Territory is Australia’s answer to Yellowstone according to many viewers of the new hit series on Netflix. Having released on Friday, the series took less than a day to secure a place at the top of the Netflix global chart, and it seems like it is drawing plenty of praise from both audiences and critics.

The short-seasoned neo-western features a familiar sounding power struggle among a family dynasty all looking to take control of a valuable business. The show is centered on events set around the Marianne Station, the largest cattle station in the world, when it becomes a battleground after the death of its owner, who leaves no clear successor. For fans of shows like Yellowstone and Succession, the story is a familiar war that threatens to tear apart the Lawson family, as everyone wants to gain a piece of the multi-billion dollar industry.

Just like Yellowstone utilizes the wide open spaces of America, Territory immerses audiences in the remote Northern Territory of Australia – a world away from the surfers’ paradise of Bondi Beach or the bustle of Sydney. This setting perfectly sets the scene for a deadly clash of family, desert gangsters, greedy businessmen, and Indigenous peoples that is sure to end badly for many of them.

Territory Could Become a Yellowstone Stop-Gap

Many fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Yellowstone Season 5b on Paramount+, and while the conclusion of the fifth season of Taylor Sheridan’s popular drama series is on the horizon, Territory seems like it can reap the rewards in the meantime. There are certainly plenty of similarities that the show does not shy away from, as even the poster gives off some strong Dutton family vibes that will surely appeal to the same kind of audience.

Obviously, Territory is its own show, created by Timothy Lee and Ben Davies, and produced by Rob Gibson, Ian Collie, and Paul Ranford. According to Netflix, Davies came up with the idea for the show during the Covid pandemic, while taking a beach walk with Gibson.

“[We] “got excited about the prospect of doing a big-scale, high-stakes action drama set on a cattle station; in a part of the country you don’t often see on-screen. It was a complete contrast as we were surrounded by the Bondi crowd, people moving past us in their active wear, wet suits, carrying their surfboards while Rob and I were dreaming up stories about people in jeans, boots, and flannel shirts in the Top End.”

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Territory has certainly opened with a stronger Rotten Tomatoes score than its American counterpart with a 71% Tomatometer score– let’s all remember that Yellowstone’s initial season drew a very mixed 57% approval score from critics. One of the strongest attributes of the series is the way it puts Australia in the mix as a character in itself, something again that the Yellowstone franchise has done with its American location shooting. As The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg notes, “Territory does better than Yellowstone in its attempts at weaving the Native perspective into the storytelling. Whatever you’re looking for, this series has a lot of it.”

Release Date October 24, 2024 Creator(s) Ben Davies , Timothy Lee Cast Anna Torv , Michael Dorman , Robert Taylor , Sam Corlett Character(s) Emily Lawson , Graham Lawson , Colin Lawson , Marshall Lawson Expand