My take (which is to say just one guy's opinion, skip if you want)
Yellowstone ended with Beth and Rip buying a ranch deep in the Montana wilderness, which we got to see for about ten minutes. Everyone involved seems to have forgotten the extent to which Montana itself was a character in this family's story.
So in a way (spoiler), >!that makes two Taylor Sheridan-helmed shows this year that killed off a leading character in episode 1.!<
And... please no hate, I have beloved family in Texas and enjoy visiting there... but the particular landscape featured in the DR show isn't just "not up to Montana standards." I find it positively ugly and depressing. I don't look forward to making weekly "visits" there the way I did during the original series run.
Combine that with:
- The fact that Beth and Rip have become passengers in someone else's saga -- a family I don't relate to and don't care about
- The WB-style generic teen angst distractions... "kid is an ass" is not writing
- Setting up Druggy McTwoNamesChin as the Big Bad, then >!having him die senselessly not at the hands of Rip!<
-- and I'm hanging on by a thread here. We're supposed to be relieved that Sheridan is riding in on a white steed to take over the pen and right the show in season two, but we know what happens when Sheridan gets on a steed and takes a personal interest in a story. Yeesh.