Warning: Spoilers ahead! Do not proceed unless you’ve watched the first episode of “The Madison” on Paramount+.
“Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan’s new family drama “The Madison” starring Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer immediately pulls the rug out from under the audience.
Russell was on all the posters, and before the show premiered, it seemed like he was the main star. But – spoiler alert – the A-lister gets killed off. His character, Preston, dies in the pilot.
During a Paramount screening that Page Six attended, Russell, 74, said that when he read the scripts, “I had a hard time getting through them, because it was incredibly emotional.”
The story follows the wealthy Clyburn family, including Stacy (Pfeiffer), her husband Preston (Russell) and their two adult daughters: Abigail (Beau Garrett), a divorced mom of two kids (played by Amiah Miller and Alaina Pollack), and Paige (Elle Chapman), who is married to Russell (Patrick J. Adams).
Preston also has a brother, Paul (“Lost” star Matthew Fox).
Stacy and her daughters live in Manhattan. Preston does too, but his brother Paul lives in Montana.
A rugged outdoorsman and avid fly-fisher, Preston feels more at home when he’s visiting Paul. He’s got a cabin in Montana near Paul’s home, overlooking a beautiful stretch of river. For years, Preston had begged his wife and kids to come visit his Montana property, but they never did (in part because he had no indoor plumbing, and an outhouse).
In the series premiere, Preston is in Montana with Paul, who is also a pilot. The duo decide to fly a small plane to a distant stretch of river, to go fly fishing. When they fly back, they hit inclement weather, and Paul loses control of the plane.
Tragically, the brothers crash and both die.
“Yeah, I don’t know. I seem to be subconsciously drawn to [plane crashes]. Maybe it’s because I’m a pilot in my life, and I’m kind of getting that out of the way fictionally,” Fox told The Post, referring to how his iconic role in ABC’s hit sci-fi phenomenon “Lost” also featured a plane crash.
Both Russell and Fox appear throughout “The Madison” in flashbacks.
In the rest of the show, Stacy and her daughters travel to Preston’s Montana cabin to retrieve his body, decide where to bury him, grieve him, and decide what to do with his land. Stacy also acclimates to life in Montana.
“The Madison” is now streaming on Paramount+. The show has already been renewed for a Season 2.
