One of the many,
many in-jokes I appreciated when I was watching The Good Place was the
character of The Judge played by Maya Rudolph. As the series progressed, it became clear
that the Judge was spending as much of her free time binge watching television
and one actor she developed a crush on was Timothy Olyphant. I don’t know what
else could confirm my belief in a higher power than someone who has the good
logic to recognize one of the greatest actors in Peak TV.
Olyphant has
been part of the revolution almost from the jump since we met him in the first
scene of Deadwood where we met Seth Bullock telling an angry mob that
his prisoner was: “hanging under letter of the law!” For the better part of
twenty years Olyphant has been playing variations on that character, each time
changing them just enough to let us know there is a different person
underneath.
In the last few
years, as the reboot has become prominent, Olyphant has been returning to the classic
series that made him a legend and in each case validating their existence. When
after more than twelve years of waiting we finally got the Deadwood movie
that even Olyphant had never thought would happen, it not only reminded us how
great that series was but showed us that these reboots have a purpose, which most
haven’t. Now we have been gifted with Justified: City Primeval in which
Olyphant returns to his other great role: Raylan Givens.
If anything, age
has been Olyphant not only more handsome but a better actor, and it particularly
works very well in this new version of Justified. While the revival of Deadwood
made it clear that Seth Bullock had adapted and grown with time, City
Primeval makes it clear that Raylan has grown older, but not wiser. The
opening scene shows him about to go on vacation with his daughter Willa (his
real-life daughter Vivian) when two potential carjackers try to take him
prisoner. We later see him take them to Detroit because they have an old
warrant on them. He is grilled by their defense attorney Carolyn Wilder (a
riveting Aunjanue Ellis) in which she which she picks him apart on the stand by
telling exactly what Raylan did. He did not go straight to Detroit, he tried to
drop his daughter off at camp (they missed the deadline) he stopped to get them
lunch and left in a car and he threatened to put the African-American carjacker
in the trunk if he kept mouthing off. Raylan’s defense is not particularly
becoming (“I would have done the same with the white one,” he tells the judge.)
To the viewer, we
enjoy this because it’s Raylan being Raylan. But there’s a valid point here in
which that Raylan has not changed even though the rest of the world has. There
has always been a self-destructive nature in Raylan which he has always used
his badge to cover. What makes it even sadder is that the personal costs have
become far deeper. We already saw that it destroyed his marriage twice in the
original series, he’s clearly neglected time with Willa as a result, and by the
time the first episode is over, he’s involved with a case again. Much of the
actions Raylan takes within the first three episode are ostensibly to protect
his daughter, but there’s no hiding the disappoint and rage that we see in
Willa throughout the first three episodes.
She is angry at him because she knows that for her father, the job will
always come first. Raylan has the excuse at least in the pilot that he’s been
dragged by the holdover from a Detroit case, but by this point we know Raylan
too well. The badge is always going to come first. Raylan himself seems to be
aware of it by now; in the third episode he has dinner with a Detroit detective
who is married with children, and he looks at her with her kids with a look of
longing that we aren’t used to on Raylan’s face.
I imagine fans
might very well be disappoint that Olyphant is the only familiar face because
this series takes place in Detroit, not Harlan where most of the original
series took place. I found myself very quickly not caring because the cast of
characters (adapted from a different Elmore Leonard novel: City Primeval:
High Noon in Detroit) are as riveting to watch. Ellis’ attorney is in play
in part because she is the lawyer for two very different criminals. One of them
is one of the most terrifying villains I’ve seen on Peak TV in a long time:
Clement Mansell, aka, The Oklahoma Wildman. Boyd Holbrook commands the screen
in a way that perhaps only Neal McDonough’s Ray Quarles did on the original
series but there’s absolutely no filter on Clement at all. He commits violence
and crimes without even a second thought, we see him kill a judge and his wife
in the first episode out of pure road rage even though he’s in the middle of
trying to commit another crime. Clement genuinely does not seem to care about
anything he does; near the end of the second episode, he tracks downs Willa at
the hotel the Givens are staying at and takes her out to dinner right in view
of Raylan. Raylan beats him to a pulp (something Willa sees) and then Clement
goes to visit Carolyn and demand she go after Raylan for beating him up.
We have almost
never seen attorneys of any stripe in the world of Justified, so Wilder’s
character is a breath of fresh air. Her involvement with Clement is tangential
with his former partner in crime: Sweetie (veteran character actor Vondie
Curtis-Hall). Five years earlier, they were involved in a robbery and Boyd
killed four people in front of him when Sweetie watched. Then when the cops
found him, Clement called Sweetie and demanded a lawyer. Carolyn got involved,
though we’re still not entirely sure as to their connection. Carolyn clearly
once had bigger ambitions then this, but her ex-husband, who had political
ambitions was an embezzler and has no left her essentially broke. Yet despite
all this, she still holds to her principles. When Raylan comes down at Carolyn
upset, she admits her clients are problems “but not all of us have the luxury that
you have of getting angry.” It’s a point that resonates both with the viewer
and with Raylan himself, though it remains to be seen if he’ll take the lesson.
The series also
has some of the greatest character actors working in TV today. Adelaide Clemens,
who I remember vividly from her turn in Rectify as Daniel’s sister in
law is completely different as Clement’s romantic partner, who knows just
enough to know how dangerous he is but not enough to walk away from in. Norbert Leo Butz and Victor Williams are two
of the most prominent Detroit cops; Williams an old hand who knows how the city
works, Butz, a head buster closer to Raylan’s type. (It’s telling that Raylan
seems more drawn to Williams’ character now.) Marin Ireland is one of those
actress who has been wandering around peak TV in super roles, from Mildred
Pierce to Sneaky Pete to The Umbrella Academy. Here she gets
a role she can sink her teeth into as a detective who has been working an
undercover stint on a corrupt judge and can’t figure out yet how the Wildman
fits into it.
I realize that
on the surface City Primeval might seem like a revival no one asked for,
which is the kind of thing I usually despair of. However just spending this
time with Raylan Givens again is more than worth my time, and the story, acting
and direction are enough to make the viewer forget we’re not dealing with the
Crowders. And it’s not like Detroit hasn’t at least been connected with the old
series: throughout the original run, we constantly heard of the Dixie Mafia
have a base in Detroit and quite a few characters – among them Wynn Duffy –
came from that area and genuinely despaired of having to be in a place like Harlan.
It is hard to
know how things will end for Raylan this time around: he always managed to
barely dodge death so many times in the original series. Now he’s a decade
older, slower and the world is not kind to the justice he meted out on a weekly
basis a decade ago. That said, I’m still glad to see Olyphant utter his one
liners with that Southern drawl, try to charm people who do not find him
charming, and be willing to try to do things the hard way. Who knows? Perhaps when
this is over, we might get that fourth season of Deadwood we’ve been
promised. At least, he could get an Emmy nomination for this series first. Because
when it comes to the awards, Timothy Olyphant’s track record is thoroughly unjustified.
My score: 4.5
stars
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