Justified

Despite getting really good reviews across the board and being a huge fan of Timothy Olyphant I was cautiously optimistic about Justified. I think that is because no review accurately contextualized the show for me; in fact I was surprised to see the show was set in the present and expected it to be set at the turn of last century. Justified is about US Marshall Raylan Givens a throwback US lawman in a modern world. Justified is a refreshing take on a cliche that works really because it is such a literal interpretation of it. We have all seen cop movies or TV shows that show what would happen if you took an outlaw mentality in todays bureaucratic world, however the only time we actually see a real outlaw and not just that mindset in contemporary society are in terrible fish out of water action comedies. In Justified you get the best of both worlds a true outlaw that could survive in 1800 and 2000, set in a place that time has forgotten, where people still drink moonshine and work in coal mines, but have automatic weapons and Cadillacs.

From the opening scene where Raylan Givens shoots a sleazy gun runner in a Miami hotel after giving a very literal request to leave town in 24 hours I was engrossed in the pilot. The rest of the episode was structured like a typical police procedural, but it was much more entertaining than most procedurals because of Olyphant and Walton Goggins' performances and because of Elmore Leonard dialogue that to paraphrase Olyphant from an AV Club interview is cool as fuck.

Despite being engrossed throughout I have two concerns about whether or not Justified can be a long running series. The first is whether or not it can be a successful serialized show. While I wouldn't mind if Justified ended up being a procedural, Graham Yost is intending on making it a serial and Few things bother me more on TV than poorly down serials. Careless plotting (Heroes , Entourage) can destroy good acting and writing very quickly and I have seen many good shows fail, but continually try to write compelling long arcs. As for now they have barely scratched the surface of the characters so I will take the wait and see approach My second concern is that a lot of the great dialogue in the pilot was lifted directly from Leonard's short stories, if the writers cannot recreate the aforementioned cool as fuck dialogue, a lot of the style the show created will be gone and we will be left with a mediocre show regardless of it's format. Having said all that I generally think most pilots are pretty bad; shows need to showcase all their characters and the pilots are usually muddled and uninteresting so the in the meantime I will remain cautiously enthusiastic.