JUSTIFIED: Season 2 - Page 2

FANTASTIC episode. Even though the A-plot was cliched, the level of nuance to the characters made it work. Of course, literally every fucking scene was great too. It's this cast. They could deliver any ol' line of dialogue convincingly. Props to John Dahl too, who is clearly the shit.

Edited by Pop Zeus - 3/3/11 at 7:48pm

Dahl recently helmed some Battlestar and Caprica episodes (including Season 4's tense-as-fuck "The Oath"), which puts him further points up in my book.

Absolutely.  They're balanced so well in fact that the goddamn episodes breeze right on by.  This season is great so far and I really hope they do well enough ratings-wise to bang out a few more seasons (as long as they can keep up the quality).

 

 

I hope it lasts long enough and does well enough to get an Ian McShane guest spot.

 

Such a quietly thrilling and entertaining show.

 

Finally got time to watch last week's episode, and all I can really add is that Dave Alvin followed by DBT is just more evidence that this show is on some fairly specific southern-fried wavelength that I never knew I had.

 

And not that I really care about the Emmys, but if I had a vote, I can't even begin to imagine how I'd choose between Martindale and Maggie Smith.

Good episode tonight, it needed more Jim Beaver though.

While not quite Kathy Bates in Misery, the punishment scene was more disturbing for me than the aftermath of the bombing.

 

Boyd's plan was pretty clever, especially blowing up most of the money so no one would be looking for the chunk he kept.

 

I just realized that both of Mags' sons getting punished were in LOST, although I don't think they shared a scene. So that's at least 3 LOST actors so far on Justified. I guess someone's a fan (and a good casting person).

Am I wrong in thinking Justifed is considerably better than it was last year?  And, you know, Season 1 was pretty damn great.

Not at all.  Season 2 is aces so far.

I'm rewatching Season 1 right now, and I'd say that Season 1 really kicks into gear when Bo and Arlo make their respective appearances. But picking between the two is a pointless exercise, really: for me, anyway, this is my favorite television since the end of The Shield, and the difference between the strongest episodes, and the weakest, is small enough to be negligible.

 

Goggins was so good in that last scene with Ava.  He seemed so weary and resigned to life as a criminal.  

 

And, holy shit, Margo Martindale is killing it on this show.  "If you weren't a cripple, it'd be you down there!" 

"You will not die in that hole, Kyle. You have my word on that."

 

It's an amazing episode where Raylan tasering someone in the nuts is not the height of ownage. Boyd eavesdropping on his criminal associates and getting them to blow themselves up seemed pretty hardtop, right up until the end, when Mags shows up with her hammer. FTW, as the kids say. Just brutal.

The one who's not keeping up here is Dickie. He started off looking like a potential badass, and is now looking like the Ziggy Sobotka of the Bennett clan.

I love this show. 

 

In adittion to the superb writing and acting it has this weird ambiance. It reminds me of hanging out at my village, late in the afternoon, drinking beers with my cousins.  

Some really great moments last night. Agree with Singer that next week looks like a stand alone, but those were some of my favorites from last season. Can't wait for it...

I hope your cousins aren't like the Bennett clan.

Great episode. Goggins was awesome. And his hair seems to get longer and crazier every episode, yet still remain vertical, which only adds to the nuttiness.

On another note, i must start drinking some whisky or bourbon while watching this. To really soak up the atmosphere.

 

 

 

My love for The Shield knows no bounds.

 

I really do think this season has been much better than the last, and that it is more promising.

 

I found the core arc in the last season to be a little underwhelming, while the stand alones were fantastic.  I was never dying to find out more about the core story.  This new crime family appears far more intriguing than the family of Bo and Arlo.  Theres amazing actors, hidden histories, and the impending rival Dixie mafia headed by that one nutso!!!!

 

The first season, it didn't seem like they knew exactly what to do with Googins character, and his mini battle with his father was a little unsatisfactory. Googins anger at his fathers death certainly felt off.  Bo and Arlos relationship certainly does not appear as complex and interesting as Maggs relationship to her kids.    And Googins went through too many changes as a character in the first season.  A quality show has characters that end in a different place from where they started, but the change should be done slowly and believably.  White supremecist, born again religous cult leader, and now to quite badass who accepts his destiny as a bad man.  All of this happened if a very short period of time.  I know some of those personalities may have been an act to some extent, but it felt more like the character was supposed to die, and due to the popularity and how well the actor was doing, they kept him on, and it didn't fully work.

 

Don't get me wrong still liked the first season a lot.   But this new one seems so much more promising.  I love it.
 

 

As much love as all of the aspects of this show gets (and earns), be it the actors, the dialogue, the humor and the brutality, one part has been severely underrated in my opinion: Walt Goggins fucking hair. Shit keeps getting crazier and crazier, I love it.

Not at all. Except or all the "make your own booze" stuff.

 

I agree about the hair. They're crazy enough by now that them ending up as a plot point seems certain. Someone will have to adress their majesty.

 

Goggins' hair is starting to resemble that of a troll doll. I love it.

 

This most recent episode is, to me, the best of the season so far. Feels like a major turning point/break into the next level of things, if that makes sense.

The most recent episode definitely is a major turning point.  Bo is back to accepting his criminal fate.  Obviously the writers have been trying to find a groove for this character and crime is only obvious.  And at the same time Ava decides to be part of his criminal fate.  This should be one of the major conflicts for the rest of the season.

