Justified

"You have the right to remain silent as long as you can stand the pain." If, in the days of Dirty Harry, Eastwood was given his own series about arriving in the strange world of the state of Kentucky with all its rednecks, dumb wannabe Nazis, trailer parks, truck stops, incomprehensible dialects, impenetrable forests, sawn-off shotguns, bottles of Bourbon, banjos, moonshine, Southern rock and fried chicken, it would probably have looked a bit like this. As an old-school, new-age Western series “for guys", which puts its money on the peculiar “hick" small-town atmosphere in the middle of nowhere (i.e. in the Mid West) where almost everybody is related to everybody else and primarily on the unarguable charisma of the main (anti?)hero and traditionally “more than just outstanding" Walton Goggins. It’s true that at the beginning the creators rely maybe more on him than they ought, but as soon as the cases of notably inconsistent quality begin to give way to personal “fateful" storylines, it immediately becomes clear that we are going to remain in the rugged company of the (un)assertive cynic Rayland Givens (and his darn cool theme tune) and, on the flip side of the same coin, Boyd. ---- Season one begins like an improved version of Texas Ranger. Self-standing episodes which don’t know whether to be uncompromising or else lightweight to ridiculously naive and overall it seems like just another in a never-ending line of generic crime series. But this begins to change all of a sudden as of episode five when a long-term storyline begins to emerge. It suddenly finds its image and the second half of the season is outstanding, building up to a cool finale in the last episode. Season two continues entirely in the same style that season one ended in, and so no objections; this also happens for the self-standing episodes which this time round are at least one level better than last time and are much more linked to the main storyline. Not many series manages to learn from their mistakes, but the creators of Justified are an unusual exception. It is evident on all sides, but it was most apparent in the character of Boyd. You don’t often see anything like this: turning a pretentious filler character into a character worthy of Shakespeare; or how Goggins thoroughly enjoys both types. And where before if Raylan were not on screen, the quality went down sharply, this time this could be no further from the truth. And they managed to pitch a unforgettable villainous redneck family gathered around gang ma Mags Bennett against Raylan, which is the proverbial icing on the cake. Season three certainly isn’t significantly worse, but it just doesn’t achieve the quality of season two. The problem is with the villains. But not so much with the main villain of this season. Because Neal McDonough thoroughly enjoys (sometimes over-acting, but that suits the character) his big city mafia boss exiled to Hicksville as a punishment, trying to take over the local drug dealing scene. The problem is that the interesting characters disappear too soon for the creators to be able to exploit their potential (e.g. Pruitt Taylor Vince or Michael Ironside), while the tedious ones are given far too much room; which applies mainly about tedious Limehouse who is nothing else but a poor imitation of Mags. At least Boyd and Duffy never let us down. But none of the “main" characters is as essential to the story as the Bennetts were. On the other hand, in all other respects this is still Justified with all its qualities. And if powerful moments such as the scene in the bar in episode nine, then I will still be here watching it. Season four gives us a(n) (un)pleasant surprise with a complete absence of self-standing episodes. It is unpleasant that, apart from a couple of isolated exceptions, Raylan’s and Boyd’s storylines each follow their own course and never meet up. Even though direct confrontations between them were (and still are) climaxes of the series. I found the game around the shocking revelation of Drew’s identity; I can’t imagine any viewer who didn’t realize this a good few episodes sooner than the characters did. And I thought the resolution of one of the storylines in the last episode was a cheap trick; twelve episodes is a bit like a life-long feud and the solution to it is to retire on the eve of its “resolution"? Despite all of this, after last year’s stagnation, this means a return to its position at the top of this genre, because little else is so dramatic, well-written, full of wisecracks and mainly cool as this. Season five is neither the worst nor the best; it’s just standard for Justified which settles for four storylines (Ava’s prison odyssey, the Crowder family, Boyd’s flirting with the Mexican drug mafia and Raylan’s storyline) where each of them plays in their own sandpit and so there is no real point where they cross and where they do, it is more out of duty than anything else. Separate scenes are often excellent and shocking, but all in all it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t begin to work until preparations for the final season begin, promising a return to grass roots; in other words, Boyd versus Raylan. And whatever role the local rednecks, the Mexican and Detroit cliques will play, the quality will rely on those two alone. Because that is who this entire series has been about from the very start. Season six All’s well that ends well? Not completely true, but this does confirm that the even seasons are better than the odd ones. It is surprising that instead of bringing storylines to an end, so many new characters and storylines march in, while they ignore open-ended storylines from the past (mainly the cartels - that storyline was killed dead). However, the new storylines are some of the best that the creators ever came up with and so it’s no harm, it just means that the real finale comes in the second half. And although it’s excellent, after all these years you would have expected something a little more stylish, ingenious and fateful. | S1: 4/5 | S2: 5/5 | S3: 4/5 | S4: 4/5 | S5: 3/5 | S6: 4/5 | (05.01.2012) (vähemmän) (lisää)