It’s not Justified. It’s a Justified spin off.

Justified was a universe that had a couple of main characters. Rylan Givens and Boyd Crowder. The universe had a lot of really good support characters. Well written and acted characters. And the story lines around the family’s of Harlan. The Givens’. The Crowder’s. The Bennet’s. Later, the Crowe’s. Then you had the support characters outside of the family’s. Wynn Duffy, Elston Limehouse, “Mister” Quarles, Markham, and so many more.

Without that, you have “After MASH”, “Flo”, or “That 90s Show”.

(The scene with Justin Melnick and Pepper the Dutchy was cool I have to admit. He was the only one in the entire scene to have on decent and proper kit)

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
It’s not Justified. It’s a Justified spin off.

Justified was a universe that had a couple of main characters. Rylan Givens and Boyd Crowder. The universe had a lot of really good support characters. Well written and acted characters. And the story lines around the family’s of Harlan. The Givens’. The Crowder’s. The Bennet’s. Later, the Crowe’s. Then you had the support characters outside of the family’s. Wynn Duffy, Elston Limehouse, “Mister” Quarles, Markham, and so many more.

Without that, you have “After MASH”, “Flo”, or “That 90s Show”.

(The scene with Justin Melnick and Pepper the Dutchy was cool I have to admit. He was the only one in the entire scene to have on decent and proper kit)

I think as time goes on, we'll find that the Detroit characters will become more and more fleshed out and so will the corrupt environment of this new "holler". There's no reason this new series won't be as enjoyable as those episodes done in the previous series after the great Elmore Leonard passed away. I mourned the passing of "Breaking Bad", but thoroughly enjoyed the arrival of "Better Call Saul" from start to finish. Justified City Primeval has the same potential.

quote:

Originally posted by pulicords:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
It’s not Justified. It’s a Justified spin off.

Justified was a universe that had a couple of main characters. Rylan Givens and Boyd Crowder. The universe had a lot of really good support characters. Well written and acted characters. And the story lines around the family’s of Harlan. The Givens’. The Crowder’s. The Bennet’s. Later, the Crowe’s. Then you had the support characters outside of the family’s. Wynn Duffy, Elston Limehouse, “Mister” Quarles, Markham, and so many more.

Without that, you have “After MASH”, “Flo”, or “That 90s Show”.

(The scene with Justin Melnick and Pepper the Dutchy was cool I have to admit. He was the only one in the entire scene to have on decent and proper kit)

I think as time goes on, we'll find that the Detroit characters will become more and more fleshed out and so will the corrupt environment of this new "holler". There's no reason this new series won't be as enjoyable as those episodes done in the previous series after the great Elmore Leonard passed away. I mourned the passing of "Breaking Bad", but thoroughly enjoyed the arrival of "Better Call Saul" from start to finish. Justified City Primeval has the same potential.

Maybe but I'll feel better once Raylan gets around to shooting someone.

It seems an odd decision to have made this limited series, beyond exploiting the "Justified" brand. Right off the bat, Detroit can never have the charm and romance of Harlan. If I had one problem with the original show, they didn't dwell on the misery and desolation of Harlan, particularly in a visual sense. City Primeval is making up for that but its people don't interest me. So far. JCP may not be woke but seems to be pandering and I get enough of that with pretty much all other tv.

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Right off the bat, Detroit can never have the charm and romance of Harlan.

"Charm" and "romance" are two of the last words I'd hardly associate with the City of Detroit.

Detroit:

Downtown areas, which have all the "charm" of a billet of steel. (Greektown used to be an exception, but, it's now regularly infested with gang-bangers and assorted other lowlifes. [Detroit City Council's plan to address that is gun control currently prohibited by state law.])

Run-down neighborhoods infested with gang-bangers and assorted other lowlifes.

Higher-end neighborhoods with well-kept properties. They contract with private security to keep the gang bangers and other assorted lowlifes out.

Vast tracts of abandoned, crumbling commercial and industrial properties. Often infested by... well, you know.

Vast tracts of empty land where something once stood, since demolished.

Expressways. Regularly featured in the "news" with stories of shootings and objects being thrown from overpasses onto cars below.

There are bright spots in Detroit. Comerica Park, if you're into sports. The Fisher Theater, Fox Theater, the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Detroit Orchestra Hall, Eastern Market. But, to get to those places, you have to travel through some of the worst of the places listed above. And don't take a wrong turn leaving them--particularly at night, because they're mostly surrounded by areas in which it's not wise to be.

My wife used to like going to some of the above. Finally, during one necessary trip to Detroit, I decided to show her what happened if you got just a bit off the beaten path and something of what surrounded the main traffic arteries.

She promptly lost interest in Detroit venues.

