A NAIL-BITER ON ‘JUSTIFIED’
Series is gunning for Emmy notice
If you want job security, don’t play a bad guy on Justified.
Anyone who watches this terrific series knows that doesn’t count as a spoiler, because it isn’t telling you anything you’re not already anticipating going into tonight’s nailbiter of a season finale.
You must know that everyone isn’t going to make it through the season, because everyone never has. What you don’t know is which one of the series’ multiple, colorful and seemingly indispensable villains is about to be dispensed with — and in some cases, what you’re probably not prepared for is how.
Let’s just say the writers involved with this series — from Elmore Leonard, who created U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, to producer Graham Yost, who has brilliantly brought him to electronic life — are too good at their jobs to let hints drop all season without finally picking them back up. It’s yet one more reason Justified is FX’S best drama and one of TV’S best series.
Raylan’s (Timothy Olyphant, who’s as good as anyone working in the medium today) main quarry tonight is the increasingly unhinged Robert Quarles (another great TV turn by Neal Mcdonough). But as last week’s intricate dance of double and triple crosses demonstrated, Raylan has far more than just Quarles to worry about, what with Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson) pulling strings and Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns) exploding bombs.
If, by the way, you need further proof of how deftly Justified treads the line between laughs and gasps, watch the scene in which Raylan questions Wynn over Quarles’ whereabouts. It’s what happens when great ideas, great writing and great acting combine.
Were Wynn and Quarles not enough, there’s also the constant threat that is Boyd Crowder — played by the inimitable Walton Goggins, who, like Olyphant, has created a character who can be comic relief at one moment and a deadly threat the next.
If there was a problem with this season earlier in the run, it was that the story line didn’t tie into Raylan’s past or into the show’s Kentucky locale as specifically and emotionally as last year’s did. But that issue has diminished over the past few weeks, as Limehouse has become more prominent, and it vanishes tonight with a twist that hits as close to Raylan as any twist could.
Wrapping up another stellar run in completely satisfying, constantly surprising fashion, Justified again stakes a strong claim for award-season attention. There are dramas out there that are as good, but it’s hard to think of any that are this good and yet this consistently, rousingly entertaining — which probably hurts it among those who seem to think a show has to be a struggle to watch to be Emmy-worthy.
Watch tonight, and then tell me the Emmy doubters aren’t wrong.