Friday, June 10, 2011

Justified

As some of you know, I almost never watch current TV shows. Instead, I wait for series to come out on DVD, listen to the recommendations of people I trust, and then pick up the DVD sets. This approach is both efficient with time--no waste even skipping over commercials--and usually yields good results.

I'd heard a lot of good things about Justified, but I'd decided not to add it to my DVD collection because none of those positive comments came from folks I knew. Then, Elizabeth told me about it and recommended it, so I gave it a try.

I'm glad I did.

The series is complex, violent, and full of interesting, very flawed characters. Timothy Olyphant is great in the lead role of Marshall Raylan Givens, but for my taste the most compelling performances come from the marvelously weird Walton Goggins, who plays a criminal named Boyd Crowder. Goggins was a strange duck in another of my favorite shows, the now sadly complete The Shield, but his weirdness here escalates to new levels. He is a wonder to watch.

I don't want to give away any of the plot elements, so by way of summary let me simply say that the series came from an odd Elmore Leonard short story and then evolved into something odder still.

I definitely recommend Justified.

2 comments:

steveburnett said...

Fun show. I found Goggins interesting from his first scene in the premiere episode:
"Don't you worry about it: we'll just go to Plan B."
(henchman) "Plan B?"
"Oh *yeah* - there's *always* a Plan B".
We saw that and M looked at me and snickered as I always have backup plans.

My favorite quote from Olyphant's character is later in the season: "I figure people are entitled to their hobbies...and I'm entitled to think those people are creepy."
As a bit of dialogue it's interesting to me that it sets up a "live and let live" expectation before the pause, but follows with a twist.

Mark said...

The dialog frequently does more work than is initially apparent. I quite like that.

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