Netflix's Upcoming 8-Part Crime Thriller Makes Yellowstone Look Tame

Published Aug 24, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT

Liz Hersey is an Editor and Critic for ScreenRant's TV team, editing, reviewing, writing, and creating content about the iconic shows you love to watch. She began her editing career at ScreenRant in 2019, shortly after joining the site as a Writer that same year.

With a passion for all things books, Liz frequently attends Toronto literary events and conferences, and loves interacting with her book lover community. In addition to being an avid reader of the romance and thriller genres, Liz is a writer of several short stories, and is currently at work on a young adult witch novel.

When she's not working, reading, or writing, Liz can be found seeing movies at her local cinema, attending live jazz events, or curling up on the couch to binge her favorite TV shows.

You can reach her at liz.h@screenrant.com.

As rugged as it is, at its core, Yellowstone is a soap opera, and one that's a lot tamer than Netflix's popular crime thriller with similar characters. Taylor Sheridan's flagship Western series may center on protagonist John Dutton fighting to defend his Montana cattle ranch from outsiders looking to take it, but it's the melodrama surrounding the Dutton family and their constant backstabbing that really drives the plot.

Even John Dutton actor Kevin Costner has pointed out Yellowstone's soap-operatic elements. Though Costner's early exit from Yellowstone was certainly controversial, the star has also spoken positively about the series. In a 2025 interview with ET, Costner complimented the show's portrayal of contemporary ranching, saying, "Well, it's modern-day ranching. Yellowstone was able to capture that really so beautifully. I mean, it's a bit of a soap opera. I mean, we all should be in prison."

With the volume of bodies the Duttons and their allies take to Yellowstone's train station, Costner isn't wrong about his prison comment. However, getting away with murder and other violent crimes is part of what makes the show work so well, and that's just one of many traits Yellowstone shares with Netflix's The Hunting Wives.

The Hunting Wives is based on May Cobb's novel of the same name, and it became the sleeper hit of the summer when it premiered on Netflix in July 2025. The thriller series follows Sophie (Brittany Snow), a wife and mother with a dark past, who moves from Boston to East Texas for her husband's job. Sophie is immediately befriended by an elite group of socialites, all with secrets of their own. Though Sophie doesn't share her new friends' conservative politics, she embraces their zest for life... until her connection to them sees her embroiled in a local murder.

Like the Duttons, the main characters of The Hunting Wives all have skeletons in their closet. Essentially, the latter is a show that answers the question, "What would it look like if every character went full Beth Dutton all the time?"

How The Hunting Wives Compares To Yellowstone

Both with proud gun-toting main characters who thoroughly embrace a "get the hell off my land" mentality, The Hunting Wives and Yellowstone are two of TV's most popular "red state" dramas. In fact, speaking of Beth Dutton, Margo Banks (Malin Akerman), the ringleader of the titular clique who brings Sophie into their circle, was inspired by the Yellowstone character. Akerman told Variety, "I was so enamored with Beth Dutton from ‘Yellowstone,’ and just thought, ‘Wow, what a character, and what a fierce character to play.’ And then this came along and I went, ‘Yep, this’ll work. I can do this one.’"

Margo certainly shares Beth's hard-partying, convention-flouting approach to life, but in many ways, she's the John Dutton of The Hunting Wives. She's the most powerful character with the most to lose; only instead of a massive ranch, Margo viciously protects her wild yet affluent way of life, her social status, and her secrets that would certainly put her in prison if they came out.

Akerman also described The Hunting Wives as "a bit more soapy" than Yellowstone, and that's an attribute that works in her show's favor. The Hunting Wives is such an engrossing show precisely because of its main characters, whose outrageous behavior, while accused of being gratuitous, is perfectly in keeping with who they are. Yellowstone is a soap opera that wraps itself in prestige cowboy grit, while The Hunting Wives has zero pretense and is unapologetically, full-tilt unhinged.

The Hunting Wives Season 2 Has To Be More Unhinged Than Season 1 To Work

Given its immense popularity, it's unsurprising that Netflix renewed The Hunting Wives for a second season, and last week, it was announced that The Hunting Wives season 2 will officially premiere on November 26, 2026. The sophomore installment promises to bring an "on the outs" Sophie and Margo back together through "old secrets and new foes," and it looks like there will be no shortage of the latter. Newcomers joining the cast include John Stamos, Angel Reese, Dale Dickey, Cam Gigandet, Kim Matula, and Alex FitzAlan, any of whom could cause trouble for the leading ladies (via Netflix Tudum).

The Hunting Wives Season 2 New Cast Members
Actor	Character	Description
John Stamos	Chase Brylan	An egotistical, "fast-talking country music king"
Angel Reese	Barbie	A former athlete and the "no-nonsense trainer for Baylor University’s basketball team"
Dale Dickey	Zelda Moffitt	The "rugged and mean" head of a biker gang from Margo's hometown of Alba, Texas
Cam Gigandet	Gentle John Moffitt	Zelda's hotheaded son
Kim Matula	Nadia Kelly	A determined, ambitious Hollywood producer and "this season's fish-out-of-water"
Alex FitzAlan	Lincoln Trout	Jed's "conniving Conservative wunderkind" campaign manager

It'll be difficult for season 2 to top The Hunting Wives season 1's bonkers finale, but it's a hurdle it'll have to clear, and that's a job easier said than done. When the show first premiered, audiences had no idea what to expect, but now they do, so Sophie and Margo will have to deliver the goods.

Fortunately, it appears that the show will do just that, at least according to its star. On two separate occasions, Snow has sung the praises of The Hunting Wives season 2, saying that it'll be "crazier" than its predecessor, and that she was floored by a shocking character death, which she described as "wild behavior." At this point, it looks like The Hunting Wives will have more bodies than the train station.