Marshals

Paint-by-numbers show, full of beautiful actors and actresses wearing black tactical gear and shooting weapons at crooks.

Luke Grimes is up to the challenge of leading a Yellowstone spin-off as Kayce Dutton, as Marshals inserts his character and all that family lore into an action-procedural, very familiar CBS-type series.

This gripping show is proof that the Yellowstone universe still has a few more surprises under its 10-gallon hat.

For existing franchise fans, the show’s indebtedness to its predecessor might be more feature than bug, since it positions Kayce’s story as the next chapter in an ongoing saga. For novices like myself, it’s alienating. If you’ve managed to avoid caring about the Duttons up to this point, Marshals offers no persuasive reason to start now.

As a companion piece to the network’s other lone-wolf crime drama, Tracker, it’s a decent fit.

Marshals is basically just “Montana 5-O."

It’s sturdy, accessible storytelling, if rarely surprising.

As unadventurous as they come, although given its predecessors’ ratings success, that may be just what its fans crave.

Mostly boilerplate CBS procedural but at least the horses look great.

It's not perfect, nor does it claim to be, but once it gets through the initial growing pains, it will be able to stand firmly on its own. The chemistry between Grimes and Marshall-Green is exactly what the bond between two ex-SEALs should be, and it's not hard to like the rest of the Marshals cast as well.

Even though "Marshals" is presenting itself as a pretty standard case-of-the-week procedural — at least in the three episodes provided to critics by CBS — it's mired in "Yellowstone" lore.