SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from Season 1, Episode 1 of “Marshals,” “Piya Wiconi,” which premiered Sunday, March 1 on CBS.
“Marshals,” the first new show in the “Yellowstone“-iverse since the flagship series went off the air in 2024, has arrived. This action procedural stars Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton, who was the closest approximation to a good guy that “Yellowstone” had. The show also features a genre change, shifting from soapy family drama to police procedural. But it’s bringing some old “Yellowstone” pals along for the ride, including Kayce’s son Tate (Brecken Merrill), and Dutton family frenemies Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Mo (Mo Brings Plenty). After the debut episode, which launched on CBS primetime instead of “Yellowstone” home Paramount Network+, here are our biggest burning questions about the future of “Marshals.”
Wait…Why did they kill off Monica?
I should have been more clued in by her absence from the promotional material, but I was still floored that not only is Kayce’s wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), not on the show, but she died of cancer before it even began. Not that “Yellowstone” had any reservations about killing off essential characters with a hand wave, but Kayce’s story was so defined by his relationship to Monica that…what is he without her? Sure, maybe that’s the central point of “Marshals,” and it opens up the writers to have a more blank canvas for his inner life, but given that his life revolved around her in “Yellowstone,” and her character was often a much-needed gateway into the Native stories explored on the show, it’s a narrative shocker. We’ll eventually learn if it was a money issue or contract dispute or something else that kept Asbille away, but this is a real stumper that will haunt the first season.
Can this show develop Kayce to be a more compelling character?
Kayce was a recognizable archetype on “Yellowstone”: A stoic man of few words who always did what was morally right. That’s well and good, but “Yellowstone” fans loved Beth because she wasn’t afraid to get in a bar fight; they loved Rip because he would literally throw a snake in a guy’s face to kill him; they loved John because he would try to crush his enemies like bugs. At the end of the day, how interesting is it to watch a nice guy trying to do the right thing? Early indicators hint that the central battle will be between what is legal and what is right in Kayce’s moral code, so we’ll see how his quest for justice shakes out every week.
Will the show struggle without Taylor Sheridan writing every episode?
Every episode of “Yellowstone” was penned, or at least co-written by, series co-creator Sheridan, which created a certain tone and flow. While he’s an EP on “Marshals,” he’s not writing or directing any of the first three episodes, and the show itself was created by Spencer Hudnut, who most recently was a writer and executive producer of the long-running “SEAL Team.” That makes sense for the procedural structure of “Marshals,” but can the writing team conjure some of that soapy Western drama that makes people fall in love with Sheridan’s shows in the first place?
Can all of the cases be this exciting?
The bombing in the pilot was an intriguing mix of the Native American politics that were the most interesting parts of “Yellowstone,” and involved characters we knew, solid action, a solid sense of geography and intriguing twists. While it was a smart introduction to the world of the Marshals, will the average case-of-the-week be able to sustain this much interest?
Will we grow to love the secondary characters?
Outside of the handful of “Yellowstone” alums and Logan Marshall-Green as Kayce’s tortured Navy SEAL friend Pete, the new characters all seem a bit stock and could be substituted into any “NCIS” or “Law & Order” clone, especially in the office scenes where they were gathering evidence and kicking around theories. Hopefully, “Marshals” can break out of this rhythm and stick to engaging with the people in the community and the gorgeous landscape instead of looking at computer screens and asking techs to “enhance” what they’re seeing.
Watch the “Marshals” trailer below.