CBS’s new neo-Western series has already drawn comparisons to both Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone and Timothy Olyphant’s Justified, but it’s so much more than just a combination of those great shows. Yellowstone and Justified are two of the best Western shows of the 21st century, and two of the best neo-Westerns ever made. Both shows have everything there is to love about Westerns, from the sweeping landscapes to the salt-of-the-earth characters, and both masterfully bring those elements into a modern setting.
Combining the best elements of Yellowstone, it’s colorful characters and emotional family-oriented drama, with the best parts of Justified, its smart mysteries and expert action, is a recipe for success. Other shows have already proven that, like Longmire, but a new Yellowstone spinoff show has also shown that the earlier series can be combined to great effect. Marshals is basically a mix of Yellowstone and Justified, and it’s a great mix at that.
Marshals follows Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) after the ending of Yellowstone as he works as a U.S. Marshal hunting down criminals in Montana. Based on that description alone, it’s obvious to see how Marshals is similar to both Yellowstone and Justified. However, Marshals goes much deeper than a simple synopsis can describe, and even as it imitates great neo-Western shows, it carves its own path too.
Marshals Puts Familiar Yellowstone Characters Into An All-New Kind Of Story
Marshals is, of course, a Yellowstone spinoff and sequel series, but it is also more than that. While the show does follow familiar characters like Kayce and Tate Dutton, Chief Rainwater, and Mo, it puts them in a situation Yellowstone never could. Thanks to the off-screen death of Monica (Kelsey Asbille), Marshals is a much more somber and introspective show about grief and life moving on after tragedy than Yellowstone ever was.
Yellowstone certainly dabbled in tragedy and grief, but it was never the focus of the show. Marshals also has more than its fair share of action and fast-paced plots to liven it up, but the show is, at its core, about Kayce learning how to live after the love of his life has died. With the Duttons scattered to the wind and a new, dangerous profession to focus on, Marshals is something of a character study while Yellowstone was more of a sweeping epic.
More broadly, Marshals also feels like a very different show from Yellowstone because of its structure. Marshals is much more episodic, with each new episode tackling a new case for Kayce and his team of U.S. Marshals to solve. There is an excellent overarching narrative, but it takes much more of a backseat to the weekly stories than Yellowstone‘s large story, which played out in increments with each episode. In short, Marshals is instantly recognizable for Yellowstone fans, but it also blazes its own new trail.
Marshals Uses Justified’s Formula, But It Makes That Structure Its Own
The structure and formula of Marshals is new for the Yellowstone franchise, but it’s very familiar to Justified. On the surface, Marshals and Justified are essentially the same show: neo-Westerns following morally ambiguous U.S. Marshals as they hunt down criminals and eventually get embroiled in larger, season-long conspiracies. They’re both great Western police procedurals, but Marshals isn’t a carbon copy of Justified.
The most obvious difference between the shows is in Kayce and Raylan Givens’ respective associates. Raylan had Boyd Crowder, a former friend turned career criminal who gave Justified a great cat-and-mouse quality. Kayce has Pete Calvin, his former brother-in-arms and one of the very best characters in Marshals. Calvin and Boyd offer very different ways to explore Kayce and Raylan’s characters, and they add their own unique flavor to their shows.
Marshals also differs from Justified in its overarching narrative. Justified largely dealt with single-season villains that Raylan would eventually best by the finale. As the ending of Marshals season 1 proved, however, Kayce will still be dealing with Tom Weaver in the future, as he’s actively threatening both Tate and the other marshals. Over time, Marshals should be able to distinguish itself from Justified even more.
- Release Date
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2026 – 2026-00-00
- Showrunner
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Spencer Hudnut
