It doesn't take long for Marshals to make it clear that it isn't trying to be Yellowstone. The Shakespearean family melodrama has been traded in for a rather pedestrian attempt to put modern police procedurals on horseback: built around one of the franchise's easiest-to-like characters, Kayce Dutton.

Dutton, the former ranch hand, Navy SEAL, and reluctant Yellowstone heir, played by Luke Grimes, now works as a U.S. Marshal, bringing his own mix of cowboy grit and military precision to the venerable office, ready to lay down some frontier justice.

In this inaugural episode, Kayce, now living on 5,000 acres of what used to be part of the Yellowstone Ranch, is struggling to grapple with his personal demons as he attempts to settle into single fatherhood. That's right, the one universally despised character from the original series, Kayce's obnoxious wife Monica, succumbed to cancer between series. While her ghost haunts this episode (and likely the rest of the season) as a reminder of the White man's greed, at least it is only her memory that remains.

The performances are a slightly mixed bag. Grimes, who's played Kayce since 2018, has no problem slipping back into the role, giving the audience the same quiet, conflicted cowboy that they've come to love. However, the rest of the cast occasionally struggles with some incredibly unnatural expository dialogue meant to either catch the audience up on what's been happening between series or clunkily tell, rather than show, us what they are all about.

There's also a fair bit of first-episodeitis, with much of the main cast seemingly unsure of their characters and, as a result, delivering performances that are moderately affected rather than wholly natural.

As police procedurals go, Marshals is fairly rote. The setting might not be that of fast-paced city life, but the dance steps are all the same, perhaps with a slightly grittier edge.

Still, there’s enough of Kayce Dutton’s quiet intensity—and enough of Montana’s wide-open backdrop—to give the formula a bit of breathing room. If the writers can ease off the clunky exposition and let the characters settle into their roles, Marshals could yet carve out a respectable niche for itself. But based on this premiere, it’s less a bold reinvention of the Yellowstone universe than the familiar same-old same old wearing a cowboy hat.