Justified: Season Three (2012)

Showrunner: Graham Yost

The same thing is true of every season of Justified, the first 10-12 episodes are pretty good but not great, but then the last couple episodes are flat-out outstanding and make the rest of the season better in hindsight. In the case of the third season, it's really just the final episode (final scene if you want to get specific) that crosses the "great television" threshold. As great as that final episode is, it's not enough to retroactively make the whole season great, though I certainly have a better opinion of the other episodes now. The third season is not quite as good as the second, but maybe a bit better than the first. It's uneven, but it's wildly entertaining.

The main villain of the season, Quarles, was a bit too cartoonish sometimes for my taste, but he provided some great Tarantino-esque moments that made the show all the more easier and fun to watch.  It's really at the end of the season that we find some meaningful information about him that connects him to the overall theme of fatherhood and specifically the shadows a father casts over their son. The reason the show has been faltering a bit in my view has been the lack of focus on its main character, Raylan Givens. There are many supporting characters on the show now, and it has all now become about them, rather than Raylan. Like the great pilot episode in the first season, the final episode this season was about Raylan, and that is why the episode was great. If more of the show involved Raylan's issues with his family, his work, and his temperament and including them in the main plot, the show would be much better. As it stands, the show has never failed to be entertaining, and so I cannot deny its quality.

Grade: B-

Justified: Season Two (2011)

Creator: Graham Yost

 After a solid, but a bit underwhelming first season, the second season of Justified started back again with the clever dialogue and strong individual stories in each episode, but there was definitely an increase in time given to the season-long arcs. There are parts of the first half of this season that suffer from the same blandness of the first season, but the last five or so episodes in particular tell a great crime story on a rural scale featuring some really unique and great characters played by Margo Martindale and Jeremy Davies.

This season also highlighted what this show does best, and that is showcase this specific part of America and give it a definable culture. The cultural ticks and rules of Harlan Country are captured very well and then when put through the point of view of Raylan, the main character, a man who left and came back, gives the place a specific feel. The show combines the themes of home, family, and the past to create a really strong crime story about how no matter how far away you run, your ties to your family and your home will always bring you back.

Grade: B+

Justified: Season One (2010)

Creator: Graham Yost

 The initial concept of this show, beyond adapting an Elmore Leonard short story, seems to have been to create a western set in modern America. That concept has a lot of potential, but I am not so sure it reached that potential in the first season. The first episode is great in setting up our main character of Raylan Givens, a lawman who does not have as much respect for the law as you would think. But the next six or so episodes did not advance that character or the plot very much. They were mostly standalone episodes that did not give a strong desire to watch the next one, though I will say that even the worst of those standalone stories was entertaining.

The last few episodes though get into more serialized storytelling, and it pays off very well in the final episode. Those last few episodes solidified the show as more than just a few entertaining characters who frequently say clever lines. The juxtaposition of two son's who ended up in different places, Raylan and Boyd, was fascinating and it culminated in a great final episode that fully took on the daddy issues theme of the season. I'm not sure if the final couple episodes truly make up for the wandering in the rest of the season, but I cannot deny that the show is always fun to watch even when there's nothing particularly important going on. If the show continues the serialization then it can definitely turn into something great.

Grade: B-