Justified premiered last week on FX. This cable series is based on Elmore Leonard’s character, U. S. Marshall Raylan Givens, who appeared in Leonard’s novels Pronto and Ride the Rap and a short story, “Fire in the Hole.” After a messy shootout in Miami, Givens is reassigned (for political reasons) to his home state of Kentucky. In his first case, Givens has to deal with an old acquaintance, Boyd Crowder (played with convincing menace by Walton Goggins), who leads a White Supremest cult. Timothy Olyphant plays Givens with the right mix of cool and brutality. The hallmark of Elmore Leonard’s work is causal violence. There’s a scene in Jackie Brown that still haunts me. I don’t watch much TV (although now with the new HDTV I’m spending more time surfing the HD channels) but I’ll be watching Justified on FX Tuesday nights. GRADE: B+ (so far)
We haven’t watched it yet but I recorded the first episode and will get the second one tonight. I liked Olyphant a lot as the sheriff in DEADWOOD and of course I’ve read the Leonard books.
JUSTIFIED captures the spirit of the Leonard books, Jeff. I was fearful that JUSTIFIED might bomb like MAXIMUM BOB and KAREN CISCO.
We liked it a lot. My only problem with it was at least twice people had the chance to shoot him before he shot them and just sat on it. This happens far too much in crime dramas. I think bad guys shoot first when they have the chance. They are not mesmerized by his big brown eyes like I am. Same thing happened in RED RIDING TRILOGY.
Yes, I feel exactly the same way you do, Patti. Most real Bad Guys would just shoot Rayland in the back and walk away.
The previews for this made it look pretty interesting, but we missed it. I assume it will appear on DVD someday, but I know that’s not always the case. In the latest issue of Time magazine, Leonard was the 10 questions subject, and said everything he writes is by hand, after which he types it up on an electric typewriter. He doesn’t have a computer (or cell phone).
I don’t have a cell phone, either, Rick. It’s an instrument of the devil. I couldn’t write everything by hand because I’d never be able to decipher it a couple days later. I type everything on my computers. I’m sure you can find the first episode of JUSTIFIED on HULU or the FX web site and watch it.
As for the bad guys hesitating, it’s happened for ever in those books where the good guy talks while the bad guy listens instead of firing or fleeing…
When you’re dealing with real psychopathic killers (as most of Leonard’s Big Guys are prone to be), I’m sure conversation isn’t going to distract them. That’s why that scene in JACKIE BROWN with Robert De Niro out in the parking lot is so haunting.
George, I bet your students are shocked that you don’t have a cell phone.
Shocked is not the word, Drongo! My students find it incomprehensible that someone can get through the day without a cell phone. I find cell phones to be annoying time-wasters.
I’M shocked. I thought I was The Last Man In America to hold out and not have one of those things. Somethings I’m not sure why I’m holding out, other times I feel the freedom of not carrying aorund a bell which insists I have to drop everything when it rings.
I told you great minds think alike, Rick. We both share an antipathy to being tethered to a communications device that would constantly demand our attention and waste our time. How many important phone calls do you get? I get about one important phone calls out of 100. The rest are social conversations (“Yo, what’s up?”) and annoying phone calls (“We have this great offer if you change your phone plan!”) even though we’re on the DO NOT CALL list.
Unfortunately, I find it necessary to have a cell phone, though I held out for a long time, but 90-95% of my calls are to or from Jackie.
Diane has a cell phone, Jeff. But she seldom uses it.
I was able to download the first episode free through iTunes. If I like it, I’ll watch for a while.
JUSTIFIED showed some promise in the first episode, Rick. I’ll be watching the second episode tonight.
I’ve enjoyed Olyphant since I first saw him in the movie Go back in 1999. At the time I thought he would have made a decent Anakin Skywalker… if only he’d been a few years younger we might have been spared the wooden Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin (which I don’t understand as I’ve seen Christensen in non SW movies and quite enjoyed his non-Star Wars work). I might have to check this one out. Thanks for sharing.
Olyphant is a solid actor, Darrin. He was very good in Deadwood, too. I can only assume Hayden Christensen’s wooded portrayal of Anakin was something he was directed to do. He’s a much better actor than that fiasco displayed.