NBC’s Emmy-magnet takes on one of the biggest movie franchises in the world as Liz and Jack slowly transform into a hero and a villain who test New York. Does the city obey the rules or prefer chaos? Is there hope for the lower-middle class or are the rich left on their own? And how did Kenneth realize the water balloons were condoms?
If there’s one aspect of Justified that stands out from the rest, it’s the show’s simplicity. There are no terrorist attacks to thwart, no world crises to avert — It’s just a show about a badass US Marshal and the criminals he puts away. These criminals come in all shapes & sizes, but if I had to choose one of them to be my drinking buddy, it would have to be Dewey Crowe. It was about time that Justified gave us a purely Dewey-centric episode, since I believe the more we see Damon Herriman the better. However, despite our initial excitement, “Thick As Mud” felt a little underwhelming.
“Paxton Petty” was a much better written episode than all of those that came before it, but it still delivered a lukewarm viewing experience because of a couple of choices in the series present-day storylines: the particular handling of violence and the way Emerson Hauser is depicted.
Now that’s more like it! After a week of bellyaching about how Spartacus: Vengeance has lost its charm & luster, “The Greater Good” quashed all potential rumors about the show’s competence and gave us the best episode of the season so far. Last night’s episode had the spark we were looking for, not just from the actors, but from the writers as well. This was premium television at its best, and it was damn fun to watch!
In my review of “Making Angels” last week, I found that the minds behind Fringe had shown clear signs of their intention to distance the story from the notion of multiple timelines. “Welcome to Westfield” confirmed that and went even further by apparently bringing more elements of the other timeline (beyond Peter) to this one.
There isn’t a show on the planet that flows the way Justified does. “The Devil You Know” was another one of those episodes that blurred the line between its case-of-the-week and season long arc as all the major characters decided to pitch in and give us another brilliant night of television.
A show like Spartacus: Vengeance is very difficult to gauge by normal standards. Ever since it carved a niche for itself on STARZ, the show has provided an abundance of entertainment, and not necessarily for all the right reasons. Although it has been widely publicized as a biographical action/adventure series, I prefer to think of it as a fantasy/drama coupled with blood & guts. Spartacus: Blood and Sand was a romping success because of this distinction and unfortunately “A Place In this World” fell short of what we usually take for granted on this show.
This episode went out of its way to try and create some distance between Spartacus & Glaber. After last week’s confrontation, I expected things to heat up quite a bit between the two. But after Aurelia’s death, Spartacus and his merry men decided to head south to aid Crixus in his search for Naevia, and to build an army while they’re at it. The bread crumbs for Naevia’s search led them to yet another sleazeball, an unsuspecting Dominus who was caught with his pants (or robes) down when Spartacus & company decided to pay him a visit. With all the blood soaked fun that was going on, it actually hit me for the first time that Spartacus & Crixus are really working together as true allies, and not just as an arrangement. But unfortunately, this moment was also where Andy Whitfield’s absence was greatly felt. The first season spent a significant amount of time building the complicated relationship between Spartacus & Crixus. Andy Whitfield & Manu Bennett worked brilliantly together, but Friday’s episode made it feel like the relationship had started from scratch, between two completely different people. Although it sounds terribly unreasonable to make that statement (it’s only the second episode), and we know that Liam McIntyre is a completely different actor, but it was clearly evident (based on his speech for the freed slaves) that for the time being, he lacks the commanding presence that Andy Whitfield would have undoubtedly brought to the character. McIntyre was good in this episode, but not great. And definitely not as great as he was last week.
Fringe has been many things over the past four years, but one thing it has never been is predictable, both in its stories and in its characters. The minds behind the show have managed to (mostly) turn that into a quality, using their particular brand of creativity to churn out so many compelling stories that some storylines and some characters were bound to be neglected. In “Making Angels,” the show has picked up one such storyline and has finally devoted some time to one of its most underrated characters, bringing us a unique episode that used the bridge between the universes like no other before.
With “Cal Sweeney,” Alcatraz timidly pushed its main story forward, leaving some breadcrumbs leading back to the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the 1963 inmates, and showing more of what is being done today to deal with their return. Unfortunately, the episode was so steeped into the format adopted by the series so far that the restrained strides forward didn’t have much effect on its overall impact.
Here’s a fun fact. The world record for extreme breath holding belongs to a Swiss freediver who didn’t breathe for nearly 20 minutes (19 minutes and 21 seconds to be exact). Although I came nowhere close to that number, I’m pretty sure I held my breath for a good two minutes when Raylan Givens finally came face-to-face with Robert Quarles. I mentioned in my review last week that Justified is at its best when the show revisits its roots. Not only did “Harlan Roulette” exemplify the absolute brilliance of the writers (Dave Andron, Graham Yost & Elmore Leonard), but it sent us a clear message – this show means business. Justified is cutting through Tuesday nights like a hot knife on butter. Other shows, BEWARE!
I’m a little embarrassed to admit I’ve never read a single Elmore Leonard novel. But if his books are half as good as the storylines Justified is hurling in our direction, I’ll be picking one of them up pretty soon. “Harlan Roulette” was one of those episodes that had the perfect balance between its procedural and serialized elements. But even the procedural portion of this episode had ties to season two. Remember the dude who set up Raylan to be ambushed by Dickie Bennett last year? Old wounds don’t heal easily in Harlan County, especially if those wounds were inflicted on an already battle-wounded US Marshal. Raylan found himself on the trail of Wade Messer, the same dude I was just talking about. Messer and his partner J.T. were responsible for a string of armed robberies, with ties to the Dixie Mafia. What made this episode stand out from the rest was the utter audacity with which the writers introduced us to a truly formidable character like Glen Fogel (played by Pruitt Taylor Vince) and then took him away. Fogel ran a pawnshop that was a front for moving stolen goods to fund the Mafia’s interests in Harlan County. He also answered to Wynn Duffy, Quarles’ new second-in-command (and one of my favorite characters). The ‘Harlan Roulette’ scene was a stroke of genius in itself, but it also painted an instant picture of how sinister Fogel really was. You would expect a prominent baddie like him to be a recurring character on the show, at the very least. But Justified has made it a habit of introducing us to some truly memorable characters and then taking them away. It is, however, a comfort that the show seems to have a never-ending supply of them!
