Well, this was an incredibly pleasant surprise. Justified is a modern western that absolutely won me over with its interesting characters, sharp writing, satisfying structure, and great sense of fun.
Justified is a show about Raylan Givens, a US Marshal who had to relocate to his hometown after shooting a guy in public. Season 1's main storyline is about the Crowder family, between Raylan's girlfriend Ava who he's trying to protect, his old friend Boyd who has seemingly became a bigoted white suprematist (at least in the first episode), and Boyd's father Bo who's starting a drug empire and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. The whole season is crammed with interweaving threads that all get payed off by the end, with Raylan and Boyd teaming up to take down both of their fathers by the end of the season. I really love how this season is paced and structured, it's a perfect balance between episodic and serialized. Each episode has its own main storyline, yet the overarching story slowly builds and gets more prevalent throughout the season, slowly building up to an amazing finale (I think TV Tropes calls it a Half-Arc Season). My only gripe is that it can be a bit hard to tell where the season is going until the events of episode 7, at which point the show becomes genuinely great.
Based off of Elmore Leonard's westerns (which I haven't read), Justified feels like a western in terms of tone, with cool fedoras, tense quick draws and gunfights, and southern accents aplenty. However, it also manages to stand out in its own way with some incredibly well-realized characters. Raylan is a charismatic protagonist who acts cool and fun to watch on the outside, while also being a bit of a mess internally. Arlo, his father, feels like a darker version of Raylan, using his own charisma to commit crimes. I also really liked Winona, her deep and mature relationship with Raylan is one of the most positive depictions of a divorce I've ever seen, though the love triangle with Ava is probably the weakest storyline here. But the real highlight is Boyd, whose unpredictability and moral complexity is so compelling. While his first appearance leaves you to believe he's a neo-Nazi who had a religious awakening, there's this lingering mystery throughout the season that he's faking it all somewhat, and his bro/foemance with Raylan is so much fun. Justified also manages to stand out with its incredibly sharp and witty writing, elevating the material with some genuinely fun and clever dialogue, not too unlike Buffy. Apparently it's an emulation of Leonard's writing, though while I haven't read it myself, so for me, it feels more like if Tarantino wrote a TV show.
While this first season was pretty consistently strong, these were the highlights:
Fire In The Hole: I adored this pilot, it was a damn near perfect start to the series. The initial shot of Raylan in Miami drew me in, but his complex and compelling conflict with Boyd kept me hooked throughout. I loved the parallels between the opening and climactic quick draws, Raylan's character development, the sheer unpredictablity of Boyd, and the fact that it felt like a complete story. Raylan and Boyd's inevitable confrontation wasn't draw out to the end of the season, it happened in the very first episode, which is pretty big given how important their dynamic is to the series.
Blind Spot: This was the point at which I really started to understand where the season was going. Ava survives an assassination attempt (in a really intense and memorable scene), Bo makes his first appearance, and Raylan's trigger-happy actions are starting to backfire on him again. The main storyline about Sheriff Hunter being the assassin was also pretty fun.
Blowback: I feel like nearly every show under the sun has had some sort of hostage crisis or bank robbery episode at this point, but Justified manages to make it entertaining with its typically smart and witty writing. It also sets up a ton of big future developments like Bo's scary threat towards Ava, Winona learning Gary's in danger, and best of all, Boyd being let free from prison.
Bulletville: This was an amazing and tense finale, with all of the lingering tension from the last few episodes finally coming to a head, while also finally giving me a bit of a clearer image of Boyd. Maybe he didn't really have a religious awakening, but he definitely believed he did, and I genuinely felt bad for his loss of faith. Bo and Boyd's confrontation in the forest was terrifying (even moreso what happened to the latter's followers), the big teamup between Raylan and Boyd was very much worth the hype, the big shootout in the final third was phenomenal, and that final shot was just perfect (got some Bebop vibes from it, though). I will say the ending felt a bit on the abrupt side, but otherwise, this episode ended Season 1 on a very strong and action-packed note.
Overall, Justified's first season is an incredibly fun and satisfying modern western with sharp writing, great characters, and a perfect structure, even if it takes some time before the overarching story actually reveals itself.
4/5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment