Similar to others, I initially stopped watching Yellowstone after the first couple of episodes, for similar reasons. A friend continued watching it though and convinced me to give it a chance.
Here is how I see it:
I also belong to those people who have a really hard time watching much of anything that is produced nowadays, which, coincidently enough, seems to be often what is popular. The reason for that is that in most cases, it seems to me, what is shown, is, in one way or the other, quite pathological, and not so infrequently, simply psychopathic in the way things are portrait and put on display and "normalized". It is often quite sick IMO. This way of portraying and story writing seems to be the norm now. Besides that, maybe aided by that general tendency I see in movies now, is the factor that most of it comes across as very shallow, simple-minded and quite inhuman to me, also in terms of language. I think that also applies to violence in general, or more specifically, the graphic nature of how it is often portrait nowadays. Similar to others I also find watching something that has not at least a bit of goodness/sanity/decency and/or values and/or deeper thoughts and/or heroes in it rather repelling.
For that and other reasons I am usually appalled and repelled by most of what people like to watch nowadays. I'm also one of those people who favor a deep and thought-provoking movie over any kind of shallow action movie, any time, for example. What others seem to find boring, like thoughtful and deep stories and/or dialogues without much "action", I don't find boring at all. Often, the exact opposite in fact! I'm a firm believer in the idea that a good movie/story should be able to create a meaningful/thoughtful and "action rich" story within your mind, first and foremost. Just like a good book does. Which means that I don't need to see much "action", "brutality" or whatever in a movie in order to like it. In fact, most of the movies and series I would consider good and that I like, don't display any of that at all. On a side note: I find action scenes, most especially in modern movies (like endless car chases, spaceships fighting, battles scenes or what have you) most of the time utterly boring and meaningless.
Downton Abbey is a good example of a modern Series that I like. It is one of the good examples nowadays IMO that doesn't need any of that nonsense that is now popular. Good movies/series still exist! There are others modern ones too, but I don't remember the titles right now. I don't think you need to be graphic and/or pornographic about anything, to make a good movie/series. In fact, I'm appalled by seeing that. Usually when stuff like that is displayed I'm choosing to look away. Having said that, in some ways I think you can watch stuff like that IF YOU are aware of what you are dealing with (in some respects in regard to sick/graphic and/or pathological content) and set up boundaries. See the Yellowstone example below.
There are a few movies and Series nowadays I can more or less tolerate and even like in some ways, even though, in one way or the other, they seem carry along some of the negatives I mentioned above. I would consider 1883, 1923 and Yellowstone to be in that category.
So, after my friend convinced me to give Yellowstone a chance, we decided to first watch 1883 for a better understanding of the whole concept. Apart from the brutally graphic scenes, which I faithfully refused to look at, I found myself quite moved by the story in 1883 and found it deep and engaging. I also found all the actors in 1883 to be a superb cast for the story. Great acting and great actors that fit their role IMO.
In contrast to that I find 1923 to be a profoundly miscast series: Almost all the main actors don't fit their roles IMO. The only two actors I find more or less to be convincing and a fitting cast in 1923 are Brandon Sklenar (as Spencer Dutton) and Julia Schlaepfer (as Alexandra). Apart from that (and again, the brutally graphic scenes) the story line in 1923 is good IMO. So, over all, IMO 1883 is MUCH better.
Yellowstone:
Apart from the brutally graphic scenes, and the often quite pathologically normalizing stories/scenes, I think it is a quite interesting and well written series. At some point I had to consciously abandon the silly notion/hope to root for and/or find a character I can really sympathize with or agree with, and just accept that, in one degree or the other, people there are just quite twisted people. Which in fact might be a quite accurate depiction of reality! So, that is sort of one of the boundaries I kept up while watching Yellowstone. So from my perspective, the people in Yellowstone are definitively far away from any kind of role model, knights, or anything like that. In a twisted kind of sick mafioso way, Yellowstone makes sense, and viewed from that perspective, you can understand and even somewhat "sympathize" with the story and people there. In terms of acting I also think that Yellowstone has a superb and fitting cast for the story.
And it honestly swept me away... I also really liked the main female character at the end.
