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Prolific and much-respected author Elmore Leonard's novels have fared poorly when they've been adapted to the small screen--remember Maximum Bob? Karen Sisco?--but the Western-cum-police-drama Justified breaks the losing streak thanks to the tightly wound performance of star Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) and solid scripting and direction. Olyphant's Marshal Raylan Givens, whom readers met in the novels Pronto and Riding the Rap (as well as the short "Fire in the Hole," which serves as the basis for the pilot episode), is a man of few words and deadly aim who is sent back to his hometown of Harlan County, Kentucky, after shooting first and asking questions later with an oily gangster. Once ensconced in the coal belt, Givens runs afoul of childhood friend Boyd Crowder (the terrific Walton Goggins from The Shield), who's gone from mining to white supremacy and murder. Also competing for Givens's attention are local girl Ava (Joelle Carter), whose crush on the marshal doesn't quite obscure the fact that she's just murdered her husband, and his father, Arlo (the always-solid character actor Raymond J. Barry), whose criminal career is a millstone around Givens's neck. Justified is most compelling when it focuses on Crowder, who grows more dangerous as the series unfolds; when it sends Givens to pursue less complex criminals like dentist Roland Pike (Alan Ruck in "Long in the Tooth") or play hostage negotiator ("Blowback"), the results are fine but hew closer to standard TV police drama fare. What keeps the show out of that particular ditch is Olyphant's performance, as tightly wound as his turn on Deadwood but with a hint of grim humor; he's well supported by the cast, including Nick Searcy as his boss and M.C. Gainey (Lost) as Crowder's equally hot-wired father. An array of fine directors, including John Dahl (Red Rock West), actor Tony Goldwyn (Conviction), Rod Holcomb (The Good Wife), and Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes), also lends a cinematic quality to the episodes.
Extras include commentary by the cast and crew on four episodes, including the always-wry Olyphant on "Hatless" and executive producer Graham Yost (The Pacific) and director Michael Dinner on "Fire in the Hole." Leonard's influence on the series is explored in a 20-minute feature called "What Would Elmore Do?," which served as a mantra for the production team whenever they found themselves in a creative bind. Short, EPK-style featurettes covering the show's inception, Kentucky locations, and its marshal advisers round out the set. --Paul Gaita
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Show,
By
This review is from: Justified: The Complete First Season (DVD)
I was surprised at how good this show was, I like the actors and hoped that it would be interesting but it was much more then that, I started watching and could not stop wanting to find out what happened next. If you like a little grit in your shows, then I would highly recommend this one.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Western!,
By
This review is from: Justified: Season 1 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
One of the reviews above is titled "Great Modern Day Western". That really says it all. Even though this takes place mostly in Kentucky it certainly has the feel of a western. The crux of Justified is this: Timothy Olyphant plays a U.S. Marshall who is basically a modern day gunslinger. In the early episodes he gets in a lot of trouble for killing too many bad guys. His standard line is, "He drew first. It was justified."As simple as this sounds, the writing is great and so is Olyphant. Although this is a TV show, and not HBO, the writers manage to avoid the standard cliches. The plot often ends up going places I didn't expect. I watched all thirteen episodes in a weekend. Now I can't wait for season 2 to be released.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very nice surprise,
By
This review is from: Justified: The Complete First Season (DVD)
I recently watched the first season of Justified on Netflix, and liked the season so much I came onto amazon to buy season one and season two. Don't know how we missed this show on TV.I had no expectations when I began watching the first episode of the first season, and I'll be honest: if Mr Yum Yum (Timothy Olyphant) wasn't in the series I wouldn't have chosen to watch the show at all. But the first episode drew me in, and before we knew it, we'd watched five episodes in a row and were very late to bed that night. The music, as another reviewer mentioned, is good, and I quite like the theme song, and the scenery is somewhere between fairly nice to beautiful (depending on the location), but the thing that caught our interest: the characters. Timothy Olyphant doesn't look like he stepped out of a magazine in this role (a bit disappointing, yes, I know) but he still looks mighty fine. After the first episode, he sculpts his stubble into something less scruffy-looking and combs his hair, and gets down to business. But the show isn't all about him, and you may find (as I did) that you get drawn into the stories and don't focus on Mr Yum Yum at all. T.O. plays a Deputy Marshall who is anything but perfect, and, given his upbringing and background as is revealed (abusive father, horrible home life, dead mother, wanted out of Kentucky and left never to return) you know he's never going to be perfect. But he keeps trying. He begins to drink less and begins to try to keep both his guns in the holster, so to speak, and eventually accepts his fate: after an Incident in Miami, he is banished to the Kentucky office. One line sort of sums up the character: He's told he's being transferred to Kentucky and he makes a face and says something like, "I grew up there. I don't WANT to go back!" But back he goes... back to the more laid-back kind of lifestyle, the moonshine, the feuds, the now-grown girls who followed him around at school like lost puppies. With his trademark stetson, he no longer stands out as The Cowboy (or 'Shooter' as he is nicknamed) in a bustling big city he likes (Miami)... he now looks like a slightly better-dressed version of everyone else in Kentucky, although he drives a Lincoln Town Car (not a pick up) LOL. I think one of the main reasons we like this show is that it takes us back to simpler days. Gone is the stupidity of political correctness. The main character (and most of the others) call a spade a spade, and deal with things with common sense and a bit of humour. For example, a prisoner holds a couple of guards hostage in one episode, and he tells everyone his long list of complaints, but Timothy Olyphant's character, Raylan, seems to be the only one who really listens. So, while his superiors are busy arranging for tactical special ops guys to storm the place, Raylan suggests that some spicy fried chicken (the prisoner's favourite) is brought in instead, along with a glass of Bourbon. The food (and Bourbon) is the quickest way to to prisoner's heart, and all ends much better than if the special ops guys had gone in, guns blazing. And there are consequences for actions, even though it sometimes takes a few episodes for things to be resolved. The characters, warts and all, are at least fairly likeable if not quite likeable, and the story lines aren't complicated, convoluted save-the-world-international-intrigue stories. They deal with characters, human nature, where people come from, where they end up, and it also shows the more realistic and less glamourous side of real (U.S.) police work. We look forward to season three.
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