Justified Season 5 is upon us, and while it is indeed sad that Elmore Leonard won’t be around to enjoy it with us, the writers and producers have given us plenty of reasons to rejoice in returning to Harlan County, Ky., to follow the exploits of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). The three episodes the network has sent out for preview contain the same laconic charm mixed with brutal violence that has been the show’s hallmark.
Here are five reasons I already love Justified Season 5:
1) Guest Stars Galore: What’s so cool about the roster of guest stars every season on Justified is that they’re generally not marquee names. They don’t feel the need to go out and find some A-list movie star to slum it for a few episodes on TV. Instead they get quality character actors, the kind of people who make everything they’re in just that much better. Margo Martindale, of course, Mykelti Williamson, Gerald McRaney, Patton Oswalt … they all fit perfectly into this show’s personality. Season 5 continues this with heavy hitters like Michael Rapaport (a tried-and-true New Yawker, whose attempt at a Southern accent comes across like he’s channeling Robert De Niro in Cape Fear); David Koechner, who takes a break from crushing on Ron Burgundy to play a fellow U.S. Marshal; Will Sasso and Dave Foley as Canadian gangsters (see #5); real-life brothers Wood Harris and Steve Harris as thug enforcers; Alicia Witt as a Crowe sister who has some legal prowess; and Amy Smart as Raylan’s possible new love interest.
2) The Year of Our Boyd: It’s often repeated how the character of Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) was originally meant to die in the pilot episode of Justified, just as he was in “Fire in the Hole,” the Elmore Leonard short story that inspired it, but that Goggins’ portrayal was so rich the producers decided to keep him around. To say Boyd has proved to be an essential part of the show is almost a ludicrous understatement. In addition to just being compelling to watch, the character has shown the flipside of the coin to Raylan’s character, and their uneasy at best relationship never proves less than fascinating. This year Boyd takes up an even greater focus as he not only tries to keep his criminal empire afloat but works tirelessly to free his beloved Ava (Joelle Carter) from jail.
3) Out of Kentucky: I love the down-home charm of Harlan as much as the next guy, but the first few episodes of Justified Season 5 let us stretch our legs a bit with side trips to Miami, where we come across more members of the mighty Crowe family, and Detroit, where Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns, now a series regular, yay!) and Boyd must go to make right a drug deal gone bad. Seeing Boyd, especially, mix it up with some city folk is worth the trip.
4) A Feast of Crowes: Our main entree into the Crowe family thus far has been via the just-dumb-enough-to-be-dangerous Dewey Crowe (Damon Herriman), who this season finds himself in the strange position of being in charge of things. Well, a whorehouse he bought from Boyd. But it’s profitable enough to attract the attention of some of his Florida kin, namely Darryl Crowe Jr. (Rapaport), and we soon learn that while we like to laugh at Dewey and write him off as a clown, his family might be a different story.
5) Canadian Gangsters! In the first episode, during Boyd and Wynn’s trip to Detroit, they cross paths with a couple of Canuck crime lords, embodied by real-live Canadians Dave Foley (The Kids in the Hall) and Will Sasso (MADtv). Waxing rhapsodic about how the legacy of hockey great Tim Horton has been reduced to the donut and coffee shops that bear his name (and for the record, Tim Hortons are amazing places), they seem as harmless as our neighbors to the north are so often made out to be. But then the conversation turns toward death and drugs, and we have to keep in mind that these guys are deadly serious. It’s unclear how involved Foley and Sasso’s characters will be going forward, but just having them there at all was nothing short of inspired.
Justified Season 5 begins 10pm Tuesday, Jan. 7, on FX.
Photos: (Rapaport) Credit: Guy D’Alama/FX; (Olyphant) Credit: Kurt Iswarienko/FX Networks
