The New Season of Marshals Isn’t Any Good

4 min readWhen Yellowstone ended, Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) vowed to leave his family’s violent legacy behind. He sold the ranch, kept a small patch of land for himself to live on, and promised his son Tate (Brecken Merrill) that he would seek a life of peace. Good ending, no? Well, Marshals changed all that. Kayce is now a U.S. Marshal—a job that requires him to run headfirst into danger and risk his life to gun down criminals every episode. On top of all that, he’s still fighting to protect his little slice of heaven. And though he says every day that he’s trying to leave his father’s way of life behind, it seems he’s not really helping himself at all.It’s funny, because the largest criticism of Marshals’s first season was that it didn’t feel like Yellowstone enough. Most episodes of the CBS entry’s police-procedural formula just added a little bit of Kayce Dutton sprinkled on top. And when Marshals did go full Yellowstone—see the season 1 finale cliff-hanger that left every character for dead—it felt like we were betraying Kayce’s new journey by retreading plots from Yellowstone’s past. It all feels a bit like they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. But at the same time, Marshals consistently feels like a series that’s at war with itself.Gilles MingassonKayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) returns for another season of Marshals.For a bit of a refresher, the Marshals season 1 finale started with Kayce Dutton turning down a prospective buyer for his ranch. The episode later revealed that the interested party, rancher Tom Weaver, wasn’t going to take no for an answer. In the cliff-hanger, he kidnapped Kayce’s son, put a hit out on all his U.S. Marshals teammates, and left every character’s return for season 2 in question.It was a finale reminiscent of Yellowstone’s season 3 cliff-hanger, when a coordinated attack from one of the Dutton family’s enemies ended in John Dutton getting shot while Beth and Kayce were both ambushed at their respective offices. But just as we see in the Marshals season 2 premiere, the Yellowstone attack was immediately resolved and everyone came back alive—almost as if audiences were watching a delayed finale instead of the start of a new story arc.It’s the same story here. Kayce’s negotiation with the villainous Tom Weaver turns sour in the season 2 premiere. The rancher refuses to give up Tate after Kayce signs over his ranch, deciding for some reason that Kayce is better off dead so he can never seek out revenge once Tate is safe. A shoot-out erupts between his ranch and the Marshals team, and Weaver is arrested. The only character to die is Dolly Weaver (Ellyn Jameson), the villain’s daughter and a love interest for Kayce that just never seemed to hit with audiences.Gilles MingassonThis is how the Marshals team solves all of its problems.Back at the U.S. Marshals’ home base, Cal (Logan Marshal-Green) laughs off the assault by stating, “Fortunately, the Dutton way won out again.” Kayce rolls his eyes at his mention of “the Dutton way,” but I don’t see him leaving the force and really trying to change his family’s life from here on out. Instead, it feels like the roller coaster just pulled into the station before taking off for the same ride again. Tom Weaver was only a big threat for about two episodes—and he’s not coming back anytime soon.“We certainly will feel Tom Weaver’s impact later this season in some storylines,” Marshals showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TV Insider after the season 2 premiere. “Chris Mulkey is so great, and I love having him around. So probably not in season 2, but down the road I think he would be an interesting character for Kayce to have to cross again.”So Weaver isn’t showing up in season 2 again. His defeat is just that. Plus, they have no plans for his character moving forward. Rough.When I think of some of the best cliff-hangers in TV history, they didn’t resolve this quickly. The reveal at the end of Severance’s first season set up a meeting between two characters that didn’t pay off until the season 2 finale. The Lost cliff-hangers inspired entire new mysteries about the island. And when Dallas ended a season with the famous “Who Shot J.R.?” finale, it at least waited a couple episodes for suspense before eventually revealing the shooter.So what do audiences have to look forward to on Marshals now? Well, according to CBS, episode 2 follows “a former cop [who] launches a killing spree.” Then, the week after, “the Marshals are sent to track three Broken Rock residents accused of shooting down a military test drone.” I can’t say I’m on the edge of my seat.