The Olyphant in the Room: Is This Sequel Justified?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Though it never seemed to grab the zeitgeist like many of its peak telly contemporaries, Justified remained a cracking show throughout its run. Now it's back, for a one-off miniseries, Justified: City Primeval.

Synopsis:

Having left the hollers of Kentucky eight years ago, Raylan Givens now lives in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 14-year-old girl. His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier, and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind.

A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who's already slipped through the fingers of Detroit's finest once and aims to do so again. Mansell's lawyer, formidable Motor City native Carolyn Wilder, has every intention of representing her client, even as she finds herself caught in between cop and criminal, with her own game afoot as well. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.

Olyphant is back (but that's a Given) as are a bunch of behind the scenes folk. It doesn't sound like any of the supporting cast will be, which is a shame.

[Jim_MacLaine]

Definitely worth checking out. There were some cracking seasons in the previous run.

Also worth watching to see how many Deadwood alumni turn up.

[mothman]

I've been gradually watching the original on Prime and liking it, but something about season 5 has made me stall after ep. 1.

Nick Searcy is a massive Republican asshole on social media (though he seemingly had no time for Trump) so unsurprised he's not back.

[selectivememory]

I watched it all a couple of years back. Found it very patchy, was possibly a bit disappointed that it never quite lived up to how good I was told it was. The sometimes episodic nature of it made it hard for me to get invested in it as much as I wanted to, and I often found I would love one season, and then struggle with the following one (seasons 2 and 4 are the ones that I remember liking the most).

Some amazing performances though. Walton Goggins is a mesmerising presence, and Olyphant is great. I'd previously not considered him much of an actor, but seeing him in this even made me go back and reconsider his entire character and performance in Deadwood. I'll definitely watch more of it if he's involved.

[Mister Six]

It wobbled a little in the middle, I thought - season 4 was a major misfire - but on the whole Justified was a superb series. Possibly the pinnacle of episodic network TV. The ending to the show was so perfect that I'm a bit worried this will tarnish the legacy, but Graham Yost is returning, so that bodes well, and Olyphant is always a pleasure. I wonder if it'll feel a bit slight and flimsy without the supporting cast, though. I don't want them to kill Raylan, of course, but I'm not sure what else can be done to justify - no pun intended - this return. Unless they play up the "old man" angle, but Olyphant still looks great and the show only finished about a decade ago, didn't it?

Also, I don't like Raylan's new hat. :(

[Mister Six]

Olyphant is great. I'd previously not considered him much of an actor, but seeing him in this even made me go back and reconsider his entire character and performance in Deadwood. I'll definitely watch more of it if he's involved.

Check out the Santa Clarita Diet, in which he plays the absolute opposite of Raylan. He should do more comedy - he was hilarious in that one episode of Conan O'Brien's podcast, too.

[letsgobrian]

I always liked the episodes that skirted around adapting Leonard novels they strictly speaking weren't allowed to adapt, so I'm happy to see them properly adapt one of the novels (albeit a non-Raylan one).

[Old Nehamkin]

Nick Searcy is a massive Republican asshole on social media (though he seemingly had no time for Trump) so unsurprised he's not back.

He was very much like that while the show was still running though.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I always liked the episodes that skirted around adapting Leonard novels they strictly speaking weren't allowed to adapt, so I'm happy to see them properly adapt one of the novels (albeit a non-Raylan one).

Didn't they have the same issue with naming Karen Sisco, when she appeared?

[letsgobrian]

Didn't they have the same issue with naming Karen Sisco, when she appeared?

Yes, she was Karen Goodall in Justified.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, Raylan made a comment about her still using her ex-husband's name, as a way to skirt around that while keeping it in an imagined continuity with the Sisco show (was it any good? I never saw it).

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Nick Searcy's character had retired at the end of the show, with Erica Tazel taking over.

It doesn't look like any other character from the show is returning and it won't take place in Kentucky. They're just adapting Primeval City as a standalone thing that uses Raylan Givens as the main character.

[Catalogue Trousers]

I saw the thread title, had visions of Olyhant teaming up with Tommy Wiseau, and now I'm disappointed.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Oh hai, Art.

[Bernice]

I love Justified. It's not the best TV out there, but it's among my favourites. It's a shame to miss out on that great supporting cast, but better that than contriving some way for them to feature. I reckon this will be good.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Yeah, Raylan made a comment about her still using her ex-husband's name, as a way to skirt around that while keeping it in an imagined continuity with the Sisco show (was it any good? I never saw it).

