‘Tracker’ Season 4 Gives Its Winning Formula a Game-Changing Shake-Up | Review

Published Oct 4, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.

After three seasons of reward-seeking all across the country, Justin Hartley's Colter Shaw has returned once again to prove that nobody can do the job quite like him. Tracker has been going strong on CBS for a few years now, and the network procedural has certainly found a consistent audience that likes to keep up with whatever new adventure its hero embarks on. Season 4 is no different. Once more, our favorite "rewardist" heads back out into the wild to find those who have suddenly gone missing and bring them home as best he can. At this point, we all know the formula pretty well. Yet Season 4 finds new, creative ways to introduce unforeseen thrills and keep the weekly magic alive, even if it makes Colter's job a little harder.

'Tracker' Is Still Going Strong After Four Seasons on CBS

Image via Tyler Golden/CBS

While Tracker does, on occasion, dabble in multi-episode or serialized plotlines, that has never been the show's biggest strength. Last season concluded with Colter uncovering the truth behind his father's death and his involvement with the mysterious Chrono Stasis Institute. His brother, Russell Shaw (special guest star Jensen Ackles), made a deal with some shady government authorities to work on their behalf if it meant keeping his brother out of the fray, and thus this is the first season in a few years where the Shaw brothers don't partner up in the first two episodes. But Tracker has never needed to rely on recurring guests or even an overarching mythology to make itself interesting. Colter Shaw's unmatched CBS charisma has always been able to handle that itself.

Having seen the first two installments of the fourth season — titled "Safe Harbor" and "Switchback," respectively — Tracker continues to lean into the very trends that made it TV's #1 show in the first place. Marshals may have dethroned it last season, but that's only because the Yellowstone spin-off brought in a pre-existing audience. Tracker, on the other hand, has been a hit with viewers since it first premiered, and no amount of cast shake-ups or narrative pivots has thus far been able to change that. If it wasn't obvious before, the new season reminds us that Colter's weekly caseload is why folks continue to return to this network television procedural. While we live in an age of prestige television and streaming hits that tackle the same sort of concept (Reacher, anyone?), few shows are able to explore the narrative diversity — and thus a fun collection of weekly guest stars — that a missing person's series like this can undertake.

The biggest elephant in the room regarding Season 4 is that Tracker almost looks like a different show visually. Yes, the CBS drama continues to utilize the same sort of camera angles and visual tropes as before, but the vibrancy of the Golden State offers a nice change of pace from the typical grey-skied aesthetic of the rainy British Columbia coast. It's clear that the production move from Vancouver to Los Angeles was in the show's best interest, though we will have to see if the continual sunshine grows tiresome as the season progresses. It comes as no surprise that Colter spends the first two episodes tackling different cases along the California coast, and he'll likely be spending even more time in this part of the country going forward.

Justin Hartley Has Even More To Do in 'Tracker' Season 4

Of course, Tracker doesn't work without its leading man, and Hartley is back in action this season as Colter Shaw. While previous seasons have forced Colter to rely more on his team to get the job done — from lawyer Reenie Greene (Fiona Rene) to tech wizard Randy Davis (Chris Lee), who finally gets a surname this season — Season 4 offers Hartley more opportunities to show off what Colter can do. From additional stunt work to utilizing Colter's own dizzying intellect, Tracker wants us to remember that this lone wolf survivalist can actually make it on his own. Especially in episodes where cell service isn't an option, Colter's investigative prowess comes in full force in Season 4, giving Hartley more to do and us more opportunities to watch him do it.

Beyond the physical, of course, we find that Colter is a bit more aimless this year. After wrapping up the three-season mystery surrounding his father and now with the disappearance of his brother (don't worry, Ackles is confirmed to be returning later this season), Colter is forced to find other ways to occupy his time when not on a job. As showrunner Elwood Reid has teased in the months leading up to the premiere, the fourth season intends to explore the more intimate details of Colter's life. We get a little glimpse of what that might look like in the premiere, but this is a format change that will likely take several episodes across the season to fully embrace. That said, there may be other multipart mysteries at play in the show's future, especially if Tracker decides to start highlighting some of Colter's failures alongside his successes, not unlike the Gina Picket (Lina Lecompte) case back in Season 2.