 

I think Goggins trollish hair is due to trying to cover up his obvious baldness.  Must be lots of hair injections and hair styling trickery.

dibs on the use of "Goggin's Hair" as a band name....

My own hair is dark, straight and rapidly thinning in the back. I'm starting to think the Goggins is going to be the way for me to go.

Loved the b-plot (if that's what it can be called) with Goggins and Ava. On the one hand he was involved with a crime and killed someone in cold blood but part of what he was doing was self- defense and I don't know that he wasn't justified (har har) in offing that one surviving robber. And those mixed feelings inform our reaction to Ava being somewhat forgiving of Crowder. Great stuff.

Watching the episode with my wife, and we both turned to each other and said exactly the same thing: THAT GUY'S HAIR IS JUST LIKE OUR BABY'S!.

 

The Bennetts were missed, of course, but there were some great visuals (loved the alternating POV in the Winona-Gary scene), and I really can't complain about Nick Searcy getting his own episode.

kind of a wheels spinning episode but it looks like it continues into next week.

 

any episode that prominently features the chief is alright in my book, i especially loved the opening. "if you disrespect ms. crowder again, i'll beat the ever living shit out of you".

Best foot chase ever.

I think I liked the episode a lot more than most of you did. My biggest complaint with Justified has been how it keeps so many seemingly interesting characters on the sidelines with only 1 or 2 lines per episode. An episode like this one makes me happy.

 

Raylan confronting the two robbers in the bank and his final line was pretty badass too.

"You must be the smart one."

 

(drops his gun and lays down on the floor)

 

He was the smart one!

Yeah,, didn't love it but Goggins knocked his scene right out of the sports metaphor.

Outstanding look of bewilderment from Raylan upon discovering Boyd, in a suit, alone in the courtroom. Made even better by Boyd volunteering to show Raylan where he'd have hidden a bomb.

 

Should be interesting to see Boyd mix it up with the Bennetts.

Really good episode, with the exception being the bomb squad guy called off at the last possible second. Such a cliche - I really hoped they would to go somewhere different with that whole setup.

Where else could they go with it? Besides writing Raylan's superhot ex out of the show, I mean?

 

Somebody w/ Justified's casting likes "Hung" on Showtime. They've now employed the sexiest 40% of that show's cast from season 1 (apologies to Thomas Jane). But while Justified is the better show, Hung gets bonus points for having both actresses naked.

 

Nice to see the storylines merging for added tension. This show has a nice way of threading seemingly unrelated plotlines into each other.

 

Well, they could have not written that setup in the first place. Or have the bomb threat, but don't show the guys just about to go into the bag before they're called off from doing so.

 

But since you asked, maybe have the bag be gone when they re-enter the building. It would definitely raise some questions, and wouldn't let either Raylan or Winona off the hook so easily. Anything other than the same old tired cliche...

My only tiny quibble is that I'd have preferred to see Boyd's recruitment begin playing out in the previous episode; it felt a tad rushed to me (but "Is there a Penney's on the way?" was only one of a dozen classic lines from last night).

 

And I don't know who hit it farther out of the park, Searcy or Root, but they both have absolutely dead-on timing in their delivery. Which is not to take Olyphant for granted: given the need to keep Winona's situation hush-hush, he did an amzing job communicating so much with looks and small gestures. And as others have mentioned, his reaction to finding Boyd in the courtroom was just wonderful.

I loved him slowly inching out of the evidence room as well.

 

This episode reminded me of the Denzel flick Out of Time.

Great episode. And good to see Mr Duffy back.

 

HBO not Showtime ... but, yeah, no kidding. It was almost bizarre seeing Rebecca Creskoff with her clothes on.

 

And not only is HUNG where I fell in love with Natalie Zea, but also don't forget Margo Martindale showed up in season one as one of Ray's first clients.

RENEWED for season 3!

Or close to anyway, according to EW. It's a no-brainer.

Olyphant has the best 'incredulity' face on TV.  Bar none.  Every time something happens that would send lesser characters into conniption fits, Olyphant puts on this face and it adds another layer of greatness to the character of Raylan.

 

It's like Raylan views all of creation with an attitude of "You're shitting me."

 

Goggins is clearly getting some work done upstairs. His hair was not nearly as odd or anti-gravitational on The Shield.

Speaking of the The Sheild, anyone else get a weird sense of deja-vou with the whole counterfeit $$$ from the evidence locker and the Money Train fiasco from Season 3?

 

The Chief was clearly onto Raylen when he ran into him in the evidence locker. But, probably won't pursue it because of lack of evidence and the fact that Raylen is his best agent.

 

And I agree that Winoa is one sexy woman but what was up with her boobs in that opening scene?    

Renewed!

 

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/03/29/justified-renewed-by-fx-for-a-third-season/87465

 

Its ratings aren't great, so It's good to know they're good enough. It's like the people at FX KNOW WHAT I LIKE!

i thought the premiere had really good ratings?

JUSTIFIED's ratings are fine. Up 8 percent so far this year, too.

 

The ratings are below Sons of Anarchy, or what The Shield or Nip/Tuck got, but higher than Terriers, Damages, Lights Out or the other shows FX has canceled. It's just hard to say what FX considers "good enough", so it's a relief to know Justified is doing at least that well. :)

Agreed. I want this show to run for seven seasons!