The dialogue is a character all its own
The Show: Justified, Season 5, Episode 4 The Moment: The conversating
U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) enters the bar owned by his old frenemy, career criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins).
“I’m afraid you caught us with a closed sign up,” Boyd says.
“Allow me a moment to collect my wits such to reply,” Raylan says. “I’m overcome trying to factor how many weapons you, a felon, are armed with.”
“I’m not armed as such,” Boyd protests. “Just transporting this legally procured hunting implement from point A to point B.”
“We have a more pressing concern,” Raylan says. “I understand Wade Messer worked principally for you.”
“Your use of the past tense gives me some sense of foreboding,” Boyd says.
“The man’s wandered some off the radar,” Raylan says.
“And what leads you to surmise he has continued affiliation with me?” Boyd asks.
This conversating (as folks ’round here call it) meanders on for some while. Eventually it lands on what Raylan wants, Messer’s cellphone number.
On other shows, this scene would be two lines long. But Justified comes most deliciously alive when these two are in a room together, circling each other like lazy mountain lions. It’s the Olympics of who can drawl more softly, spin prettier prevarications, eyeball each other more calmly.
Nothing establishes Justified’s backwoods Kentucky mise-enscène better than its dialogue. Right away, you know who its characters are: people who don’t read many books but have one in common, the Bible.
Their affiliations are tribal, but they speak the language of sermons. Their dialogue is a character all its own. Justified streams on Shomi. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.