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

fuck yeah

‘Justified’ Revival Set at FX With Timothy Olyphant Returning https://t.co/s1d03pTcsy

— Variety (@Variety) January 14, 2022

WHAT

... but it ended perfectly. maybe just let it be? but also ok ill watch

it's a limited series based on a leonard short story, i have high hopes

It's a novel! A good one. With a Raylanesque protagonist who isn't Raylan

DETAILS i need details ffs

the press release

You liked Justified? Well, next one's comin' faster. pic.twitter.com/i0PBOFfUBo

— Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) January 14, 2022

I'm totally up for this

yes otm v down for this :D

Pleased about this. No Graham Yost though? As long as there’s no Boyd this time - their last scene should stay as their last scene.

Several years on, my favourite memory of the show is Jere Burns’s “I thought I was the crazy one” look after meeting Quarles

Yost is in there as exec producer, isn't he?

Oh ok good

I also think about the exploding stomach bomb a lot but that is a less pleasant memory

this sounds way more like The Continuing Adventures of Raylen Givens than justified season 7 which makes me like the idea quite a bit more

rewatching s1 again & how did it slip my notice that the music is by none other than Steve Porcaro?

started this this week!

Thought I saw in passing that Tarantino may direct a couple of eps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oka8f6xh7Yo

Just now put it on the calendar, thanks.
Although
"If you ask me, the real crime was that beard!"

fuck YES :D

Please, yes, we so deserve a little treat.

this is a welcome reminder that i need to get back to season four of this

Yeah, never did get to the end---I hope Goggins' character, even if dead, is among those who re-surface in Dee-roit City.

Justified was essential TV for four seasons, somewhat less essential but still good for one season, and then back to being essential before knocking that ending, that mere dialogue exchange, out of the park.

The "baby head" villain was all-time!

Even other bad guys complaining about that there "baby head" feller!

one less good season with that run is almost more praise, just a little slip before they caught it

there was a little material that was lesser involving Detroit, maybe this is the patch that makes it worthwhile groundwork

Don't want to see any returning cast, except maybe Jere Burns, who hung around appealingly, but never seemed to have much to do for the last few seasons.

Justified was essential TV for four seasons, somewhat less essential but still good for one season, and then back to being essential before knocking that ending, that mere dialogue exchange, out of the park.

Yeah, I'd agree. If you're one of the people who never finished it, it is well worth it. Very satisfying conclusion, true to the series and the characters.

I quite liked the last season too, probably more than the first season

Don't want to see any returning cast, except maybe Jere Burns, who hung around appealingly, but never seemed to have much to do for the last few seasons.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, May 19, 2023 2:33 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

what about my guy marshal tim?

Why spoil a six-season record of not doing much of anything (handsomely)

Tim is a great character just as amiably smirkily broken as raylan but scarily no sign of suppressed rage

What I love about this show is that like a lot of the prestige era shows it’s about toxic masculinity (before the prestige backlash when ppl were like STOP 👏 INTERROGATING 👏 TOXIC 👏 MASCULINITY 👏) but it wears it so lightly

Raylan’s deal is laid out explicitly in ep 1 “you’re the angriest person I know” and that’s kind of it, he stays that guy for the duration (5 minutes of the finale notwithstanding) but unlike all the other shows where People Don’t Change they don’t really dramatise his not changing that much, he just has cool adventures

otm

character development is the worst of all storytelling devices

🙌

Actually don’t hold to that but I am against it as dogma, so much great fiction is about ppl stuck in holding patterns (also life)

Original series was based on stories by Elmore Leonard, this follow-up on his novel, so that might be useful if show writers don't screw around too much (don't know if there's a continuity of contributors across both series, kinda glad this is mini-series, in terms of a clear arc, but still kinda bummed by the built-in lifespan).
Elmore knew something about Detroit: he used to get up at 5 am. make himself write a page before putting the coffee on. After brief breakfast he drove into the city and wrote copy all day. For years and years. I only read La Brave, wasn't that impressed---preferred Richard Stark and John D. MacDonald---but can see how his stuff lends itself so well to movies and TV.

La Brava

Stark and MacD's series stars were in good holding patterns, maybe the Raylan books do too? Might check.

xps Genuinely bleak and refreshing how arlo is both unredeemed and unresolved - these guys don’t process things they murder people

This is obv a sopranos move but inflected v differently here although the comic sensibility is related

dow you absolutely should give Leonard another go - he doesn’t have the meanness of stark but the dialogue & lowlife humour are top shelf

Actually seeing five, four novels and I guess the earliest stories, collected as Fire In The Hole.

the characters that go across multiple books don't necessarily change as much as they arrive at their proper destiny. jack foley from out of sight for example returns in road dogs, along with two other characters from separate previous EL novels, and they all wind up approximately where they belong for better or for worse.

the predictions for what how this show would end are still mystifying to me, so many folks were predicting/hoping for/eagerly anticipating the breaking bad type final stretch, but the warmer and narratively truer finish really hit home and lasted a lot longer than some artificially nihilistic closing.

i think about the last scene with raylan and boyd often

I think it's a good time to watch all this again - especially as there isn't one series running rn that is even close to as good as this was

i appreciate how it hints at the pain of the culture of the region with regards to drugs, crime, the mining industry, etc w/o seeming exploitative, or condescending.

xposts -- yes, amazing for a show to finish on one of its most memorable scenes

IIRC the original Raylan novels (Pronto, Riding the Rap) are pretty generic Leonard, but they might retroactively benefit from being read with Olyphant's voice in your mind. FWIW I think Freaky Deaky, Get Shorty and Swag are the best ones.

it's yonks since I've watched this but I recall some long night-time dialogue scenes with Ellstin Limehouse that were part of what elevates this well above the average usual stuff

I just finished Glitz (not a Raylan one), first class Leonard. There was this great little aside, that seemed kind of Raylan, where Vincent the main character is talking to a mobster who's making a big production out of his tough wiseguy routine and Vincent thinks to himself "They work so hard at it, don't they?"