Justified: Season 1

After two posts earlier today on disappointing items, it's my pleasure to end the day on a positive note. I caught the premiere of Justified back in the spring of 2010 and enjoyed it, but quickly fell behind on the show when school projects and other happenings prevented me from being able to watch it every Tuesday night at 10:00. (These would be the last few months I'd spend without DVR, and I have no idea how I'd ever go back.) I did manage to catch the final few episodes of the season at Sween's place after graduating and moving back home. I liked what I saw once again, and starting with Season 2 I've watched every episode since. But I never saw that middle chunk of Season 1, and as such I was missing a lot of context during the later parts of Season 1 and also plenty of Season 2. So for a few weeks now I've been catching up on the first season on Blu-ray with Marissa, who also jumped into the series in the middle of its run (for her, Season 3).

This show has all of the necessary elements to work, from multidimensional characters to a well-defined environment and the correct balance of episodic plots and season-long arcs. Most of all, Timothy Olyphant is masterfully cast here as Raylan Givens, a U.S. Marshal with a cowboy hat, a quick draw, and bucketfuls of swagger and charisma; he brings a wild west mentality to the hick-ridden bowels of Eastern Kentucky, and it just plain works. So does the complicated relationship web of Raylan, childhood friend Boyd Crowder, their fathers, and their ex-lovers. Anytime Raylan and Boyd share the screen it's just sheer delight to listen to their dialogue, and to call their relationship "complicated" would be the short version of things but also perfectly adequate.

We plan to watch Season 2 soon, and it sounds like there may be interest from others as well; we could certainly make an event out of this if anyone else wanted to. For now, I'll just reiterate what a treat this first season of Justified was. I'm glad I went back to fill in the gaps I'd missed.