Justified took a drips and drabs approach to its serialization in its first season. In an age where every show, and especially dramas, is expected to have stories carry across episodes, this could feel frustrating. The pilot episode of Justified seemed to suggest a heavily serialized program ready to charge right out of the gate. Instead, the show took its sweet time doling out long-term storylines, parsing them out little by little in each episode. But as the isolated one-off stories and the season long arcs began to dovetail more and more and the standalones became pretty damn fun in their own right, the show proved that it had made the right decision not going gung-ho with its serialization.
Justified used the
early going of the show to establish its world, its tone, and its thematic
interests. And the show then brought them together more forcefully in its back
half of the season leading to some excellent results. Part of the frustration
over the procedural episodes was that the premise of Justified seems ripe for some exploration. U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) looks and often acts like he belongs in the Old West. He wears a Stetson
and adheres to a doggedly rigid code that doesn’t always strictly align with
the letter of the law. The first scene of the series shows Raylan confronting
a drug cartel member in a Miami country club. He’s given the guy 48 hours to get
out of town, but the man has ignored the advice. Raylan all but murders the
man, warning him he’d kill him if he didn’t exit the state. Raylan sums up the
incident as, “He drew first. I shot him. End of story”.
For his questionable behavior, his punishment is to be sent
back to his hometown in Harlan county Kentucky. He hasn’t been back home in
years and for good reason: there’s bad blood between him and many of the townsfolk.
This includes father, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry), a crafty conman that Raylan would prefer to have
nothing to do with. There’s also the shady Crowder clan, a prodigious family
with their hands in countless criminal enterprises in Lexington. One of the most
prominent of the Crowder clan is Boyd (played with awesome relish by Walton
Goggins) who, like so many characters, has a complicated past with Raylan. Boyd
pretends to be a white supremacist and later a religious zealot in order to win
over cult-like followings to perform unquestioned criminal activities for him.
Raylan also has to deal with the women in his life. He meets
Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) once again after she shoots her abusive husband Bowman Crowder. Despite
being a number years his junior, Raylan is infatuated by the down-to-earth Ava, and they start a
relationship that could (and does) screw with the case against Boyd and the Crowders.
Raylan also has to revisit his relationship with his ex-wife Winona (Natalie Zea), who has
since remarried to a much different, meeker man than her former husband. There’s
still lingering feelings between them, but there’s also bitterness.
Justified is its
writing and its acting. The show is based on crime author Elmore Leonard's short
story “Fire in the Hole”. Leonard has a very unique style of prose that’s both
utilitarian and fun, advancing the plot while revealing character details, and
doing both with flourish (For those unfamiliar, Quentin Tarantino adapted one
of his books into Jackie Brown). His
stories also give a significant level of prominence to the criminals being pursued.
This means we spend a fair amount of time with those being sought after by
Raylan and the Marshall’s office. But the criminals prove to be often as
entertaining and laconic as our protagonists.
The dialogue is one of the treasures of the series. And it’s
rather enjoyable to see it recited by the many actors and guest stars featured
in the series (The show has done a great job of hiring a number of wonderful
character actors in supporting roles).
Justified’s first
season wasn’t the show its pilot promised and in some ways that made it not
nearly as good as it could have been. But the show continually demonstrated
itself to be lots of fun. Its mix of old fashioned justice and present day
criminal dealings and police proceedings proved to be an environment with
plenty of opportunities. The show seems to be just getting started.
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