Justified returns with Elmore Leonard endorsement

CASPER

New member
Elmore Leonard has never been shy about letting people know what Hollywood has done to his books. But in the case of "Justified," the FX series based on his work, he has said writer/executive producer Graham Yost and his staff have not only nailed the characters, tone and nuances but also gone beyond his wildest hopes.

The show's second season launches on FX on Wednesday.

Perhaps the note-perfect swagger of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), who is quick on the trigger and light on the options for criminals, hit a note with viewers during Season 1.

There could also have been some echoes of Olyphant's wonderful portrayal of Seth Bullock in HBO's "Deadwood." The man was born to be in a Western and wear a badge -- he looks absolutely iconic in a cowboy hat. Olyphant owns one the best squint-eyed stares in all of acting. Give him a gun, and you just know he's got an itchy trigger finger.

As Givens, a Kentucky native sent back (as punishment) from the Miami office to Lexington after he shoots a cartel member at a restaurant (it was, as Givens is wont to say, "justified"), Olyphant is the poster boy of the series. But his intensity is matched by Walton Goggins, who plays Boyd Crowder, Givens' boyhood friend-turned-criminal. It's possible that Season 1 would have been riveting without Goggins, the former "Shield" star who was supposed to die in the pilot. But the writers saw the chemistry the actors had and the magnetic and crazed gravitas Goggins brought to the part and couldn't turn their backs on what is likely to become a long-running friendship/feud between Raylan and Boyd.
 
Top