Longmire has promise
Longmire, the promising new A&E western starring Robert Taylor as the aging, world-weary sheriff of a sprawling rural county in present-day Wyoming, is a diamond in the rough — an understated, surprisingly engaging detective series that works both as a murder mystery and as an almost documentary-like character study of the present-day West, with its winding mountain roads, sprawling ranchlands and aboriginal reserves.
Longmire was adapted for the small screen from the bestselling mystery novels by Craig Johnson. As with the similarly themed Justified, adapted from the Elmore Leonard novels, Longmire has a working template even before the TV adaptation begins. The characters have been drawn, the setting fully realized. The tone, the style, the stories themselves have been more or less decided. All that’s left for the TV version to do is adapt the books in such a way that it doesn’t alienate readers of the original, but not so faithfully that it’s difficult for new followers to catch on.
Based on early evidence, though, Longmire looks as if it’s ready to play the long game. The rural Wyoming setting is a character in its own right, with its crisp white snow and clear blue skies. Saw-toothed mountains rise sheer above the plain, and tucked out of view from the mountain passes, people lead quiet and, in some cases, desperate lives.
The early scenes have an almost Fargo- like quality to them. Katee Sackhoff, late of Battlestar Galactica, plays a very different character here. She’s the sheriff’s deputy, recently transplanted from the big city, and her big-city ways clash almost immediately with Taylor’s laconic, old-time country hand. Saving Grace’s Bailey Chase plays another sheriff’s deputy, a young, ambitious careerist who’s determined to challenge Longmire in the next county election for sheriff because, as he sees it, the old man has lost it and is no longer relevant, as a law enforcement officer or anything else, in the new West.
Longmire is more than just another summer diversion. It has the potential, like The Closer before it, to become a summer staple. (A&E — 8 p.m.)
Game of Thrones ends its second season with an episode called Valar Morghulis. In Game of Thrones’ language of High Valyrian, it’s a customary saying in Essos, which, loosely translated, means, “All men must die.” (HBO — 9 p.m.)
Mad Men nears the end of another distinctive, addictive season with the episode Commissions and Fees, in which the staff of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce presumably square off over billable hours. Or not. (AMC — 8 & 10 p.m.)
The Killing continues its own slowburning date with destiny, in an outing in which Sarah (Mireille Enos) and Holder go on the run. The final reveal is June 17. There’s no word yet on a third season. (AMC — 7 & 11 p.m.)