Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes, Yellowstone) is living a reclusive, quiet life on his East Camp ranch in Montana, along with his teenage son Tate (Brecken Merrill, Yellowstone). It’s been about a year since his wife Monica died of cancer, and he still hasn’t fully processed the loss. Kayce is an ex Navy SEAL, and his former leader Pete “Cal” Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green) moved to the area three months ago to start a U.S. Marshals team. He enlists Kayce’s help to locate two fugitives in the area who have been preying on rez women. Afterwards, when a protest on the reservation turns deadly, and an attempt is made on Chairman Thomas Rainwater’s (Gil Birmingham, Yellowstone) life, Kayce sees that he can make a difference working with the Marshals, and that it may be time for a new beginning. However, Cal’s boss, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Harry Gifford (Brett Cullen), who has a history with the Duttons, is suspicious of Kayce.

The rest of the Marshals team includes Isabel “Belle” Turek-Skinner (Arielle Kebbel), a former ATF member and undercover specialist, who is trying to work things out with her husband and son, but is also keeping some sort of secret; Andrea Cruz (Ash Santos), the daughter of a cop, who was kicked off her unit in D.C. before being transferred to Montana; and Miles Kittle (Tatanka Means), a former reservation police officer and former Marine, who isn’t looked at fondly by many at Broken Rock due to his ties with the federal government, but he’s also in a unique position to help those on the rez.

Some other recurring characters in the first season include Mo (Mo Brings Plenty, Yellowstone) as Rainwater’s driver and personal bodyguard; bartender Maddie (Morgan Lindholm) who has a connection to Cal; Dolly Weaver (Ellyn Jameson), the daughter of a wealthy but inexperienced ranch owner who is rescued by Kayce; and Garrett (Riley Green), Cal’s and Kayce’s former Navy SEAL teammate.

Marshals blends your typical CBS police procedural with the more prestige look, feel, and atmosphere of a streaming show like Yellowstone. Think S.E.A.L. Team, but on horses and set in Big Sky country. While most episodes have some sort of case-of-the-week bad guy to take down or search and rescue type operation, there are some two-parters and longer season-long arcs that progress over the 13 episodes. I was a bit skeptical when this spin-off was first announced. I thought that Yellowstone did a good job of wrapping up Kayce’s story, but I actually found this series to be quite entertaining. The episodes are only a network-style 42 minutes long, so it makes for a quick binge. The writers keep things interesting with a variety of cases to tackle, from having the team stopping drug deals, rescuing stranded ranchers, stopping explosive gang matters, dealing with the elements, investigating a possible trafficking ring, and more. In addition, each of the team members has some sort of secret personal struggle they are going through, and need to confide in one or more of the other team members as they work through it. The ensemble of characters/actors work well together and even though they’ve only ben together for a few months, this team already runs like a well-oiled machine.

The series does a nice job with the action-packed sequences, which keep tthe series exciting. And the the Montana setting looks beautiful, giving a fresh feel to this type of series. The writers do a nice job of weaving in the characters from Yellowstone, and keeping the folks at Broken Rock a part of the story. The only thing I didn’t care for was how they were quick to kill off Monica off-screen before the series started. While the actress did not sign on for the first season, I think they could have left their options open and kept her off-screen for the first season. That said, I think they did a decent job of integrating her death by cancer into the larger story of a poisonous mine affecting the reservation.

Overall I think this series will appeal to both Yellowstone fans (there are some callbacks and references to the series throughout the season), as well as folks who have never seen Yellowstone but enjoy the usual CBS fare.

Paramount/MTV Entertainment Studios has released this first season on Blu-ray & DVD, though the series is also available for purchase digitally in 4K via Fandango. We were sent the Blu-ray release for review, and were quite pleased by the presentation. The picture quality is excellent, with a strong level of detail throughout. Things look clean and clear and showcases the beautiful Montana setting. The audio track provides clear dialogue and makes excellent use of the stereo and surround channels to provide a fully-immersive experience. Whether it’s the ambiance of nature in external shots, the whizzing of bullets as a gunfight breaks out, or the sounds of elements coming from the sky above, everything sounds great and fills the room when necessary. It’s wonderful to see a series that is airing on CBS actually receive a Blu-ray release. Most of these shows tend to be relegated to a DVD-only release. I guess it pays to be a Yellowstone spin-off!

The season’s 13 episodes are split across 3 discs. The discs are stacked on either side of a standard HD keepcase, which is placed inside a carboard slipcover. Unfortunately, there is no bonus material included on the discs.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (9:12:10)

• All 13 episodes of the first season :
  Disc 1 (3:31:33): “Piya Wiconi”, “Zone of Death”, “Road to Nowhere”, “The Gathering Storm”, “Lost Girls”
  Disc 2 (2:50:12): “Out of the Shadows”, “Family Business”, “Blowback”, “In Low Places”
  Disc 3 (2:50:25): “Playing with Fire”, “On Thin Ice”, “The Devil at Home”, “Wolves at the Door”
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.00:1
• Audio: English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish (Spain) 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Italian 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH, Danish, German, Spanish (Spain), French, Italian, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish

Extras:

There is no bnus material included on this release.

Final Thoughts:

Marshals is an entertaining series that finds this perfect blend between CBS procedural and cable/streaming prestige drama. While it is a Yellowstone spin-off and includes characters and references to events from that series, I don’t think it’s necessary to have watched that series in order to fully enjoy this one. Whenever something comes up, there is usually some context or explanation provided for those who are new to this world. Paramount’s Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, but unfortunately does not contain any bonus material. I’m just thrilled to see a CBS series actually get an HD disc release instead of just a DVD for physical media! This series is definitely worth checking out!