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Wanted to have a little chat about Justified, but was dismayed at the thin pickings up on YouTube to help clarify why I think you should be watching it too. In the end I shoved up a dirty grab of what for me was the turning point for the series. Watch it before it gets taken down, but be warned that it is slightly spoilerish for the episode in question (season one, episode four) if not the wider series:
Gun play and great dialogue. I love that Raylan only turns his attention to the healthy and armed goon once the pro has dropped his weapon. That’s a gallon of character insight right there.
There’s a nod to Tarantino at the beginning, but Justified isn’t as showy. They’ve taken the Elmore Leonard groove we’ve been treated to in the likes of Out of Sight and just run with it. What this means and is the thing I only grasped by the 4th episode is that there’s a lot of time spent on the supporting cast. An unusual amount of time to the extent that even the players who will be on screen for a relatively short period of time feel real and individual. That’s a hard trick to pull off on TV these days.
I think that dying hitman will stay with me a lot longer than the lead characters in shows that are well into their gazillionth seasons.
Initially, despite the pilot being very strong, I think I was slow to embrace Justified simply because I was still pining for Deadwood. Olyphant here is far removed from Bullock, but it’s hard not to want that show back. As a treat there are a few Deadwood alumni scattered across the episodes, but again it’s a very different show.
The original title was ‘Gunman’ and I think ‘Justified’ fits better in what is really a show about a gunslinger.
How he deals with life in the 21st century is the key to the character and this show is a Western through and through. Albeit one layered with the character quirks and hard decisions that have kept great drama like Breaking Bad on the air at the same time that an equally good show like Terriers was tossed away.
If you put a gun to my head I’ll say Terriers was the better show. Both it and Justified dealt some real curveballs to its leads, but the position that Hank arrives at with his ex is far more interesting than the one Raylan is still exploring early in the second season. But Terriers is dead and we can’t change that. And to be fair the father son relationship ended in a very different place than I expected in Harlan. Plus those final moments* of season one Justified are pretty fucking epic.
Now the show is back and has already thrown a stunningly good young actress into the works and a few new faces that I’m itching to see draw down on Raylan so it promises to be another great season. And I’d like to see Justified run and run. The gun play I count as a bonus, but the real delight here is the dialogue. Beautifully written for the entire cast.
At one point I had Olyphant down as my new Michael Biehn , but he’s found a path all of his own and he’s certainly a bonafide TV star now. But make sure you grab those Deadwood Blurays and watch A Perfect Getaway at least twice to see him at his pre-Raylan best.
Fucker is really hard to kill…
Possibly my favourite show on TV right now (since Terriers is gone), though Boardwalk Empire pushes it close. Currently airing, I mean. There’s a certain meth producer that demands my love.
I love that the guests of the week seem to share almost equal time with Raylan. I recall reading that that’s how Elmore does it in the books too? Though I’ve (disgracefully) never read them. Is that true? It makes for a fascinating TV experience though.
I think there are very many who still wish for Deadwood to rise from the grave.
Olyphant in Justified certainly helps, but I wish he’d atleast kept the mustache. He constantly looked absolutely furious with it.
On another note, have you had a look at Outcasts yet? Any thoughts on that?
JT – I’d recommend everyone read some Elmore. I think I’ve adopted a sliding scale to TV dependent on how much money is being thrown at it. Boardwalk Empire had *better* be good. I think some of the other shows on TV last year were much smarter though.
Sveinung – I gave up on Outcasts very early on. I judge homegrown TV very harshly and that nonsense made me wanna self harm. Once the mess is finished I may go back and scrape through the guts to see if there was anything there.
Justified is probably my favourite piece of TV on the air now that Terriers has gone to the great dog pound in the sky.
I dust off the pilot script every now and then and give it a read. Excellent dialogue, excellent characters.
I think ‘Blowback’ was the episode where it all started to click for me (this was the episode with W Earl Brown from Deadwood) and since then it’s gone from strength to strength.
Also, Boyd Crowder is one of the most compelling characters on TV right now (Walton Goggins is the man!).
Sizemore –
Unfortunately, I tend to agree.
A shame though. I thought the first episode was interesting. It was nice to see Bamber play a character like that, and it’s always great to watch Cunningham speak whilst gritting his teeth.
Including the “AC’s” to the show was a mistake, I think.