Justified (TV Series 2010-2015)

Sometimes I watch a TV show and think…this is too good for Television. This is one of those shows. Great acting, writing, and production…the entire package. 

I watched this show a few years ago and now I’m watching it all over again. For me, it’s a Western set in modern times. Raylon Givens is a modern-day Matt Dillion. A US Marshall that gets his man or woman. Above all they got it from great source material and the writing for the show is excellent. People sometimes think living in the South that you would run into these bad guy characters every day. You don’t but yes I’ve known some of the bad guys on this show…or rather characters just like them as no matter where you live…you probably have also. It’s easy to relate to. 

This was a TV series (2010-2015) based on Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole.” It follows Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a modern-day lawman with an Old West-style approach to the law. It’s almost like a modern Matt Dillion. He is played by Timothy Olyphant, Raylan is reassigned to his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky, after a controversial shooting incident in Miami. He is a great Marshall but not always following the book by any means. He tries to do the right thing. He is what I would call a man’s man. Men like him because he doesn’t mince his words and women like him because he looks like Timothy Olyphant. His character is stern at times and he means what he says…although all in all he is fair…just don’t push the man. 

His target is Boyd Crowder who is a perfect villain. They knew each other while teenagers digging coal together. It’s almost a Batman-Joker relationship. It’s like they need each other. They could have killed the other many times but chose not to. Walter Goggins played Boyd and he was as close to perfect as you could get as a bad guy. He is not a slow-talking dumb Southerner…he is highly intelligent and manipulative and Raylan Givens matches him. It’s like a high-stress chess game with each other.

The character actors on this show are great as well. Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder, Natalie Zea as Raylan’s ex-wife Winona Hawkins, Erica Tazel as US Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks, Sam Elliot as Avery Marham, Mykelti Williamson as Ellstin Limehouse, and…I could go on and on. The show has the Dixie Mafia and revolves around Harlan Counties love of “hillbilly heroin” which would be Oxycontin. Other cities come into play like Miami, Detroit, and other locations where drugs are either sold or smuggled from at the time.

The one thing that the show has is a GREAT sense of humor. It’s not remembered as much for that but it does have some funny and dark one-liners. The humor is one thing that keeps me coming back. 

Watch this show…there were only 78 episodes and last year…8 years after it ended…they have brought back Raylan Givens for Justified: City Primeval.

Some quotes

  • Raylan Givens: I shot people I like more for less.

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  • Raylan Givens: The answer is: me and dead owls don’t give a hoot.

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  • Raylan Givens: I need to convince her to get out of Kentucky.
  • Winona Hawkins: And you think dumping her, handcuffed, at your ex-wife’s house is going to do the trick?

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  • Raylan Givens: Sometimes, we have to make deals with lowlifes because we have our sights set on life forms even somehow lower on the ladder of lowlife than they.

One of the first scenes with an idiot…

The dark side of Raylan but who could blame him?

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

61 thoughts on “Justified (TV Series 2010-2015)”

      1. Yes, 1883 and 1923 are both excellent and were our first introduction to the Yellowstone stories. We never had Netflix or whatever channel Yellowstone first came out on and by the time we signed up for Paramount+ all they had were the prequels. I was mad at them for not continuing to show Yellowstone. But finally now, our internet company includes the Peacock channel so we are binge watching Yellowstone through season 4. Season 5 is on Paramount +.

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  3. I’m so ok with your review, really great show indeed ! Leonard was so satisfied with the show he wrote another novel entitled Raylan.
    I also read “Fire in the hole” and “Pronto”, both with Marshall Givens.

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    1. I haven’t read anything yet but I plan to. The dynamic between Raylan and Boyd doesn’t happen every day. Even the characters say they can’t figure it out.

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      1. The attraction/repulsion between Boyd and Raylan is really something, it could be seen as two faces of the same county (I’m not an expert of Kentucky), and maybe the same country. That’s a fascinated portrait of the US.

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      2. There was a bond there from the coal days much like soldiers have. I live right below Kentucky… I have ran across some Dewey’s and other characters before….at least with the some traits.

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      3. The coal years are the heart of the novel “Fire in the hole”. The show is taking place in the continuity of Pronto, the prologue of épisode one is the end of the book. So you can read the work of Leonard to complete the story. Very clever by the show runners.

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  5. Thanks for the tip. Since I’m working my way through the works of Elmore Leonard (how many books can one write about double-crossing scam artists?), this looks like a nice break from reading, and I see my library has all seasons available.

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    1. It’s made really well and I want to read a few of his books as well. This was good timing…Leonard liked this series so that is a good thing.

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  6. I love this show. It’s high among my most favourite and have watched it twice as well as the Redemption sequel. Those are some great clips you provided Max. Timothy Olyphant is a great actor and I have enjoyed watching him in other things like Santa Clare Diet. Walton Goggins is another one to watch. He is great as the ghoul in Fallout which I highly recommend.

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    1. I’ll check those out Randy…have you seen the new one now? City Primeval? I think it’s set in Florida but I just started to watch it…it’s really good.

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    2. (Olyphant showed he can do queasy comedy rather well on ‘The Santa Clarita Diet.’ It was a shame it was cancelled, just when I was really getting my teeth into it, so to speak. I really liked the premise. Life goes on semi-normally whatever happens!)

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    3. Haven’t seen Santa Clara Diet yet but probably will at some point. Have you seen the Tarantino movie, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” yet? He’s got a small role but very good. Goggins is fantastic also. Is Fallout a movie or a series? One you may or may not want to know about, Goggins plays a very sexy cross-dresser in some episodes of Sons of Anarchy.

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      1. Yes, I saw him in ‘Once’ he was fine in that too. That is my Tarantino top pick btw. ‘Santa Clarita’ is well worth taking a wee nibble at, to see if it’s to your taste. Hint; if your tastes veer to dark humour you will relish it Lisa. I’ll see if the Hap and Leonard is in our region and on Netflix or something we already pay a Kings ransom monthly for. Otherwise I’ll bide my time and see it later on free (Advertisements Included!) TV or maybe if the library still is buying TV series on CD. (I’m still waiting for ‘The Stand’ to play here and that is a coupla years old now.)

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      2. Yes, the nibbling is what has kept me from seeing it. I just don’t see cannibalism as something to trivialize, so not sure. Hap & Leonard aired from 2016-2018 so it’s not a new series. It’s one I’d like to buy if I get a chance. It’s got a quirkiness to it and also has Michael Kenneth Williams in it, who has since passed away (if you have watched The Wire you’ll know him as Omar.)

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      3. It’s all done, as Kenny Everett used to say, ‘In the best possible taste.’ If you saw and enjoyed ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ its’ like that. Its more in the style of going for belly laughs rather than gut punches.

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  8. Interesting! Never heard of it but you make it sound worthwhile. On FX from the look of it? We never had that channel. David McDourdrawers says ‘i remember when we had 4 networks, MTV and that food station and we knew what shows were on & we liked it!

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    1. That is the truth! Now things are streamed most of the time and you have to look for things. This one IS worth it. Acting, production, and most of all…writing. If you find it…give it a shot.

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  9. Good program. I never really liked Olyphant before Justified. To me he was another pretty face playacting at being an B grade action star like Lorenzo Lamas. But Justified was the right vehicle for him and it opened the door for him to get better scripts. That said, I thought he was great in Go.

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      1. No, I like Tarantino. Not every film by him, but Jackie Brown is one of my favorite films. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is an under appreciated Tarantino film, like Jackie Brown is, I think–and, yes, Olyphant is very good in it.

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    1. This one has it all. The clips I picked got some of it…not as much of the humor but yea…it’s a well written well acted show. More people know about it than I thought. I know that Lisa liked it a lot as well.

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  11. HELLA GOOD. One of a few series I bought the DVDs for. The title of the show is perfect, as he is like Caine on the old Kung Fu show, where he has the best intentions of non-violence, but he always ends up kicking somebody’s ass, or in the case of Raylan, shooting them. The interplay between the characters is excellent, especially between, like you said, him and Boyd. They have some fantastic villains in this show also, always super-dangerous and scary. The ongoing father-son relationship between Raylan and his dad is also super good. So much to like about this show. As something I’m proud of, I learned the theme song, which wasn’t easy! I love that song! Max thanks for covering Justified. You did it justice!

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    2. Thats what I wanted to know Lisa…if I got it right! I know Batman Joker thing is out there but there are some similarities. That bond they made while digging coal bent but it never broke.

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