Yellowstone Meets Tracker In This 6-Part Western Crime Drama

Published Aug 22, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers. Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism. A six-season Western crime thriller on Paramount+ has a protagonist that's basically a mix of Tracker's Colter Shaw and Yellowstone's John Dutton. Tracker, a great mystery thriller and police procedural, and Yellowstone, one of the best Western shows of the last decade, are some of the best shows in recent memory. About all they share, however, is their quality; Yellowstone is a soapy Western family drama, while Tracker is more of a hard-nosed detective thriller. Normally, Tracker and Yellowstone wouldn't mix well. There are some great episodes of Tracker that feel like a Western, and Yellowstone has its fair share of mysteries and criminal investigations, but the shows are just too different. There is one show, however, that predates both of them and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that mixing the gritty investigations of Tracker with the sweeping Western setting of Yellowstone is a winning strategy. That show is Longmire, and all six of Longmire's seasons are streaming on Paramount+. Longmire follows Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor), a small-town sheriff who uses common sense and his knowledge of the outdoors to solve murders, just like Colter Shaw in Tracker. Walt is the sheriff of Abseroka County, Wyoming, and as he fights efforts to modernize the county, his similarities to John Dutton in Yellowstone also become very easy to see. Longmire Is A Great Police Procedural Like Tracker Longmire, in many ways, was a predecessor to Tracker that laid the groundwork for the newer show to be built upon. At their core, Longmire and Tracker are essentially the same show. Both are "murder of the week" police procedurals. Both follow gruff and outdoorsy main characters who mainly use their common sense, wits, and expertise in unconventional areas to solve crimes. Shaw uses his tracking skills, while Walt forgoes the fancy equipment and workforce of city police departments in favor of his knowledge of the country and his relationship with the nearby Cheyenne reservation. Of course, Tracker and Longmire have their differences. Shaw's job takes him all across the country in Tracker, while Walt is solely focused on Abseroka County, Wyoming. Shaw also works for reward money, while Walt is much prouder and has more of a stake on the wellbeing of the community he's helping. Still, they are quite similar: both are stubborn, intelligent men who push others away, and they both have dark pasts that serve as a throughline for their shows. Most of Shaw's tragic backstory in Tracker revolves around his brother, Russell, and his deceased family. Similarly, in Longmire, Walt is actively trying to solve the murder of his late wife while butting heads with local interests and businesses. In short, if you like the blend of weekly mysteries and overarching character study that Tracker provides, you're going to love Longmire. Walt Longmire Is Also Very Much Like Yellowstone’s John Dutton Longmire may be very similar to Tracker in terms of genre, but it shares even more similarities to Yellowstone in their respective protagonists. Walt Longmire is essentially John Dutton III if he was a sheriff instead of a rancher. Both men are very traditional, very stubborn, and very obsessed with their work. John would rather die than let the Yellowstone be sold, and Walt would rather die than give up control of Abseroka's sheriff department. John and Walt also deal with many of the same problems. They both primarily fight against the creeping spread of modernization; John has to deal with airports, housing developers, and other businesses that want his ranch, while Walt has to deal with the looming threat of a casino on the Cheyenne reservation. They even both have complicated relationships with their respective Native American communities, which becomes an even bigger focus as each show goes on. Where Walt and John are the most similar, however, is in their dedication to family. As previously mentioned, much of Walt's development in Longmire is dedicated to him working through the grief of his wife's death while trying to be there for his adult daughter, Cady. John is the same; he never truly got over his wife's death, and it impacts the relationship he has with his adult children negatively. If you liked Yellowstone because it showed a man clinging to his family and the older, better ways of doing things, look no further than Longmire. Release Date 2012 - 2017-00-00 Network A&E, Netflix Directors J. Michael Muro, Christopher Chulack, Daniel Sackheim, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Michael Offer, Peter Weller, Alex Graves, David Boyd, James Hayman, Kari Skogland, Lodge Kerrigan Cast Robert Taylor Walt Longmire Katee Sackhoff Victoria 'Vic' Moretti Writers John Coveny, Hunt Baldwin, Tony Tost, Sarah Nicole Jones Creator(s) Hunt Baldwin, John Coveny