When Tracker sticks with Colter, it's hard not to be invested. His efficient method of search-and-rescue always finds ways to pull us in, especially when the mystery goes in a different direction than expected. We see that a few times in the first two episodes of Season 4, which only reminds us that Hartley is more than capable of carrying this procedural on his own independent shoulders. Of course, for every moment Tracker engages us with a pulse-pounding, race-against-the-clock missing person's case, the show also attempts to juggle its other cast members with less finesse and intentionality than it does its leading man. And, frankly, it's a shame.

'Tracker' Season 4 Has Some Minor Pitfalls, but It Remains One of TV's Best

Image via CBS

There's no doubt that the reason folks tune into Tracker is to watch the titular tracker do his thing. That's the premise of the program, and what has sold so many on the show in the first place. However, because Tracker has a supporting cast — indeed, Cassady McClincy Zhang's Mel Day has even been upgraded to a series regular this year — the CBS drama often fills in episodic gaps with quick scenes hinting at Reenie's Denver-based legal profession and personal life, with Randy and Mel also factoring in. To put it gently, these scenes almost always feel out of place, breaking up the narrative flow of what we've all come to Tracker for. When Reenie and Randy are included in Colter's weekly adventures, they're some of the best parts of the show. But when left to their own drawn-out plotlines, the material isn't nearly as engaging by comparison.

This was also an issue in the second half of Season 3, when Maxine (Kathleen Robertson) — who returns this season — was introduced, pulling Reenie into a long and convoluted legal investigation that concluded with Colter's involvement. Tracker is always at its best when our attention is fixed on Colter exclusively, not unlike how Colter himself is single-minded about whatever new case he's working. When Randy and Reenie can enter that space, things work great. Indeed, there have been plenty of episodes where Randy has hired Colter for a job, or Reenie has had to come on-site to assist Colter. That can't happen every episode, but if the series could find a way to either better include Colter in his castmates' world or scale back on the lawyer plots, it would do wonders for the show. When the audience is forced in multiple unrelated directions, we wonder why a show called Tracker is spending so much time in the legal sphere at all. Fortunately, it seems that Tracker is at least trying to set something up that will include Colter long-term. We only hope that it does so sooner rather than later.

For those hoping that Tracker will continue the way it always has been, Season 4 will be a delight. Colter Shaw has proven himself an inspired television protagonist who can make even the strangest of cases feel plausible. Although the fourth season is just beginning, viewers can be confident that Tracker is as good as ever. Yeah, it's a CBS procedural, so there's obviously a familiar formula at play, but that has never stopped us from tuning in before. This thrilling series still has plenty of life left in it, and we can only hope that Colter Shaw will continue to ramble on as long as he — and Hartley — is able.

Tracker Season 4 airs Sundays on CBS and is available for streaming the next day on Paramount+.

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  Justin Hartley

  Colter Shaw

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  Abby McEnany

  Velma Bruin

Pros & Cons

• Justin Hartley is given more physical material to work with this season, which is exciting. It's nice to see Colter have to operate a bit more independently.
• We get more glimpses of Colter's personal life outside of reward seeking, which is a much-needed change of pace.
• The behind-the-scenes production move to California has done wonders for the show, refreshing the look and feel four seasons in.

• Reenie is best when working closely with Colter. It's called "Tracker" not "Lawyer," and there's a lot at the law firm that takes the viewer away from the main focus.
• Without a long-running Shaw family mystery, "Tracker" relies more on the Reenie/Mel plot to fill in the gaps. They may work over time, but right now it's a bit distracting.