First
off, we have to posit that Justified
is one of the best series ever . Period, full stop. I won’t hear any argument. I’m a big fan of Bosch , Happy Valley
is amazing, I love Unforgotten and Shetland , but Justified is king.
Here’s
what you do. Go on YouTube, search for
“Raylan Givens vs. Fletcher ‘The Ice Pick’ Nix,” and treat yourself to what
comes. Just the one scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTwrFfiEx18
There
are, of course, other scenes as fully flavorable, but this has the essentials.
Raylan
makes his appearance in Dutch Leonard’s 1993 novel, Pronto , and then in Riding
the Rap , in 1995. The immediate
jumping-off point for Justified is
the 2001 short story, “Fire in the Hole.”
Dutch revisited the character in 2012, with Raylan , his last published title.
I
think it’s common knowledge in the Justified
fanbase that the writers’ room – headed by exec producer Graham Yost – had a
mantra, What would Dutch do? In any
situation where they’d written themselves into a corner, or they weren’t
entirely confident of a story development, they went back to the baseline: How
would Dutch Leonard himself handle it? They
usually got it right.
Much
has been made of the casting. Timothy
Olyphant and Walt Goggins, and astonishing
support, Nick Searcy and Mikelti Williamson, Kaitlyn Dever and Joelle
Carter, the Crowes and the Bennetts. I’d
happily list each one. Not to mention the
guest heavies - my stars and whiskers!
The incomparable Margo Martindale; Neal McDonough, no Band of Brothers , here; Sam Elliott and
Mary Steenburgen. Villains all, who get
their just desserts.
Timothy
Olyphant and Graham Yost closed the book with Season Six. FX, the network, wasn’t entirely happy about
it. ( Justified
was their highest-rated show.) But hold the
phone. The sequel, Justified: City Primeval ,
just premiered a limited run in July, and Tim Olyphant’s back as Raylan.
The
new series is a hybrid. The novel, City Primeval (subtitled High Noon in Detroit ), came out in 1980,
and it doesn’t feature Raylan, but local cop Ray Cruz. Raylan has been added to the mix. This has no ill effect. You still got the basic Elmore Leonard
elements, a crooked judge, a car bombing, Albanian gangsters, a long con, and the
usual mix of opportunists and low-lifes, fast-talkers and the criminally
insane. This time around, we have more
of the fish-out-of-water trope, but Raylan is nothing if not resourceful, and since
you were wondering, he hasn’t slowed down.
Nor does the show waste any time getting stoked. You
might miss the hillbillies, for about thirty seconds.
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