3 out of 5

Covers up through season 4

Creator: Graham Yost

From its first episode – setting up the premise of impulsive marshal Raylan Givens (Olyphant) getting shifted from Miami to his hometown of Harlan, Kentucky after a too-high profile ‘Justified’ shooting of a collar – the adapted-from-an-Elmore-Leonard-story series promises grisly vengeance with a sarcastic smile, some down-home charm, and character nuances that come from Raylan’s bumpy relationship with his ex-wife, Joelle Carter, a past where old friends grow up to be local menaces – Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder – and our lead’s showboating rubbing up against the more by-the-books approach of his fellow lawmen.  From its second episode, having mined the story for its core elements, the show struggles with how to pitch itself.  Is it a procedural, is it a bang-bang spout-a-one-liner show, will it have over-arching themes and evolving storylines… and it goes for all of that, succeeding when it doffs its hat and smiles at the violence, finger trembling on the trigger.  Thus far seasons 1 and 4 capitalize on this the most, having a main bad guy in the background for the season but allowing each episode to, mostly, act as its own affair until the last few tie everything together.  Seasons 2 and 3 flounder – 2 tries to center the show by focusing on one main story, but its not enough for 13 episodes and feels a bit over-serious, whereas 3 goes for violent cool, even drumming up the series background music into a stupid upbeat action score and the episodes’ direction have a particularly “cool” feel that doesn’t match the down-home brew of the story.  But, overall, the show proves worth sticking with, the writing never dropping below a standard of good and occasionally broaching excellent.  Olyphant can’t do much with Givens, though season 4 reintroduces some of the interesting darkness of the first season, and he makes the most of the character, becoming more and more comfortable with the swagger as things go on.  Justified has just enough juice to nudge it out of ‘dad show’ territory, but for all its acclaim, its pretty regular right below the surface, risking hints at larger things that, hopefully, they’ll get to make good on for some penultimate / ultimate season.