TV GUIDE: Ask Matt: Justified, The Killing, Hunger Games (on TV?), Smash, and More
Mar 26, 2012
by Matt Roush
Send questions to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow on Twitter!
... Question: I'm really surprised by the lack of comment (here and elsewhere) on this season of Justified. It had a lot to live up to after that near-perfect second season and (in my opinion) has been maintaining the standard extremely well. I haven't enjoyed TV-show dialogue this much since The West Wing went off the air. Add to that the insane wealth of character-actor talent that passes through (Neal McDonough is every bit as deserving of an Emmy as Margo Martindale was last year), and for me this has become the one show I can't wait to watch every week. Is it just being taken for granted? — Dan
Matt Roush: I'm not noticing any less love for this terrific series from myself, TV Guide (Magazine and online), or other critics in general. I guess if the mailbag has been lacking — to which I assume you're referring, because I've been praising this season of Justified any chance I get, in Week in Review columns, previews and elsewhere — it may be because last year was the true breakthrough for the show, and this season, while still delightfully gripping and witty entertainment, may not seem as remarkable. Though really, it is. It's also been fighting for attention this year in a very cluttered time period with other cable headliners including TNT's Southland and USA's White Collar. (For the next few Tuesdays, though, it has an open playing field, so you have no excuse not to watch.)
I agree that while there's no topping what Margo Martindale did as Mags Bennett last year, Neal McDonough's psycho Quarles and Mykelti Williamson's more quietly menacing Limehouse are more than filling the void, especially in recent weeks as the stories have converged with suspenseful (but always cleverly laugh-out-loud) brio. Add the continued great work by Timothy Olyphant as the coolest marshal in all of Kentucky, plus Walton Goggins and Joelle Carter as the unrepentantly criminal Crowders, and all the other colorful characters, and you're talking a sort of greatness that doesn't always call attention to itself, but deserves to be in Emmy's top tier for sure. (May I also take this opportunity to recommend reading Elmore Leonard's Raylan, which is just different enough from the series to be its own surprising and compulsively enjoyable experience.) And finally, some advance praise for this Tuesday's episode (10/9c), a humdinger in which just about everyone, from Raylan to Boyd to a couple of Detroit thugs, are on the hunt for the increasingly out-of-control Quarles. Great stuff...
Justified airs Tuesday at 10/9C on FX.
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