A thread for JUSTIFIED, a TV show on FX starring Timothy Olyphant

I assume the death of Leonard had something to do with it. That they proactively made last season the last one is a good sign that something's a bit rotten at the core. Maybe some of the principals have other projects that they need to take on? In any case, yes: this was a particularly bad season but maybe still worth watching? Still better than 80% of tv drama, just not nearly as good as what I've grown accustomed to from justified.
also WilliamC otm

Part of why I forgot to watch the finale is this thread didn't receive a bump after it aired - also never a good sign

i thought the last ep was particularly bad quite frankly. Raylan's stinger line to rappaport's character felt spectacularly out of character and the whole "last-episode-time-for-this-season's-baddie-to-get-his-comeuppance" felt particularly formulaic and bored

i'd argue anything you need to know from last season they'll cover w/ a previously on justified before the first episode next season

i might not disagree there.

i couldn't distinguish any variation in quality or watchability between S5 and the 2 seasons before it. if anything it held my interest more than S4.

All I know is that as a huge fan of this show, I'm still only about 9 episodes into this fifth season and so little has happened that each episode might as well have been the first episode of the season. Doesn't make it bad, but the fact that it doesn't feel like it's building up to anything just three or so eps from the end is something of a letdown. Like, is Michael Rappaport and his bad accent really supposed to be the season's narrative linchpin?

it's about FAMILY see

The whole season was just wheel spinning. Actually so was the last season but S4's story was way more fun.

when i started this season i could barely remember any of the plot/character stuff they were talking about so i guess i havent been that invested for a while now

There is no plot!

One major blunder was killing off the hard boiled Alan Tudyk character after one episode, he was too good to be incidental.

same with Edi Gathegi imo (don't google that name if you're still in the first half of the season)

i have a theory that Olyphant got hella drunk at a party the year before this season filmed and just went through the crowd promising everyone he saw a recurring role and then there was hell to pay the next morning

Edi Gathegi's case is a little different because he asked out of the show

That might explain his rather abrupt and senseless murder then.

ah, i didn't know that. did he have a movie or something?

Needed more Alicia Witt

huh, a little googling suggests he just didn't like the character!

Yost: "Listen, we make our best efforts early on in the season as we hire actors to come on the show, and we can’t always guarantee them what they’re gonna be doing or where it’s gonna go. Getting Edi Gathegi was a big get for us, but the character just wasn’t panning out for him. He didn’t see where it was going, and even though we were thinking that Jean-Baptiste would survive until toward the end of the season, Edi wasn’t enjoying the journey. We had no contract to hold him to..."

By that standard every actor this season would have jumped ship.

huh, i watched the first one, or two, dunno, and i had just come off rewatching the whole series and catching up on the s3-s4 i had missed! but i don't know what happened, got distracted or something, stopped watching, decided i would rather watch csi reruns.

damning

and i'm not even enjoying those that much

It is admittedly the most average of all the seasons, but it's not THAT bad. I could happily have skipped the Eva parts, though, and I quite like that character. But yeah general plot aimlessness, and a cruel edge to the violence that wasn't that before, or at least wasn't so prevalent before.

sam elliot and garret dillahunt joining the cast for the last season

new (final) season starts tonight! Wonder if when it's done Olyphant will finally land a non-cop role?

Man, I will say Tuesday night is killing it. Justified, Broad City, Masterchef Junior ...

I've seen the first three eps of the new season. There's some good stuff in there.

I was reading a positive preview by someone who described it as "tautly directed and deeply pleasurable as Season Five" which wasn't quite how I remembered it, but will still give the last season a go. It will have to be decent to keep my interest this time cos I get it on Wednesday which will be Wolf Hall night over here.

Fingers x'd. Last season's dip was bad, but not irrecoverably so, I think.

i'm sure hoping. i would like less out of character resets for plot's sake and less guest stars please

Last season had a bunch of great individual moments but the overall arc was just so badly thought-out. I think the troubles w/ not being able to keep cast members around hurt them a bit.

Well, Darryl Crowe is dead, so that's gotta be a start.

I was trying to remember what happened last season, and then I remembered, oh yeah, nothing. I seem to recall them sending Raylon to Miami again, maybe to be with his wife, but I've got to assume something keeps him in or brings him back to Kentucky. And possibly her, too.

i thought S5 was good but it was the first season that felt like it was not carried forward by the characters but rather by the plot, and i thought the turn away from what made s1-3 special (and s4 at least interesting) and towards more generic cable TV tropes w/some of the plotlines was a little disheartening. but i think it can recover really well.

last season's big end of run switchup is raylon flipping ava against boyd through a series of immensely dumb plot twists. i think they're gonna lean hard on that this go-round.

Oh, also, I seem to recall them taking pains (both in the writing and in the production) to play down Raylon's kill-everyone rep. There's a lot of him letting others do the shooting, not least because he was playing nice after pissing off Art so much.

I assume the death of Leonard had something to do with it.

― Look at this joke I've recognised, do you recognise it as well? (forksclovetofu),

"It" being the S5 decline. Part of what made the early seasons great was the crackling dialogue, delivered well. I could imagine Leonard's role, once the milieu was set up and handed to showrunners and writers, as being dialogue doctor. S5 was leaden-tongued and cloth-eared.

Anyway, I have the season set to record.

I still think they should have moved Raylon to Miami for season 5, it might have given the show the jolt it clearly needed. And a full season featuring the Alan Tudyk character who got outrageously done in too soon.

the best short-lived character was icepick fletcher imo

i have a hard time resisting telling people who would have no idea what i'm doing that "the anus is on you"

I have really enjoyed these first 3 eps, it feels like a return to form. Sam Elliot's new big bad in town and Boyd in murderous form whilst also looking vulnerable. Not forgetting Wynn Duffy's tan session.

Haven't seen last night's yet, but it definitely seems back on the rails this season. My only complaint thus far was that a certain person died before we were allowed the joy of seeing a certain reunion one last time (although I hope we still get to see the other half of that team again before the series ends).

will see this series someday. Sam sans stache still weird tho.

https://s1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/teidCd4uKMs_aPLEr_KvZQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/tv/2015-02-04/6cfe1390-ac27-11e4-bbcd-a5ebe3ea9498_JustifiedWynn.jpg

It's too bad that Duffy seemed to lose most of his menace when Quarles first made the scene.

No real opinions yet on this season/arc, but it's still in Act I.

so great to see Dillahunt get to speechify again

He's always so effortless in his portrayal of terrifying creeps. I never saw his sitcom but I honestly can't even wrap my head around its existence.