I’ve been rewatching the second season of Breaking Bad recently, having convinced my wife to watch it at last. And something struck me, while watching the final season premiere of Justified last night.
The latter show, after an enjoyable but slight opening season, reached new heights with a fantastic sophomore campaign. U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens’ return to his Kentucky home, and his clash with a formidable adversary who wasn’t frenemy Boyd Crowder, lent the show a gravitas that it has not captured since. It’s still been fun, but the show has grown tired, and the last season was downright tiresome – especially when Ava, Boyd’s girlfriend and Raylan’s ex, was in various prisons. While it’s been very good at channeling the late Elmore Leonard’s characterizations and dialogue, it hasn’t surpassed that second season – which was a long time ago.
Breaking Bad also had a brilliant second season, and in many ways it remains my favorite – despite that flaw at the end. But the show would maintain its high quality in subsequent seasons, in part because the show refused to remain static. (We will see how things go with Better Call Saul in a few weeks.)
Anyway, Justified is now on its final season, which started early by switching gears at the end of the fifth season’s final episode. After a so-so plot involving the extended Crowe family, the show dropped that plot early and moved to its endgame, and a long-delayed showdown between Raylan and Boyd, with Ava – spring from prison on condition of ratting out her boyfriend – stuck in the middle. The show is now focused solely on that plotline, which gives the first episode a sharpness that’s been lacking. The stakes are very high. And Boyd’s execution of lovable criminal Dewey Crowe, wrongly but not unreasonably believed by Boyd of working with Raylan to bring him down, makes it clear from the outset that no character – no matter how enjoyable – is off limits.
That might include Raylan, although the ominous hints about him were perhaps a little too obvious. His girlfriend and baby daughter are waiting for him in Florida. He’s in Kentucky in one last bid to bring Boyd to justice. Boyd, meanwhile, is thinking – as one commentator aptly noted – like an Elmore Leonard small-time criminal. He’s hoping for one last score that will allow him to leave his childhood home, just as Raylan is planning to leave his ancestors behind. Boyd is going back to robbing banks, although his first effort, successfully executed, leaves them with a puzzling collection of safety deposit boxes that do not contain money. This annoys his lieutenant, but Boyd is unfazed. There’s something else afoot, but we’ll have to wait.
Raylan’s self-confidence as a gunslinger is always high, but he is warned by former boss Art that a shootout – instead of a patient investigation – might not go his way. Ava’s deadly problem is emphasized by Boyd’s execution of Dewey, who was only suspected of something. Ava is reporting to Raylan, although she doesn’t have much to tell him and fears asking too many questions after her sudden release from prison. Boyd is suspicious of her, as emphasized by the final scene of him watching her sleep. While Boyd and Raylan are mirror images, the show seems to be returning to its roots, with Boyd as the bad guy who has a Nazi tattoo on his arm.
The first episode leaves me hopeful that the season, however it plays out, will end the show on a satisfying note.
Justified is on my short list for shows to start watching via Netflix, so I won’t be following your recaps (at least, not for a while).
I have started watching Homeland this way, about 3/4 through the first season, and (at the risk of hijacking your thread) I have to say that I’m having trouble seeing why people like it so much. The plot is cliched and the acting wooden. Maybe it’ll pick up.
huh. claire danes in that show is the polar opposite of what i think of when i think of wooden acting.
My problem with her is more her character, which (only seven eps in) is just poorly written. The actors playing Brady and the CIA deputy director are the ones I really don’t like.
i can see not liking brady’s actor. he’s very still. hard to read, and makes him seem like he’s failing at being read. but he grew on me on that show life. his ambiguity works for me in homeland.
otoh… mandy?? you don’t like mandy??? i… you… inigo montoya… MANDY??
No, no, Mandy’s the only actor I really do like in this show. I mean the black guy, (Googles) David Harewood who plays David Estes.
ah. no opinion. we’re good.
and i’m sorry to’ve helped hijack a thread. i just don’t know justified past season 1.
Agreed that the show is likely to benefit from finally getting the Boyd/Raylan story resolved.