[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Justified: City Primeval” Episode 8, “The Question” — the season, or series, finale.]
In the end, Timothy Olyphant’s scrupulous U.S. Marshal wants what every other beleaguered public servant wants at the end of a long, hard day: a good night’s sleep. That’s it. That’s all he asks. Yet whether it’s his conscience stirring him to action or the recurring call of duty blaring from his phone, Raylan Givens isn’t resting easy — not yet, anyway. The enduring assumption that one more case closed, one more bad man cuffed, or one more just act in an unjust world will allow him to hang up his hat for good lingers over the “Justified: City Primeval” finale, as well as its preceding episodes, in a way that suggests satisfaction is little more than a myth. Even when he’s not just doing it for himself (he’s doing it...
In the end, Timothy Olyphant’s scrupulous U.S. Marshal wants what every other beleaguered public servant wants at the end of a long, hard day: a good night’s sleep. That’s it. That’s all he asks. Yet whether it’s his conscience stirring him to action or the recurring call of duty blaring from his phone, Raylan Givens isn’t resting easy — not yet, anyway. The enduring assumption that one more case closed, one more bad man cuffed, or one more just act in an unjust world will allow him to hang up his hat for good lingers over the “Justified: City Primeval” finale, as well as its preceding episodes, in a way that suggests satisfaction is little more than a myth. Even when he’s not just doing it for himself (he’s doing it...
- 8/30/2023
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
This article contains spoilers for Justified: City Primeval.
When FX announced a new limited series featuring Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), fans of Justified were excited, but skeptical. The original run of Justified from 2010-2015 was some of the greatest television in recent memory, separating itself from the rest of the pack. Based on the works of Elmore Leonard, the series was equal parts country-fried charm and law-and-order procedural, where viewers could often find themselves cheering for the criminals as often as they did law enforcement.
Justified also ended as powerfully as it began, with arguably one of the most satisfying finales which not only sewed everything up, but was downright touching as well. Which means that new showrunners Dave Andron and Michael Dinner were playing with Kentucky fire – if Justified: City Primeval was a let down, it could ruin the hard work the original series put in for six years.
When FX announced a new limited series featuring Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), fans of Justified were excited, but skeptical. The original run of Justified from 2010-2015 was some of the greatest television in recent memory, separating itself from the rest of the pack. Based on the works of Elmore Leonard, the series was equal parts country-fried charm and law-and-order procedural, where viewers could often find themselves cheering for the criminals as often as they did law enforcement.
Justified also ended as powerfully as it began, with arguably one of the most satisfying finales which not only sewed everything up, but was downright touching as well. Which means that new showrunners Dave Andron and Michael Dinner were playing with Kentucky fire – if Justified: City Primeval was a let down, it could ruin the hard work the original series put in for six years.
- 8/30/2023
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Justified: City Primeval” Episode 7, “The Smoking Gun.”]
Before handing over the long sought-after murder weapon, Trennell (Joseph Anthony Byrd) asks Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) a simple question: “You sure you can use it?” Can Raylan take this gun, a gun that could’ve saved Sweety (Vondie Curtis Hall) on more than one occasion, and use it to, if not avenge his death, then bring his killer to justice? Raylan says he can. He’s sure he can. Except, by the end of Episode 7, “The Smoking Gun,” that firearm isn’t locked up in an evidence locker or even held by law enforcement. It’s at the bottom of a river. And how it got there neatly sums up Raylan’s continued frustrations with the maddening depths of a labyrinthine Detroit legal system.
Of course, the most straightforward use comes and goes the quickest. Raylan turns the gun over to Maureen Downey (Marin Ireland), as he should,...
Before handing over the long sought-after murder weapon, Trennell (Joseph Anthony Byrd) asks Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) a simple question: “You sure you can use it?” Can Raylan take this gun, a gun that could’ve saved Sweety (Vondie Curtis Hall) on more than one occasion, and use it to, if not avenge his death, then bring his killer to justice? Raylan says he can. He’s sure he can. Except, by the end of Episode 7, “The Smoking Gun,” that firearm isn’t locked up in an evidence locker or even held by law enforcement. It’s at the bottom of a river. And how it got there neatly sums up Raylan’s continued frustrations with the maddening depths of a labyrinthine Detroit legal system.
Of course, the most straightforward use comes and goes the quickest. Raylan turns the gun over to Maureen Downey (Marin Ireland), as he should,...
- 8/23/2023
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Justified: City Primeval” Episode 4, “Kokomo.”]
A common occurrence in “Justified” sees Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) sit down with someone most people would consider scary, but rather than beg off, back down, or express much emotion (beyond his trademark frustration mixed with mild curiosity), the U.S. Marshall is forced to reflect on the nature of his duties. Past bosses like Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale) and Ellstin Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson) are perhaps the best examples, given the credible moral dilemmas each local leader elicits from Raylan, but challenges of principle can come from just about anyone. Like, say, Toma (Terry Kinney), the Albanian mob boss who invites Raylan for a chat after the “accident” suffered by his nephew, Skender (Alexander Pobutsky).
With a pushy Norbert (Norbert Leo Butz) in tow, Raylan arrives at the meeting planning to convince Toma to let Skender tell the truth: that he didn’t fall down the...
A common occurrence in “Justified” sees Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) sit down with someone most people would consider scary, but rather than beg off, back down, or express much emotion (beyond his trademark frustration mixed with mild curiosity), the U.S. Marshall is forced to reflect on the nature of his duties. Past bosses like Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale) and Ellstin Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson) are perhaps the best examples, given the credible moral dilemmas each local leader elicits from Raylan, but challenges of principle can come from just about anyone. Like, say, Toma (Terry Kinney), the Albanian mob boss who invites Raylan for a chat after the “accident” suffered by his nephew, Skender (Alexander Pobutsky).
With a pushy Norbert (Norbert Leo Butz) in tow, Raylan arrives at the meeting planning to convince Toma to let Skender tell the truth: that he didn’t fall down the...
- 8/2/2023
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
The new FX limited series “Justified: City Primeval” is a fish-out-of-water story featuring a long, lanky fish in a Stetson hat. His name is Raylan Givens, and you might know him from “Justified,” the FX crime series that made itself at home in the hollers of Kentucky among white supremacists and other Southern miscreants from 2010 to 2015. Played by Timothy Olyphant with a smooth gait and seen-it-all demeanor, Deputy U.S. Marshal Givens, created by the unmatchable crime fiction writer Elmore Leonard, now finds himself in Detroit, where a maniac is sowing chaos, a dirty judge has been murdered and the rules of engagement are as wild as the West ever was.
But if Raylan is new to the criminal ways of Motor City, Leonard, who died in 2013, most certainly wasn’t. This was his home, and the setting for much of his most memorable work. He knew the crooks and the crooked cops,...
But if Raylan is new to the criminal ways of Motor City, Leonard, who died in 2013, most certainly wasn’t. This was his home, and the setting for much of his most memorable work. He knew the crooks and the crooked cops,...
- 7/4/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- The Wrap
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