Media Trip Report – JUSTIFIED

(Originally published on facebook, September 22, 2024)

TL:DR: A++. Watch it if you can.

I waited a couple days to finish my watch, so I could give the last three episodes my full attention. I had a few other projects in the offing, and I’ve been more active than usual since my partner left the country on a well-deserved holiday.

So today, recovering from Covid, Hep-B, and Flu shots, I tucked in for the end of Raylan’s ride.

Long story short (too late); I really enjoyed it. It doesn’t rise to “loved it” status, precisely since it’s so very bingeable. But I was able to squeeze in 13 episodes of the PRETENDER between episodes 10 and 11 of JUSTIFIED’s final season, and the finale’s impact was not diluted in the slightest.

As crime dramas go, this series comes from the best of stock, and never let up. Based on Elmore Leonard’s novella “Fire in the Hole,” JUSTIFIED was so faithful an adaptation that Leonard bequeathed a trove of unpublished material about the characters to the showrunners, confident that they’d make good use of them. He also wrote a good half-dozen of the series’ episodes, and served as an executive producer on the show until his death in 2012.

Justified is a violent, bloody, and hilarious romp through Leonard’s crime-verse, and Timothy Olyphant fill’s out Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ hat admirably (Leonard had previously written two novels about the character, and the series inspired him to write a third).

So much crime. So many drugs. So many bullets.

It’s really hard to hate Raylan’s primary antagonists, criminal Boyd Crowder (who dies in the source material and was written that way in the pilot, but tested so well that they kept actor Walton Goggins on for the entire series), and U.S. Attorney David Vasquez, who rightfully admonishes Givens (and the Marshal’s service) for the trail of bodies and conflicts of interest he creates in what amounts to a little over a year of story time spread out over six seasons and 78 episodes.

But wait, there’s more! The series was brought back last year for an 8-episode revival, based on Leonard’s novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit.

A novel in which Raylan Givens does not appear, but Leonard favorite Detective Ray Cruz (OUT OF SIGHT) does. Hilariously, the actual protagonist of that film, Deputy Marshal Karen Sisco, appeared in JUSTIFIED Season 3.

Sort of.

Karen “Goodall” is another deputy who has prior “experience” with Raylan, played by Carla Gugino. Who played >actual< Karen Sisco on the ABC series of the same name (Jennifer Lopez played her in the movie version of OUT OF SIGHT). Apparently FX could not secure the rights to the character, so handwaved it in for our pleasure.

I’m only one episode in on J:CP so far, but word around the campfire is that Paul Calderon will return as Det. Ray Cruz down the line.

Fingers crossed that we get can also see Michael Keaton’s Ray Nicolette (JACKIE BROWN and OUT OF SIGHT) as well.

Double A+ rating from me. Would watch again with commentary tracks