Best New TV Drama: Justified on FX

There's a place called Hell,
It's in Eastern Kentucky…

Let us state a sad truth. There has never been, nor will there ever be again, a TV drama as good as HBO's Deadwood. Excellent film making for TV or the theater has six basic components, in descending order of importance: characters, context, story lines, composition, dialogue, and cinematography. Deadwood is the only show I have ever seen in which all six were rich and nearly perfect. Its cancellation while the third season was filming is one of the tragedies of my life.

There, I've vented. FX's new drama, Justified, immediately invites comparison with Deadwood. The show's star, Timothy Olyphant was born to play the angry good man with a badge. He was Seth Bullock in Deadwood and a small town sheriff in the recent horror film, The Crazies. In Justified, he is Raylan Givens, a federal marshal sporting a cowboy hat. After shooting a very bad man in Miami, Givens is exiled back to his home town in Eastern Kentucky. Guess what? Old ghosts, unforgotten girls, and a bad dad arise to complicate his battle with redneck neo-Nazis and hillbilly godfathers. What's not to like?

Olyphant's Givens is a very solid leading character. His ambiguous nemesis, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) is a very interesting creation: a man whose ruthlessness might be worse rather than better for his desire to be a better person. His boss Art Mullen (Nick Searcy) is a stock character, but a very good one. He is the shrewd guy who has to manage Givens, and knows exactly how delicate a weapon Givens is. The rest of the characters are serviceable enough. It's clear the writers don't know quite what to do with them all yet.

Storyline progress followed Blanchard's Law of Third Episodes. In the third show the writing firmed up, the characters achieved definition, and I was hooked. The rest of the season was very solid. The season finale was toe-curling good. I was thinking about it for three days after I watched it. It ends with Givens not pulling the trigger. The look on his face tells the whole story: I didn't do what I didn't do because that's the kind of man I am. But I am probably going to be very sorry that I didn't do it. That is powerful composition.

The most interesting feature of the show is the context. It is based on the novels of Elmore Leonard, set in Eastern Kentucky. In this kind of place, the gangsters look like they fell off the cover of a Lynyrd Skynyrd album, the bookies operate from tables at the back of hotel restaurants, and the country club golfer is one law degree removed the moonshine and the meth lab.

I have to confess that I know something about this. There was a time in my life when I was not so good as I ought to have been. I occasionally rubbed shoulders with some of these trailer park rascals. Allow me to tell a story. One of my friends was a short, stocky, and ridiculously strong fellow with long blonde Greg Almond hair. I'll call him TM. He started smoking when he was eleven. Months I mean, not years. I'm kidding, but by age 14 he had consumed every drug that the DEA cares about. A few years ago he was found dead in his truck. According to the police report, he had shot himself in the chest and set himself on fire. Well, if anyone could do that, it would be TM. I asked a few questions, and a different story emerged. TM was selling drugs on behalf of the County Sheriff's office. He decided he wanted out. A bullet and a burning was his retirement package. I wanted to know what had happened. I wasn't stupid enough to try to do anything about it.

I got out. TM didn't. But I am in a position to tell you that the characters in Justified are twenty four karat real. Below the world you live in, there is another. The lyrics cited above have meaning. There is in fact a place called Hell in Eastern Kentucky. It's a town locally called Hell for Certain. Justified is a rocking good crime drama that gives you a tour in that place called Hell. If you missed it, you can catch up on Hulu. But don't imagine that it is all imagination.

Comments

[Matt Staab]

Try watching AMC's Breaking Bad - best thing on television - by far.

[William]

I haven't seen Breaking Bad, I'll have to check it out. As for Justified, it's certainly been the one new show that hooked me early and consistently. I probably understand some of the characters a little too well, myself. It may be the best screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's writings I've seen.

[BillW]

Not to be too nit-pickey, but Greg Almond? Did you mean Gregg Almann?

[KB]

BillW: I would like to blame that on my spellchecker, but I think it was just late. I had the "Beginnings" album in front of me at the time!

[Stace Nelson]

Spot on with "Deadwood" and "Justified!" It is out there as far as US Marshal duties go; however, it is good entertainment none the less.

[timmy t]

I have yet to see Justified but I'll definitely get around to it eventually - how does it rank with some other F/X fare like Rescue Me and SOA for yourself? And Deadwood cancellation - one of the greatest tragedies indeed. Best show ever. On the HBO note, really looking forward to Boardwalk Empire and seeing what Milch's new project Luck looks like...

[KB]

Stacy: I have no idea what U.S. marshals do. I am guessing this is pretty creative. But it has these hillbilly hoodlums dead spot on.

Timmy: Thanks. We agree on what we share.

[James]

Justified may well be the best drama on television now. Everything you said about the acting is spot-on. I enjoyed the last episode, but this show is right on the line between great and parody. Something like 20 men were shot in the last episode. Some died after being on screen for less than a minute. That's the kind of thing that can take you from being in the middle of the action in Kentucky to sitting on your sofa watching a TV show.

Justified needs to develop some more moves in Season 2. The show started out like Unforgiven (best movie of all time), where every action matttered and every violent act had impact. It's in danger of ending up like 300 (crap), where cartoonish characters appear on screen for a few seconds before dying horribly - violence as a fetish, with the same relationship to realistic drama that porn has to actual sex.

This show needs to decide - is it trying to be Deadwood, or is it trying to be Spartacus? I think it can be as good or even better than the former. I'll stop giving a damn if it keeps going towards the latter.

[KB]

James: I like 300. But you are surely right about the body count in the last episode. It is hardly realistic. On the other hand, it was a season finale, filmed perhaps before the future of the series was known. If the next season is better than this one, whoopee.

[samual]

Hi dear friends,TV is the best part of entertaining world.So we are providing some good TV Shows like The Dead Zone.These shows will give you a new feeling that you are watching TV not online on Internet.TV shows in a high definition online.This will give you latest videos.

[Andrew]

I’ve been catching up with Justified lately watching it during my lunch breaks on my iPad using DISH Networks TV everywhere app. It’s really convenient to be able to watch all of my programming anywhere I go. As a DISH employee who has it set up I can tell you it was really easy too, basically I just plugged a Sling adapter into my 722 receiver and downloaded an app. That’s it. I’ve been a fan of Timothy Olyphant for a long time now (ever since GO) and I think he’s fantastic in this role, the rest of the cast is doing a great job too. Between that and solid writing overall, I’ve quickly grown to like this show and hope it has a long run ahead of it.

[Gloria]

almost sure they'll do a huge Last season on Justified thing berofe the premiere. If you really want to tune in and don't have time to get all caught up on season one first, check Alan Sepinwall's reviews at Hitfix, or the ones at the AV Club. I still recommend watching season one at some point because it's awesome, but that'll give you enough working knowledge to hop on the moving train.

[Jamekorn]

I agree for the most part, but for some reason, I love me some Orlando Bloom. :). And I hear you on the pre-menopause. I'm prttey sure I'm going through it right now. Luckily, I have an extremely masculine man, who passed on his big, huge, strong muscles to my daughter. LOL She'll need a big masculine man too! Thanks for stopping by my blog and joining the hop! Have a great weekend!!!! I'm following you guys now.