Taylor Sheridan has become the one screenwriter who can make you binge a show about prison politics in rural Michigan and leave you wanting more. Paramount+ practically runs on his name at this point. That’s not because the network got lucky with one hit. It’s because the man keeps feeding our obsession with institutions that chew people up and the ones desperate enough to fight back. And somehow, the man finds a new angle every single time.
Sheridan’s work involves cartels, ranch land, mob capos, wildfire smokejumpers, and CIA case officers. No matter what setting he’s focused on, he hits the same nerve. Right now, his TV empire gets most of the attention, but I’ve always thought his thriller movies deserve just as much credit. Sheridan’s American Frontier trilogy Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River showed what he could do long before Yellowstone turned him into a household name. Think of this list as a map of where to start if you’ve only got a weekend and want the strongest examples of Sheridan’s work in the thriller genre.
Why You Should Trust Me: I’ve spent nearly four years covering movies and TV shows at MovieWeb, and Sheridan’s work has been a regular part of my coverage. I’ve followed Yellowstone and its sprawling universe, covered Lioness through its current third season, and written about Sheridan’s crime and action thrillers across both mediums. I’ve also included his earlier hits, like Sicario and Hell or High Water, because I think understanding them makes it easier to see why his TV career is so successful.
‘Tulsa King’ (2022 – Present)
The Sheridan Show I Watch When I Want to Have Fun
Watch This If: I love that Tulsa King exists because Sheridan finally realized it’s possible to stop being miserable for five minutes. Sylvester Stallone plays Dwight Manfredi, a New York mobster who is sent to Tulsa after spending 25 years in prison. The whole thing works because Stallone knows exactly how ridiculous and entertaining Dwight can be. He has the confidence of a mob boss, absolutely no patience left, and the energy of someone who has decided he’s going to build an empire whether Tulsa likes it or not. In terms of writing and dramatic storytelling, I wouldn’t say Tulsa King is as good as Sicario. That’s okay, though, because this is Sheridan in his peak crowd-pleasing mode, and I have a soft spot for that ambition.
Skip This If: You want the bleak, morally complicated stuff Taylor Sheridan is so good at. Tulsa King rarely makes you feel uncomfortable. While it has violence and crime, it also has a sense of humor.
‘Mayor of Kingstown’ (2021 – Present)
Jeremy Renner’s Most Underrated Sheridan Performance
Watch This If: Mayor of Kingstown might be the only Sheridan series I’ve had to defend. Let me tell you why. Jeremy Renner’s Mike McLusky operates in the complicated space between prisoners, guards, police officers, criminals, and the people who run the town. It’s a nasty world, and the series never pretends Mike can fix it. He mostly tries to stop things from getting worse, which makes this character feel very different from the usual unstoppable Sheridan protagonist. Yes, it’s an ambitious show. Mayor of Kingstown swings as hard at systemic injustice as anything Sheridan’s made. However, the pacing is the reason why I couldn’t rank it any higher. The series is so slow that there are stretches that are grim enough to test your patience, and that’s a tough sell for a single weekend when you can watch a two-hour movie with the same themes.
Skip This If: You want straightforward action scenes and jaw-dropping twists in every episode. This one spends a lot of time on prison politics and the consequences of violence, so when the action arrives, it carries weight because the show has made you sit with everything leading up to it.
‘Those Who Wish Me Dead’ (2021)
Angelina Jolie Starred in a Sheridan Survival Thriller
Watch This If: Those Who Wish Me Dead is an uncomplicated Taylor Sheridan thriller. Jolie plays a smokejumper hiding out after a mission went wrong. When a kid trying to escape hitmen stumbles into her Montana wilderness, the movie becomes a full-on survival chase against both killers and an actual raging forest fire. The way I see it, it’s more of a commercial project aimed at popcorn entertainment than the political or economic themes running through the rest of his work. As a result, it’s an easier watch. Jolie’s physically committed performance alone makes the 100-minute runtime worthwhile.
Skip This If: You want Sheridan’s most complicated characters or sharpest dialogue. Those Who Wish Me Dead works best when the fire is spreading, and everyone has to move.
‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ (2018)
The Sequel Nobody Asked For, Made Watchable by Sheer Craft
Watch This If: Losing Denis Villeneuve’s direction and Emily Blunt’s moral center could have sunk this follow-up entirely, and to Sheridan’s credit as the screenwriter, it doesn’t. Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin push deeper into the cartel war’s human trafficking side. Most importantly, the movie’s willingness to strip away its predecessor’s audience surrogate forces you to sit directly with two men who have stopped pretending the ends justify the means. Since the original Sicario is a hard act to follow, I appreciate that Sicario: Day of the Soldado doesn’t even try to copy it. The movie is colder and smaller than the original, but still worth your weekend.
Skip This If: Emily Blunt’s character was the reason you loved the first movie. Her absence changes the whole texture of the sequel. It has plenty of great action and performances, but I think it works better when you judge it on its own terms.
‘Lioness’ (2023 – Present)
Sheridan’s Most Addictive Modern Thriller
Watch This If: Lioness is where Sheridan’s obsession with military operations, government power, and damaged people comes together in the most bingeable package. Zoe Saldaña’s Joe McNamara runs a CIA unit that trains women for undercover counterterrorism work. The show’s real hook has always been how it forces her to lie to her own family with the same precision she uses toward foreign operatives. Lioness Season 3 returned this summer after a two-year gap. It premiered on Paramount+ on August 2, and it immediately shot to the No. 1 spot on the platform’s global charts. Nicole Kidman, Michael Kelly, Morgan Freeman, and a rotating group of operators all deliver strong performances. I particularly love that it maintains its quality throughout all three seasons.
Skip This If: You want a Sheridan series without the military jargon. Lioness can get very specific about intelligence operations, and the show expects you to keep up. Personally, I think that detail makes the action more exciting.
‘Wind River’ (2017)
Sheridan at His Most Haunting
Watch This If: In Wind River, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife tracker is pulled into investigating a young woman’s death on a Wyoming reservation. Sheridan uses Jeremy Renner’s performance in that role to indicate how little institutional attention Indigenous women’s deaths receive in real life. The movie ends with a title card stating that missing persons statistics exist for nearly every demographic except Native American women. Overall, it’s a mystery first, and the politics arrive through the grief of the people in the story. Also, Wind River is the clearest evidence that Sheridan’s instincts as a director match his instincts as a writer.
Skip This If: You’re looking for a fun thriller to watch this weekend. Wind River explores some extremely dark subject matter, like violence against women. Sheridan never softens any of it, and it’s not an easy watch. I would pick this one when I want something that stays with me after the credits.
‘Hell or High Water’ (2016)
The Best Screenplay Sheridan Has Ever Written
Watch This If: Hell or High Water is where I think Sheridan’s voice really clicked. Chris Pine and Ben Foster play brothers who become bank robbers to save their family ranch, and Jeff Bridges plays the Texas Ranger trying to catch them. On paper, it’s a familiar crime story. In Sheridan’s hands, it becomes much more interesting, tackling themes of poetry, desperation, and family. The dialogue is fantastic, the performances are even better, and the movie understands that you don’t need to make every character good or bad. You know the brothers are breaking the law, but you also understand why. It’s beautiful to look at, too.
Skip This If: You want constant action. Hell or High Water has some terrific bursts of violence, but it’s really a character-driven crime drama with a Western soul. Give it time and watch it mesmerize you.
‘Sicario’ (2015)
The 10/10 Taylor Sheridan Masterpiece
Watch This If: Sicario remains Taylor Sheridan’s defining thriller for me because it combines everything he does well without letting one element overpower the others. Emily Blunt gives the story its moral center as FBI agent Kate Macer, while Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin bring two completely different kinds of menace to a world where the rules seem to change depending on who has the power. Sheridan frames the movie so that Blunt, and by extension the audience, keeps discovering how little control she actually has. However, the writing only gets you so far. Denis Villeneuve’s direction and Roger Deakins’ cinematography make this almost otherworldly. That being said, I can rewatch Sicario anytime and still find myself holding my breath during the same sequences.
Skip This If: For some reason, nothing else on this list appealed to you. Sicario is the entry point, and if it doesn’t grab you, the rest of Sheridan’s catalog probably won’t either.
