TV GUIDE: TV's Best Dramas Right Now: Hats Off To FX's Justified
Feb 19, 2013
by Oriana Schwindt
He had us at "Kablam!"
From the first time Justified's retro lawman Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) did his Gary Cooper walk into the frame and — within the pilot episode's opening three minutes — laconically disposed of Miami hit man Tommy Bucks, we've loved him. After being transferred to his home state of Kentucky, the deputy U.S. Marshal has had to put down his share of scofflaws and ne'er-do-wells in Harlan County. But Season 4 has reaffirmed that our hero is just as much fun to watch when he's trying to figure out whom, exactly, to slap the cuffs on.
We're not alone in our love: This season's premiere on FX was the most watched episode of the series since the pilot, with 5.3 million viewers tuning in live or time-shifting. Network president and general manager John Landgraf attributes that growth to the show's uncommon depth. "We'd never really deeply examined the motivations of the white-hatted hero," he says. "We just knew he was good, they were bad. On one level, Justified is a wildly entertaining, funny, modern take on a Western. On the other hand, you can experience it as a really good book."
Literally. Justified began as an adaptation of the 2001 Elmore Leonard short story "Fire in the Hole," which featured Raylan Givens, a character who had appeared in two previous novels. Executive producer Graham Yost leaped at the chance to bring his self-proclaimed "25-year Elmore Leonard obsession" to fruition, but it was Olyphant who, halfway through Season 1, mentioned to Leonard that the show's creative team would love to have more material from which to crib. Leonard, notoriously finicky about adaptations of his work, was inspired to write Raylan, a novel of three loosely connected stories that became the backbone for Season 2 and provided plotlines and characters for Seasons 3 and 4. "For Graham and Tim," the book's dedication reads...
... For more on Justified and TV's best dramas, pick up this week's issue of TV Guide Magazine on newsstands Thursday, February 21!
Justified airs Tuesday at 10/9C on FX. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE EPISODE TRAILER FOR 'MONEY TRAP' AIRING FEBRUARY 19, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment