Netflix's 6-Episode Western Thriller Masterpiece 'Territory' Is 'Yellowstone' Done Right

Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone may know a thing or two about running a ranch empire, but the Duttons aren’t the only family ruling the countryside. All the way in the Australian outback, Netflix’s Territory depicts a different kind of ranch life, where human threats are just as vicious as the unforgiving wild. Instead of the Duttons, there’s a different family at the story’s heart, one that has passed down their cattle ranch for generations.

While Yellowstone and Territory share similar threads — dealing with grief, greedy corporations, and Indigenous groups — the latter does it better. Territory tells a fleshed-out story of succession without reducing its characters to one-dimensional tropes, while offering thoughtful representation of Aboriginal communities. If anything, Territory manages to outdo Yellowstone at its own game.

What Is ‘Territory’ About?

Territory follows the fictional Marianne Station in Australia’s Northern Territory, currently helmed by the ruthless, aging patriarch Colin Lawson (Robert Taylor). The series is told through the eyes of Emily Lawson (Anna Torv), who is married to Colin’s eldest son, Graham Lawson (Michael Dorman). However, Colin has long detested Emily, seeing her as a threat because of her background as the daughter of cattle thieves. Like Yellowstone, the series begins with a family death that throws the ranch’s future into question. The sudden death of Daniel Lawson (Jake Ryan) is a blow to Colin, who has always favored his younger son over Graham.

Daniel is supposed to be the inheritor, but his death directly complicates the station’s succession, forcing Colin to choose between the alcoholic Graham and his grandson Marshall (Sam Corlett), who wants nothing to do with the family. Emily believes she’s up to the task, but given her bitter relationship with Colin, convincing the Lawsons to put Marianne under her leadership is easier said than done. With rivals surrounding them and looking to take what they have, the family doesn’t have the luxury of time to make that choice.

‘Territory’ Adds More Nuance to Its Female Characters

One of the major flaws with Yellowstone is how Sheridan writes its female characters, typically shaping their personalities in relation to the Dutton men around them. Given her tough upbringing in the Dutton household and fueled by her hatred for her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley), Beth is the de facto “badass” woman. This is portrayed through both her smaller habits, from her cussing to her chain-smoking, and more serious traits, such as her penchant for physical altercations. The same one-dimensional writing applies to Kayce’s (Luke Grimes) wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), who is primarily defined by the endless trauma caused by her marriage into the Dutton family.

Territory, on the other hand, doesn’t box its women into one mold. Instead, it recognizes that women can be many things at once. Emily has all the brains in the world to run Marianne, but she also makes a brash personal decision involving her husband when her heart gets in the way. Her daughter, Susie (Philippa Northeast), is naive enough to waste her university education working at the ranch, but she’s also quick to learn the ropes. Meanwhile, Keeley Redford (Tuuli Narkle) serves as a strong-willed community spokesperson who advocates for uplifting the Indigenous community, which continues to lack resources, from proper facilities to job opportunities.

Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.

You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.

• Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
  backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
• You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
  have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
• The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
  moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
• You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.

You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.

• Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
  which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
• You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
  handful of people you actually care about.
• Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
  getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
• You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.

You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.

• Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
  alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
• You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
  is exposed rather than who is to blame.
• These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
  person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
• You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.

Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.

• Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
  argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
• You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
  turn up exactly when you said you would.
• True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
  and every adult around her has to catch up.
• You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
  you.

‘Territory’ Sheds Light on the Indigenous Working Class in the Outback

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    Image via Netflix</figure>