Marshals Season 2: Taylor Sheridan Overhauls Yellowstone's Blueprint | Review

TV's new number 1 show is back, as the Marshals season 2 premiere deals with the aftermath of the season 1 finale and laying its path for the future.

Published Oct 4, 2026, 9:30 PM EDT

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Luke Grimes and the rest of his new team are back in Marshals season 2 premiere, which both reveals its strengths while also emphasizing its limitations. When Yellowstone ended on Paramount Network, there was always a feeling that it was only a matter of time before the Duttons returned to the small screen. Lo and behold, Taylor Sheridan spent a while plotting their comeback, which was kicked off with Marshals on CBS. Dubbed a new era of Yellowstone storytelling, the sequel spinoff, which follows Kayce, in his new path, didn't waste time finding its audience.

Because it debuted late during the 2025-2026 TV season, Marshals season 1 only had 13 episodes. Created by Spencer Hudnut, the show's freshman ran was focused on catching viewers up on Kayce's life, including the death of Monica, which set him down a new future as a member of the Montana-based U.S. Marshals team led by Logan Marshall-Green's Cal Calvin. CBS built a new ensemble around Grimes, with Arielle Kebbel's Bell Skinner, Ash Santos's Andrea Cruz, and Tatanka Means' Miles Kittle.

Marshals season 1 was a mix of continuing some lingering plots left by Yellowstone and starting new ones that focus on the rest of the ensemble. After all, the series is about the titular team and not just Kayce, although Grimes' character remains at the center of its storytelling. The Marshals season 1 finale ended with a few major cliffhangers, including Tate's kidnapping by Chris Mulkey's Tom Weaver and Andrea's impending departure. Luckily, all of these and more are addressed in the season 2 opener.

Marshals Returns With A More Solid Identity

In the Marshals season 2 premiere, "All Hat No Cattle," the CBS procedural delves into all of its hanging plots. Tate's kidnapping sends Kayce into a rampage, which is a reminder of how lethal he can be when the people he loves are threatened. Considering how much loss he's had in his life, it makes sense that he's willing to give up pretty much everything for his son. Unfortunately, this also comes with the most frustrating part of his character — he tends to be motivated by his emotions rather than be pragmatic about it. Granted that Beth operates similiarly, but both Yellowstone and Dutton Ranch have done a great job establishing her dominance and prowess, it's very difficult to doubt her.

Luckily, this is where Marshals is able to focus on the show's other aspects. While Kayce operates on his own, in arguably the most nonstrategic way (there's no way he actually trusted that Dolly would side with him), Cal and the team are left to figure things out on their own, and they do in the nick of time. Unlike Yellowstone, Marshals is actually a police procedural set in the neo-Western world that Taylor Sheridan and John Linson created. So it's very important that the series consciously highlights this aspect, and that's what "All Hat No Cattle" does, as it features everyone doing their part in rescuing both Kayce and Tate. Noticeably, the office energy is more palpable in Marshals season 2, episode 1, as opposed to the previous year. Everyone seems to have a better hold of their characters and the project knows how to best utilize them.

Marshals season 2 feels more secure with what it wants to be — it is not desperate to cut ties with Yellowstone, but it is also no longer defined by it.

While Marshals join an already police procedural-saturated network TV landscape, "All Hat No Cattle" boasts one thing that is severely lacking in the sandbox — great visuals. Most of the time, similar shows about law enforcement agencies are filmed in studios and sets that limit their visual identity. The CBS sophomore project fully takes advantage of being shot on location, with great action sequences with mountains, sprawling land, and rivers as its backdrop. Marshals season 2 feels more secure with what it wants to be — it is not desperate to cut ties with Yellowstone, but it is also no longer defined by it.

Marshals Season 2 Highlights The Limitations Of Its Format

CBS

As Marshals season 2 opens with a Kayce-heavy narrative that is more reminiscent of a typical Dutton crisis in Yellowstone, the episode's ultimate resolution leaves a lot of untapped storytelling potential. When Tom Weaver was introduced and eventually revealed to be evil, there was an expectation that his story would last beyond the very first episode of its sophomore run. The same goes for Ellyn Jameson's Dolly, who was poised to be Kayce's new romantic interest. Considering all the build-up to their characters and their future potential as players in Marshals, it's disappointing that their story ends anticlimactically.

Wrapping up the Weavers' story the way that it does is, at least partially, tied to Marshals format as a procedural. Weekly cases dominate its storytelling, intertwined with one or two overarching plots, and at this point, the series already has a few of the latter. This means that instead of stretching out the Weavers' involvement, their arc is ended to pave the way for a brand new one. Arguably, Marshals season 2 could have spent a little bit more time with them, but with Tate's abduction presenting a sense of urgency, the project had to resolve his fate early on, and given what the rest of the team uncovered, there was no way else out for the Weavers.

Ultimately, Marshals season 2 is a great way to open CBS's fall 2026 lineup. It has a better understanding of what it wants to be, and with all of its characters firmly established, it can easily execute that.

Marshals season 2 airs every Sunday, 9 pm ET on CBS.

Pros & Cons

• Better balance of stories
• Ensemble cast is used better
• Yellowstone connections preserved