I never saw it either, but I recall plenty of people hoping for Carla Gugino to reprise the role on Justified, so I assume it was decent. I suppose I should seek it out.

[chveik]

amazing show but can't really see the point without the boy goggins

[beanheadmcginty]

They should've called it "Justified and Ancient"

[mothman]

Someone please assure me season 5 is worth persisting with because as it is I just can't face a dozen more episodes of Michael Rappaport.

[Bernice]

5 is probably the weakest season, but I didn't hate it. If you're really struggling, just skip to six, which is great.

[mothman]

Thanks B, I'm two in and I hate the idea of skipping ahead but I'll see how it goes...

[Old Nehamkin]

One random thing that sticks in my head from season 5 was an exchange where Rachel quotes a line of dialogue from the then-zeitgeisty David O. Russell film American Hustle and Raylan makes some approving comment about it. Felt like the writers were sure that movie was destined for iron-clad cult status, rather than having largely disappeared from the cultural memory 5 years later (deservedly so, if you ask me.)

Other than that, I remember finding the Ava prison storyline in that season completely tedious. Just bland boilerplate soap opera stuff. In the last couple of seasons I found that the Boyd/Ava story arc sometimes got a bit too melodramatic and  ponderous for my tastes. I liked the show best when it was just being funny and exciting and cool in the Elmore Leonard style rather than reaching for prestige-tv soberness as it sometimes did.

[Ignatius_S]

Though it never seemed to grab the zeitgeist like many of its peak telly contemporaries, Justified remained a cracking show throughout its run. Now it's back, for a one-off miniseries, Justified: City Primeval.

Synopsis:
Olyphant is back (but that's a Given) as are a bunch of behind the scenes folk. It doesn't sound like any of the supporting cast will be, which is a shame.

The project was announced last year - the series is being adapted from an Leonard novel but previously it wasn't confirmed if Olyphant was going to be involved - e.g.https://www.indiewire.com/2021/03/justified-spinoff-timothy-olyphant-new-series-1234624389/.

Similar to that link, some reporting said that it wasn't known that if Olyphant did reprise Givens, if it would be a leading role or a supporting one. Although it was very early days for the project, the novel had no connection to Raylan (and predates him by ten years or so) so there are different ways he could be incorporated that would have added to the unclarity.

[Ignatius_S]

Someone please assure me season 5 is worth persisting with because as it is I just can't face a dozen more episodes of Michael Rappaport.

Yes.

Also, desperately trying to avoid spoilers, if you have only watched the first two episodes, you haven't seen the introduction of one character that has relevance to season 6.

Incidentally, Entertainment Weekly had a post-mortem of each episode with Yost and really recommend reading those as there were fantastic insights how the show was made.

[mothman]

Oh really? I've been in the habit of reading recaps etc. got newer/current shows, like the ones that might appear in Vulture, Rolling Stone, and, yes, EW, but I'd not though of doing that for older shows (like this one).

And like I say I'm not giving up yet. ;-)

[mjwilson]

One random thing that sticks in my head from season 5 was an exchange where Rachel quotes a line of dialogue from the then-zeitgeisty David O. Russell film American Hustle and Raylan makes some approving comment about it. Felt like the writers were sure that movie was destined for iron-clad cult status, rather than having largely disappeared from the cultural memory 5 years later (deservedly so, if you ask me.)

You're not saying "don't put metal in the science oven" on a regular basis?

[Bently Sheds]

Just watching The Tourist on iPlayer and FUCKING HELL DEWEY CROWE IS AUSTRALIAN!!!!

[mothman]

No way! Strewth, to use the parlance.

Just blitzed a double, 5.3 & 5.4. Getting into it now.

[Mister Six]

Which reminds me - is Judge Reardon (the judge who always gives the maximum sentence to convicts) a numbers-filed-off version of Judge Bob Gibbs from Leonard's Maximum Bob, in the same way that Karen is Karen Sisco?

And if so, were there any other echoes of Leonard's other books in the show? I've read a bunch of them, but he was incredibly prolific.

[phantom_power]

Just watching The Tourist on iPlayer and FUCKING HELL DEWEY CROWE IS AUSTRALIAN!!!!

Holy shit, that's him isn't it