The Madison–Urban-Rural Divide?

Two different Madisons are featured in this Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone”) six-episode mini-series, The Madison.  A recently widowed, extremely wealthy woman, Stacy Clyburn (Michelle Pfeiffer) resides on the Upper East Side of New York City.  She  has been happy and deeply in love with her husband in her opulent residence, The Madison.   After the sudden death of Preston (Kurt Russell), her husband, Stacy finds herself having  to deal with a widow’s mandatory unfinished business before burial and funeral can take place.  Preston’s Montana cabin retreat along the remote Madison River in Big Sky Country, fly-fishing with his brother Paul (Matthew Fox) is–or was–his happy place.

After forty-plus years of an extraordinarily loving marriage, Stacy has to muddle forward.   She is a self-proclaimed “city mouse” who avoided her husband’s attraction to fly-fishing. Now she has to fly to Montana to finalize the ceremony and rituals honoring her late husband.   Her two adult daughters, Abby (Beau Garrett) and Paige (Elle Chapman) are horrified that they, too,  have to temporarily adapt to country “corn-pone” life, in order to support their often barely-functioning mother.  Abby’s  own young daughters are more open, while still hesitant to fully comprehend the vast cultural and lifestyle changes along the Madison river.  

With predictable romance involving handsome cowboys, The Madison’s allegiance leans heavily towards the rural countryside. Spectacular cinematography could have been commissioned by the local chamber of commerce.   The residents are all open, neighborly, and welcoming of strangers.  In contrast,  the New York City of the Clyburns’ upper class  is  portrayed as replete with vacuous, narcissistic women, afraid of nature and any exercise outside  an expensive gym.  The odds are stacked against city life from the opening scene.

While The Madison often teeters on the edge of soap opera, the cast maintains its dignity, especially the luminous Michelle Pfeiffer, and her equally magnetic co-star, Kurt Russell.  Grief is not easy to portray. And Pfeiffer’s character has to demonstrate a cataclysmic upheaval of her soul.  Even while sobbing on the floor in her massive townhouse closet, Pfeiffer sniffs her husband’s shirts while the viewer absorbs her pain.

Recommended for the performances,  perhaps not while in the midst of grief oneself, as we wait for season two to see how the family stitches itself into new versions of themselves.

Availability:  Paramount +