Last week I went on at length about how HBO introduced the world to awesome 13-hour movies broken up in one-hour chunks and called them TV. Although many try their recipe and fail, thankfully there have been few networks that have managed to create serialized drama content, dare I say, as good as HBO. One in particular I was delighted to find streaming on Netflix is Justified.
Based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole," Justified is the story of a man who grew up deep in hillbilly Kentucky, moved on to become a deputy U.S. Marshal who was then sent to dole out justice in his old moonshine-guzzling hills. Timothy Olyphant plays pretty much the same hard-nosed-bend-the-rules-lawman he aptly played in Deadwood (a.k.a., HBO's greatest show to date).
So you've got the lawman and his co-workers, his crooked father, and a delightful cast of poor coal mining town hillbillies with no end of good plots. Dialogue is also key in this series, but for me it all comes down to swift retribution. I have no time for a weak character to lie or do something ridiculous (mostly due to flimsy writing) only to have that weak plot point drag out for episodes or even seasons. Thankfully, the writing is strong and stupid actions are dealt with swiftly and satisfyingly.
In the end, if you haven't already, it's definitely worth a view and at least the first two (of four) seasons are currently streaming on Netflix... which is nice.
