Rewind: Justified S3

If you haven't seen Justified, I encourage you to watch the show, but don't read this review.  If you must be convinced, read my first season review devoid of spoilers.

SPOILERS BELOW

Justified continued it's abnormally long streak of great television in season three, with the exception of a single misstep.  This is ridiculously entertaining television, good enough that it's quickly making it's way onto my favorite of all-time.

The theme of this season appeared to be fathers and sons, whether in blood or in practice.  Raylan is having a kid, which I don't think we know the sex of yet, but I'd bet good money it's a boy.  Limehouse seemed to have taken over the mantle of Errol's father.  Raylan's father, Arlo, is a constant thorn in Raylan's side.  Then, a sneaky father-son type relationship occurred between Arlo and Boyd.  And lastly, Robert Quarles has a possibly imaginary connection to his surrogate father in Theo Tonin.  (Mags Bennet, while not a father, was an authority figure who certainly hovered over Dickie's actions and would fit the theme)

And I got to say, the writers of this show must have been abandoned as children, because they do not think very highly of fathers - according to this show at least.  With the exception of Arlo's protection of Boyd, every father disappoints their son.  I guess Raylan hasn't really had the chance to yet, but I'm going bet that's as surefire thing to happen as Raylan remaining trigger-happy in season four.

To replace of the towering figure that is Mags Bennet from season two, the writers went for the quantity of villains, but certainly didn't lack for quality thankfully.  There's Robert Quarles, who slowly reveals himself to be a madman.  There's Ellstin Limehouse, who slowly begins to seem like a practical man and not really a villain.  The narrative arc of these two characters, who seemed to switch positions from the beginning of the season towards the end, was an unexpected delight.

While Neal McDonough does not quite match the performance of Margo Martindale, he steals every scene he's in.  He relishes every moment he's able to be on screen and chews the scenery.  It straddles the line between caricature and real person, but I think he manages to do it quite effectively.  Mykelti Williamson, most famous for Bubba in Forrest Gump, manages to make you forget all about the shrimp business and fear his ability to burn your hand.

Justified is one of those shows that's so incredibly well-acted that I find I will have less space to praise everyone who deserves such praise.  It's a crime that I will only spend one sentence on Walton Goggins and Timothy Olyphant, but I can't really say anything new that I haven't said already about them.  Nick Searcy is criminally underrated in his role as Art Mullen.  Jeremy Davies has sometimes a little too much fun playing Dickie Bennett, nonetheless he does his Davies thing but with enough variation to separate Dickie from his Lost and Saving Private Ryan characters.  Lastly, Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy basically spent this season reacting to whatever Quarles did and created a compelling and funny character out of that.  (And his scene where Raylan plays Russian Roulette with him is hilarious)

The show also has an amazing ability to create compelling characters with so little time.  Trooper Tom Bergen had more personality than any character in the two seasons I watched of The Walking Dead.  Jim Beaver was so good in his clearly designed one-off role that they found a way to bring him back.  Hell, Desmond Harrington provided a more interesting character in one episode than his character on Dexter in 72 episodes.  And don't even get me started on the greatness of Dewey Crowe, who gets his own, glorious standalone episode in this season.

If there's a weakness to this show, it's that Winona is kind of an awful character (not person).  It's the show's lone character who is terribly written.  One moment she's in support of Raylan, the next she leaves the house without a moment's notice.  She is literally unpredictable, but not in any way that makes sense to the character.  It seems they are basically writing her out of this show, which is fine by me.  And it's not really a female problem either because Joelle Carter as Ava really steps up as a character in this season.  (Also, Helen was well-written and Lindsay in her one or two episodes is a character I want to see again hopefully)

The other weakness, but it seems unfair to call it a weakness, is that they still don't really give Tim or Rachel anything to do.  It's unfair to call it a weakness, because when they get things to do, they are awesome.  Tim's sarcastic one-liners plus general annoyance with Raylan are always a highlight.  Rachel's a little less well-defined, but she's far from a drag on the series.  I sort of hope they find a more prominent way to integrate them into the story, but if they keep doing what they have been, I won't be too bothered by it.

I mentioned above that this season has a single misstep and that misstep is "Coalition," the twelfth episode of this season.  First, Boyd leaves Quarles to be guarded by two low-life hookers and a single, dim-witted bodyguard while keeping him so loosely tied up that it was hardly a surprise when he got free.  Then Boyd leaves Errol and Dickie with a wheelchair-bound Johnny.  It was an uncharacteristically unrealistic episode that was purely to move the plot along.

Otherwise, Justified hit on every other episode.  Whether it was a standalone plot that was extremely satisfying such as "Thick of Mud" with Dewey Crowe, a plot-moving episode such as "Measure," or an episode that pays off your patience such as "Slaughterhouse," they all at the least were immensely entertaining.

Even on episodes designed to get the pieces moving for a later date, the dialogue crackles with such spark that it's impossible not to be enraptured at the screen every minute.  This is the best-written dialogue of any show ever.  I've never been as entertained watching two people talking to each other as I am when Boyd and Raylan have a conversation.  Olyphant and Goggins have so much chemistry, there's a semi-plausible way they could get the two characters to start fucking.  (If both weren't clearly heterosexuals, I'd say it'd be downright likely)

Overall, if you aren't watching Justified, you are really missing out on a great show.  (Actually if you aren't watching it and have read it this far, what the hell is wrong with you?  Stop reading spoilers and watch the show!)

Playlist (Part of my Top 50 tracks for year; no particular order; 1-10 are here)

11. "Hurricane" - MS MR
12. "Indian Summer" - Stereophonics
13. "Burn" - Ellie Goulding
14. "400 Lux" - Lorde
15. "Timber" Ke$ha ft. Pitbull (Guilty pleasure)
16. "Pompeii" - Bastille
17. "Soothe My Soul" - Depeche Mode
18. "Kemosabe" - Everything Everything
19. "Needle" - Born Ruffians
20. "Lost that Easy" - Cold War Kids