4 – That season felt the most balanced from the writing perspective, there were poignant subplots that still spoke to the overall tone of the show. I love Raylan, but sometimes he was overused, even for a main character, In S4 he is still the lead and rightly so, but other stories\characters were allowed in the mix as well. If I could only re-watch one episode of Justified I would choose Decoy. It had a lot of moving parts, and everyone played them to the hilt. Admittedly, I always wanted them to use Gutterson more and S4 gave him a little bit of back story, and that ep. actually let him act like an Army Ranger rather than the writers just telling us. S4 was also largely set in Harland….which leads me to…..
2 – The Harland setting. Mags….I have said this before, but I will repeat myself one last time, I have never seen a TV show where I felt like I could name the people who served at prototypes for certain characters. All seasons except 3 had some of this, but S2 nailed the essence of the rural poor, redneck, faith, beauty, localized violence, back wood culture, etc….(Off – topic, If anyone else likes what I said here, I will recommend the movie Winter’s Bone, it is still my favorite Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes (Deadwood) also has a pivotal role. It is set in W. Va. which is very much like Eastern Kent). Back to Justified….
6 – One of the best finales I have ever seen, they didn’t go off the rails, they wrapped a full story, even if you didn’t like it, I don’t think anyone can make an argument that the writers cheated the audience. There is enough left open; those bags of money, Boyd doesn’t know he has a son, Raylan is knowingly concealing the location of a wanted fugitive, Ava and son living under a false ID, etc. to where if they do an FX movie or a short run series (3-4 eps) the material is there. However, if it never happens we still got a comprehensive narrative. Another thing about S6, the supporting characters were treated as supporting characters and not veritable extras, it all made sense, and it all clicked. There were some nitpicky things in the final ep, but overall, they showed a respect to Elmore Leonard and to the audience and delivered quality entertainment.
1 – Much of what I liked about S1 goes back to what I said about S2. I believe it is in S1 that we see Boyd giving his testimony at church, competing with the preacher for control of the pulpit, meanwhile his father sits scowling. I am quite serious when I say I got a pain from laughing, reason being, I have seen it happen, repetitively, basically for the first 25 years of my life. I think I fell a little bit in love with the writers and Goggins over the credibility of just that one scene. I admit S1 was a little uneven, and it is clear they were laying groundwork for stories that never developed, but it was still a favorite.
5 – I didn’t hate 3 or 5, Justified at its worst is still far better than most television. I am giving S5 a slight nose over S3, because even though it is near the bottom for me, it did contain both of my favorite death scenes in the entire series, Picker and Danny Crowe, both of those deaths seemed to come out of nowhere when they happen, but in the immediate aftermath my mind caught up and realized the writers filtered minor plot points leading up to the respective gruesome scenes.
3 – Clearly, no one can take issue with McDonough's performance, he was in many ways the most frightening villain, to me he was also different than most Justified villains. For whatever reason, even if you are a law and order type person, there are times you want to see the bad guys on this show come out OK. Quarles I just wanted to see him go down, the sexual assault aspect of his criminal behavior put him in another category for me, and I think it hurt the more humorous\quirky side of Quarles that they were trying to bring out. Still, it was a brilliant performance (reminded me of Oldman in The Specialist), and while I am glad Quarles didn’t show up in S6, I wish there had been some dialogue referencing how he and his one arm were making out in prison.
Off Topic, but I have to say it:
To quote Raylan, “if I allow myself to be sentimental…”
I hate what they are doing to the boards, but I wanted to say this was probably my favorite board of all. I never posted much on IMDB until Downton Abbey and Sherlock, once I started posting there I expanded into other shows\movies…it was nice diversion from professional and academic life. The last two years though it seemed like 80% of the boards that I used to enjoy became ridiculously negative and a small cluster of ingrates could taint an entire board.
With Justified, I can say I was never once concerned that posters were confusing TV with reality, and I can’t think of a time when I really worried that someone may be a genuine sociopath.
I feel like the Justified board remained balanced, we could agree to disagree; you know, like rational, thinking human beings are supposed to behave.
I doubt that any one of us has ever worked in dangerous mine (I haven’t), but I think we can all appreciate the sentiment, “we dug coal together.”
Everyone be well.
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mgreen9715
7 years ago
I loved the final line because I think it encompassed not only the show but I think the line could have been a metaphor as well. Their relationship was the way it was because they had each others back way back then and that bond was formed and it was still there till the very end. I love that their relationship stood it's ground even when they were on different sides of the law. They were more alike than either of them would ever want to admit.
in S6, I wish there had been some dialogue referencing how he and his one arm were making out in prison
He died at the end of S3, I thought?
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driftwood35
7 years ago
Very much enjoyed what you wrote wrapping up your rankings and I very much agree with you. I will miss the boards as a way to see what people are thinking about a certain show or movie but this is the only board I have followed consistently. Thanks for posting.
BTW 2,6,4,3,1,5.
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