So far I’m enjoying it. There can never be another Boyd Crowder, but I do enjoy the new villain. I do find Raylan’s daughter Willa annoying. Hopefully she won’t turn out to be another Kim Bauer.

There is an interesting scene where Raylan's daughter is walking through some of the empty desolation of Detroit (I was thinking is this girl really that dumb?) but she reaches down and picks up what I would consider a prison shank... looks like the broken blade of a knife... I suspect that is going to show up later. Maybe, just maybe the writers are going to let her develop into a mini Raylan?

^^^ I thought it was a Pontiac emblem. If so, the subtle reference to a once-great car brand seemed to be an apt play on the decline of Detroit. I'll have to go back and take another look.

ETA: Yeah, that's a Pontiac emblem.

^^^as soon as she picked it up I thought it was a tin Indian badge.

quote:

Originally posted by BMR:
So far I’m enjoying it. There can never be another Boyd Crowder, but I do enjoy the new villain. I do find Raylan’s daughter Willa annoying. Hopefully she won’t turn out to be another Kim Bauer.

So you're hoping she won't get kidnapped a few hundred times?

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:

quote:

Originally posted by BMR:
So far I’m enjoying it. There can never be another Boyd Crowder, but I do enjoy the new villain. I do find Raylan’s daughter Willa annoying. Hopefully she won’t turn out to be another Kim Bauer.

So you're hoping she won't get kidnapped a few hundred times?

Do they have mountain lions in Detroit?

I CANNOT, repeat CANNOT, stand the daughter. She adds nothing to the show and her voice is so annoying!

So many great characters in the original and so far, not one in this series.Now it's up to three episodes and Raylan hasn't fired off a round. This is not the same Raylan we've come to know and love. Other than how to make a quick buck, what were the producers thinking?

So far I feel kind of bad for everyone involved in this show including us, the home viewers. With all else wrong, so little momentum. Ep.3 really went nowhere for a full hour.

I agree that episode three was very slow. As is often the case with limited series on streaming services, there may not be enough story to sustain approximately eight hours of episodes.

As Elmore Leonard famously advised writers: "Just leave out the boring parts..."

The original Justified series was written and paced for traditional TV. The writers and directors knew what had to happen before the commercial breaks and within the confines of a weekly time slot to keep people engaged. A lot of the same people who created the original "Justified" are involved in this production, but I think in creating streaming content they have lost a bit of that network TV discipline. (I know this is being broadcast with commercials on FX but I think the majority is watching it streaming without commercials on Hulu.)

As to Raylan's current characterization, I think what they're going for is what the bad guy said to Raylan when they first met in a previous episode (I'm paraphrasing): "A guy your age chasing bad guys means you either got passed up for promotion or you love the chase too much."

This 50+ years old version of Raylan is being portrayed as both a fish out of water in Detroit, and a guy whose "shoot on sight" tactics are out of synch with the times.

(Slight Spoilers)
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I'm glad the female attorney laughed off the bad guy's attempt to get her to go to court over the beating he took from Raylan, so we didn't get the cliche where the cop gets suspended-receives-the restraining-order. I'm also glad episode three sent Rylan's daughter back to Florida so we don't have to deal with (I hope) the cliche of the bad guy snatching her up and Raylan channeling Liam Neeson in "Taken." But I think the dysfunctional parenting content is there to further show the result of Raylan's life choices.

I also think Timothy Olyphant is doing a great job of depicting Raylan as a man who is coming to realize he is aging out of the persona he's created for himself. Olyphant might be channeling a little of "Deadwood's" Seth Bullock in this performance. This older Raylan isn't quite as confident as he used to be. You can see the physical/emotional fatigue in his eyes.

I do think Olyphant is a phenomenal actor. If you haven't seen his comic performance in "The Santa Clarita Diet" on Netflix, it's a revelation. Before that, I'd only seen him portraying intimidating tough guys. In "The Santa Clarita Diet" all that falls away and he becomes Cary Grant as that actor appeared in his classic comedies.

Anyway, I think and hope that the pace will pick up in the next episode and as we enter into the home stretch. There is a lot of talent behind this series and I have confidence this will end up to be both entertaining and satisfying.

There’s no Ava.

Well we're now halfway through. Last night was episode 4 of 8. Raylan actually drew his gun last night but let his partner shoot the bad guy. I'm beginning to wonder, if this group of writers ever watched the original series.

I believe it was ep 3 .^^^

Should have been episode 4 last night.... I watched the first to the first of last week but held off on #3 last Wednesday... would rather take in at least two at a time.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
I'm beginning to wonder, if this group of writers ever watched the original series.

You got that right.



SPOILER ALERT!!!


Raylan seemed to get all pruned-up when the Detroit cop "slipped" Mansell's name to the Albanians. The old Raylan would have set that in motion himself or would already be formulating a plan to put a coupla' holes through him himself.

Kinder, gentler I guess.