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Siskoid
Season 1: I've always been a fan of movies based on Elmore Leonard's work (so yes, I do aim to read some of his books sooner than later), and Justified is one of the greats, up there with Out of Sight and Jackie Brown. More impressive by virtue of the writers having to continue the story beyond the pilot episode's adaptation of the original short story "Fire in the Hole" and bailing Leonard's voice for 13 straight episodes (and counting, but I only just finished Season 1). Tim Olyphant is pitch-perfect as Raylan Givens, exuding charm and yet so flawed, but what I love about Leonard's work is his criminals. They're so damn stupid, but no less dangerous. And therein lies some wonderful black comedy. The writers also manage to reproduce Leonard's witty dialog, and the story arcs flow out of the characters wonderfully. Plus, being from hick country myself, I'm loving this new trend of setting television shows and movies in regions other than New York and L.A. Between Justified's Kentucky and Republic of Doyle's Newfoundland, I've been well catered to recently. A new favorite!
Season 2: Justified Season 2 was, if anything, even better than the first, with the same commitment to character and dialog for an additional 13 episodes. New season means new villains, and the Bennett Family arc is a tighter than Season 1's Crowder story, with fewer detours (not that I minded them). The Bennetts are all incredible creations, especially Mags who is apparently based on a real life woman from Harlan County. She's the Ma Dalton of Kentucky.
Season 3: Justified Season 3 adds two new bad guys, and both are memorable - Limehouse the butcher from a black holler, and Quarles the deliciously insane carpetbagger - without losing sight of old favorites like Boyd, Dickie, Dewey and Duffy (why do I make them sound like ducks?). One character we DON'T see enough of is Raylan's ex-wife Wynona, who still gets some stand-out moments, as these two have a wonderfully mature relationship. This series really is going from strength to strength.
Season 4: I can't decide. Justified Season 4 is either the least memorable in the show's history, or does exactly what Justified should have been doing all along. I'll try to explain. Each of the previous seasons had a very clear story arc, with a seasonal villain and a fairly specific aspect of Harlan County's criminal enterprise to explore. Even so, the world built up a lot of characters and subplots over those three years, and Season 4 is about catering to those. There IS a central story arc, about a wanted man hiding under an assumed identity for 20 years, is a strange mystery that only becomes involving towards the end, but it's secondary to the various side-plots going on, including the Crowders trying to get rich so they can go legit, the troublesome case of a hooker who might know too much, a tentpole church stealing Boyd's business, Raylan's affair with a dangerous woman and dealing with his convicted father, and Boyd taking in a disgraced vet who becomes deputy Gutterson's opposite number. So as a whole, the season is all over the place, but not in terms of quality. It remains strong, and by now, these characters deserve the attention. The last few episodes bring the bigger story home anyway, and are pretty great.
Season 5: Justified Season 5 takes a while to take off, in part because it's hard to take the Crowes too seriously as a season villain at first. After all, Dewey is the series' idiot. Going forward, it's interesting how the show positions the Crowes between the two stars, Raylan on the right and Boyd on the wrong, criminals to be caught by the one, and untrustworthy pawns to be used by the other. By the last third of the season, any misgivings I had were tossed aside. The new Crowes included enough variety to be keep my interest, especially the fate of the youngest "brother" Kendal, played by Mud's fairly amazing Jacob Lofland. Though it's not explicitly said - the show is too smart for that - Raylan sees the boy as a mirror of his young self; he too came from a criminal family, though he escaped that reality. This provides some of Timothy Olyphant's best moments of the season. I was disappointed that Eva Crowder was relegated to starring in her own Orange Is the New Black, late to that particular party and feeling rather derivative because of it. Especially since the experiment seems abortive by the end.
Season 6: Justified's 6th and final season starts off a little rough, to be honest. Eva's fall from grace and Raylan's quest to finally bring down Boyd Crowder combine to turn the protagonist into a menacing presence, somehow above it all. Since he's supposed to be the one we identify with, it's more than a little off-putting. Things get better in the middle, though since this is the last season, you can expect something of a blood bath. It's not like Justified doesn't leave a trail of bodies in a normal season. And though there's meant to be a focus on Boyd as the season's big bad, the show still manages to introduce an excellent quartet of new villains, leading to some memorable scenes and resolutions. And yet, there may be happy(ish) endings for several of the characters. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Should it have been a lot more tragic? Seems to me that if you're going to play "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", then it probably should be 6 years 8 months ago -
Mackmannen
Timothy Olyphant is absolutely perfect in his role.
Entertaining, but not great. (yet, only at S,1) 12 years 2 months ago -
