‘Justified’

I am perpetually behind the curve when it comes to series television, but every now and then I’ll find something that really sucks me in.

One example is “Justified,” which ran on FX from 2010 to 2015. A friend turned me on to the show right around the end of its run. I got hold of the DVDs from my local library and burned right through all six seasons. A couple weeks ago I picked up Season 1 from the Grant County Library in John Day, and it looks like the process is starting to repeat itself all over again.

Based on characters created by Elmore Leonard, “Justified” tells the story of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), a modern-day U.S. marshal with an Old West attitude who gets reassigned from Miami to rural Kentucky, a place he vowed never to return to after his hardscrabble upbringing. There he matches wits with Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), a childhood friend turned backwoods crime boss. He also gets involved in a complicated and dangerous love triangle featuring his ex-wife, Winona (Natalie Zea), and Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter), Boyd’s newly widowed sister-in-law.

The show delivers fast-paced action, satisfying story arcs, crackling dialogue and quirkily engaging characters. My favorite is Art (Nick Searcy), Raylan’s smart-mouthed and perpetually exasperated boss. A close second is Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns), a psychotic Dixie Mafia enforcer who runs criminal enterprises out of a motor home.

But it’s the high-tension cat-and-mouse game between Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder that gives “Justified” its dramatic firepower.

— Bennett Hall, editor, Blue Mountain Eagle