‘Marshals’ Review: Yellowstone Takes On The Procedural

It’s been over a year since the end of Yellowstone and the demise of the Yellowstone Ranch. The show, with its immense popularity, captured an entire audience (largely the dads of the world), and with its departure left a hole to be filled. Paramount+ saw this opportunity and is producing several sequel series to the show. The first of these, Marshals, is about to air, and I had the pleasure of watching the first three episodes of the series ahead of its March 1 premiere. Read our Marshals review.

Marshals follows Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) as he joins the US Marshals as a favour to one of his old SEAL Team mates (Logan Marshall-Green’s Pete Calvin) as they fight crime in the Madison River Valley, the Broken Rock reservation and the nearby Yellowstone National Park. The series sees the return of Grimes from Yellowstone as well as Brecken Merrill as son Tate Dutton, Gil Birmingham as Thomas Rainwater, and Mo Brings Plenty as a fictionalised version of himself. Also starring in the series are newcomers Arielle Kebbel, Ash Santos, and Tatanka Means.

The show starts on a strong note, showcasing an episode jam-packed with action and genuinely compelling storylines, but it definitely is not without its flaws. There are about three huge events in the first three episodes, and it’s clear from the get-go that the writers are taking big, big swings. Some of them with immediate impact, and you can realise from the scope whether they’ll work or not, whilst others rely on the release of more episodes.

It’s these big swings that make me worried for the next episodes because if the team behind Marshals are making this big of swings early on in the series, who knows how the show will progress once a clearer continuing story is solidified. There is also the question about whether these episodes will perform strongly enough to justify these big swings, with a lot of the dialogue in the first three episodes feeling not up to scratch for the franchise.

I think the more procedural/network elements of this series so far work to an extent, but definitely could get a little repetitive in the future. With shows such as The Pitt, the repetition is what the draw for the series, but Marshals and Yellowstone, by extension, focus on the drama first, with those other elements later on, and I think falling into that trap could be the series’ ultimate failing.

It is this slight repetition that also makes a lot of the series blend together, and despite the three episodes amounting to just over two hours long, only the first episode (titled “Piya Wiconi”) manages to stand by itself, making its own identity. Some episodes of Yellowstone did fall into this trap too, so I believe the team behind the series will manage to pull off, but it’s a worrying sign for a show in its starting form.

Marshals is created by Spencer Hudnut and stars Luke Grimes, Brecken Merrill, Gil Birmingham, Logan Marshall-Green, Mo Brings Plenty, Arielle Kebbel, Ash Santos, and Tatanka Means. The series premieres on CBS and Paramount+ on March 1, 2026.

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