they tried to muscle in on Michelle Obama’s unlikely home visit in the premiere — and why wouldn’t Dre and Bow introduce her proudly to their family? — was almost enough to turn me off of the season as a whole. On the other hand, how good is its lead-in, Abbott Elementary? (Can’t plug that one often enough.)

Breaking a Promise

Question: I started to watch Promised Land and I love it, so now ABC is putting it on Hulu! I don’t have Hulu. Why would they get you to like a show and then put it on a pay platform? Not happy about this. — Charlene S

Matt Roush: Put the streaming issue aside for a moment and come to grips that for all intents and purposes, Promised Land has been canceled for low ratings. In another time (even just a few years ago), it would have vanished without a trace. Instead, ABC is shifting the remainder of the first (and only) season to its streaming platform, and while it would be nice for ABC to also make the episodes available On Demand and/or online for non-subscribers, I’m not aware that’s happening. For many, this provides an option to watch the episodes that would otherwise not be available at all. Not a great outcome, I agree, but cancellations are never fun.

To Eliminate or Not to Eliminate

Question: Is it just me, or do others find it very annoying on The Amazing Race when the last team arrives only to be told it’s “a non-elimination round?” Many times you get an annoying team come in last and you’re happy to see them go, only to find out they stay, and then the following week you have a favorite team and hope they’ll be saved, only to see them get eliminated.  Who makes up this stupid rule on when to use the non-elimination and when not to? Every week I swear it will be my last. — Lori

Matt Roush: Lori, it’s almost never just you. This gimmick of The Amazing Race is arguably its least popular, but by all accounts, the timing and frequency of the non-elimination legs are pre-determined by the producers before the season begins. I’d like to think this show has enough integrity that it wouldn’t contrive to keep an outrageous team in the game longer by mixing up the legs just to make more noise. But I’ve had much the same feeling when these arbitrary legs work against the players I’m rooting for. For better or worse, that’s how the show works.

Comment: It’s hard to believe that Hollywood hasn’t grabbed up Adam Pålsson (of Netflix’s Young Wallander). He is absolutely amazing. — Sandra, Massachusetts

Matt Roush: Give Hollywood time. The Swedish actor’s breakout role in this series arrived during the pandemic—the first season dropped in September 2020, the second just this month—and he also can be seen among the supporting ensemble cast on the bridge crew in HBO’s sci-fi space comedy Avenue 5, which was renewed for a second season. I’d expect we’ll be seeing more of him.

And Finally …

Question: I was wondering if you have heard anything about a show named The Never Game from the book of the same name from Jeffery Deaver that was supposed to be out midseason on CBS? — Natalie C

Matt Roush: You’ll need to be a bit more patient. This project about so-called “reward seeker” Colter Shaw has a pilot production commitment at CBS and is intended as a star vehicle for Justin Hartley, who’s currently still busy with NBC’s This Is Us in its final season. This is designed to be his next TV series, and the goal is for The Never Game to be part of CBS’ 2022-23 season if the network gives the series a green light. Given Hartley’s high profile (and Deaver’s), I imagine it has a good shot at going forward.

That’s all for now. We can’t do this without your participation, so please keep sending questions and comments about TV to [email protected] or shoot me a line on Twitter (@TVGMMattRoush), and you can also submit questions via the handy form below. (Please include a first name with your question.)