Justified (Season 3)

Justified's second season was a pretty big improvement over the first with an ending so strong it made the entire season better in retrospect. Season 3 definitely tries to live up to that high bar, but while it's still a great season, it's hard not to end up missing the Bennetts a little bit.

This season of Justified is focused around three villains, all of whom are trying to fill up the power vacuum left by Mags' death: Robert Quarles, Ellstin Limehouse, and of course, Boyd. Quarles and Limehouse aren't quite as fleshed-out as Mags, but I found them to be incredibly charismatic and fun to watch. Limehouse was terrifying and unpredictable due to his unclear alliances, but his laid-back attitude ended up becoming comforting compared to Quarles. Neil McDonough (who also played Damien Dhark) chewed the hell out of the scenery every time he was on screen, especially as Quarles slowly devolves into insanity. At first, I couldn't take Quarles too seriously, but he just got worse and worse, reaching new lows episode after episode, it's great! However, I think this season had too many villains. Between Boyd, Quarles, Limehouse, along with Dickie, Duffy, and Dewey all getting roles, Season 3 feels quite overstuffed. It definitely feels like the show runners are trying to make it "bigger and better" to reach the high bar of Season 2, for better of for worse. While I was initially unsure about the heavy focus on the Bennetts, at least there was a focus. This season feels like it just threw a ton of ideas at the wall to see what stuck, resulting in it feeling overstuffed, spread thin, and at its worst, incredibly slow-paced as it tried to balance the whole cast. Thankfully, the second half ramps up the intensity as well as any prior season, the best episodes rank as some of the best episodes to date, and the finale brings all of the disparate threads together in a very satisfying manner. 

Season 3 feels like it contrasts its predecessor in a lot of ways. Season 2 is far more dramatic and heavy, while Season 3 is (mostly) lighter in tone and puts more of an emphasis on the show's sense of fun. Episodes like "Thick As Mud" and "Watching The Detectives" could have been deathly serious, but they ended up being far more of a blast to watch without losing their stakes. The dialogue is easily the strongest it has been, faster paced and wittier than ever before. In addition, once again unlike Season 2, while its villains are a bit thinner, the main cast gets a much stronger focus here. Tim and Dewey are the most notable instances of this, with the former getting far more appearances and the latter getting an entire (fun) episode to himself. Raylan spends far more time interacting with Boyd and Ava after Season 2 had them stay apart for a large portion of it, Duffy gets the most screentime to date as he plays the straight man to Quarles's insanity, Winona is far more intelligent compared to the previous season, and Dickie has transformed from terrifyingly unhinged to pathetically babyish (though that's not all a bad thing). Don't get me wrong, I like what Season 2 did with the characters, more and more every day, but this season does a bit of a better job at balancing the cast and developing them all in interesting ways without leaving any of them (except maybe Rachel) feeling neglected.

Once again, this season of Justified is very consistently strong, but I do have a bunch of high points worth noting:

The Gunfighter: This was an excellent season premiere, with an electric opening scene between Boyd and Raylan, a great introduction to Quarles, and one of the show's best one-off villains to date. Fletcher "The Ice Pick" Nix is a cool villain with a distinct drawl, unique gimmick, and a badass confrontation with Raylan to end off the episode.

Watching The Detectives: Maybe I shouldn't have been too hard on Winona last season, because at least her storyline led to this amazing episode. Kickstarting the much stronger second half, this is one of the most fun "framing" episodes I've seen as Raylan has to stop Quarles and Duffy from framing him for Gary's murder, while also dealing with pressure from literally the entire government. The whole cast gets a chance to shine, the writing is sharper than ever, and the whole ordeal slowly escalates throughout the course of the episode.

Coalition: One of the biggest storylines of the season is about the fight over Mags Bennett's money, and it all comes to a head in this chaotic penultimate episode. The reveal that the money is with Loretta just felt perfect, and having Raylan's final standoff with Dickie be at Loretta's place was even better. Meanwhile, Boyd planning a heist was fun (even if it was kind of a red herring), and the big cliffhanger with one of Quarles's biggest victories in the series was an excellent set-up for the finale.

Slaughterhouse: Compared to the rest of the season, Slaughterhouse was incredibly dark and intense throughout, while also working as a really satisfying finale that tied everything together super well. Even Winona got to appear one last time! There were tons of notable scenes like the Harlan Roulette, Quarles losing his arm, and the reveal of Johnny's betrayal, but the real highlight was the horrifying twist that Arlo killed Tom because he thought he was Raylan. It's such a thought-provoking yet screwed-up way to end the season that left me in genuine shock by the end.

Overall, Season 3 is a bit overstuffed and has a painfully slow start, but it maintains the same strong writing, interesting characters, entertaining villains, and satisfying endings that make Justified such a consistently strong series.

4/5 Stars