Justified. Turns out it is kinda modern day Deadwood, but better.

He's shot the occasional person,

Not really, no. It changes format a bit mid-way through the first season. But yeah, in the last episode his boss said of him:
"He's shot so many people, Internal Affairs' got him on speed-dial."

Good to hear. While you can tell they're making it a bit of a character trait / ongoing plot point (hence the premise of his transfer to Lexington, and Wynona's "you hide it real well, but you're the angriest man I've ever known" line), if the bodies continue to pile up at this pace it'd seem increasingly unrealistic pretty quickly.

I love the character, though. There's an interesting contrast in his seemingly relaxed, easy-going manner and the frequency (and lassitude) with which he makes death threats and/or corpses.

The pitch is pretty easy to discern in the first six - every week, Raylan shoots somebody, and that shooting is "justified" in the line of duty. Once you get through that first handful, the show starts responding to creative and fan notes and it changes into what it is now.

The shift is less from slightly shooty cop show to less-shooty-more-procedural cop show than it is from standalone plots to arcs, if I pick out a change in the first season.

I don't have realism gripes but that's partly because I accept that almost any cop shows are ultimately bizarre if you stop to think about it. Every batch of Law and Order/CSI police should be on TV getting medals every few episodes for being whodunnit-destroying supercops.

I strongly doubt this show will ever top the Bennett clan arc for me, but I'm really glad it's back on the air. The casting is just perfect and very easy to watch. (Yay Art sticking around.)

I'm a little bit wtf at Arlo so far, but I assume we're gonna have some Reasons throughout the season.

Arlo is a fucking badass. I like that the show is unapologetic about what a fucking psycho he is.

Just watched last night's episode. Boyd at the Church was an absolute delight, and I'd almost forgotten how fucking much I LOVE Wynn Duffy. Damn that's good shit.

Oh, and also...Marshal Stiffy....hahahaha

I also nearly lost it at Duffy's "But I don't even trust the way you just now said I could trust you." line. Golden.

This show is a fucking gem.

Well, unfortunately you probably might be jarred a bit by the non-realism at a certain point in the series, an encounter which left me a little sour about a situation that could easily have been written better because the plausibility of Rayland coming out of it without some serious investigation into impropriety just seems ridiculous. I don't know, maybe in real life a Marshall would be given such leeway in the details of his shootings.

Stick with it though, the show is just too worth watching to worry about the legal details.


I'm loving the start of this new season. I'm insanely interested in the main arc and so far the one side-arc has been supremely weaved in (in both episodes).

The bartender continues to be extremely hot.

That man has brilliant writing and line delivery. He actually reminded me of like... an upbeat version of Tom Cruise in Collateral... before his character started getting a bit more fleshed out, anyways.

His first scene (with Winona, season 1) was one of the best introductions of a villain I've ever seen in any medium whatsoever. How he's all, "oh I'm sorry if I startled you" and just effortlessly slides on to "you should probably be very, very afraid of me" is so incredibly well done.

There's no doubt that Timothy Olyphant makes the show (so far) but I really like the other Marshals. Art is great.

"Do you want me to kill 'em or wound 'em?"
"Eh, let's start with wounding."

I want more Duffy. He's so god damn great. Even Boyd was like "holy shit!"

I loved Art's descriptions of his staff at the beginning of the episode this week. I was rolling on the floor and we were not even 3 min in to the show.

We need more Duffy and we need more Tim. I love Tim. His little rant about "Going all Raylan" last season is still one of the highlights of the entire run for me.

Also, Tim is super handsome.

Well yes, he is pretty, but still not Raylan pretty. ;-)

Raylan really is frighteningly handsome and charismatic.

Those eyes... so dreamy.

I'll use the words Lindy West used to describe a different actor. He's "Dazzlingly Handsome".

Sorry y'all..

My wife and I still call Raylan "Mr Fuckie Fuckie"

HAHAHAHHAHHAHHAHAHA I just nearly did a spit take here at work. Well done!

Yeah, I'm just waiting for Raylan to ask someone if the juice is worth the squeeze.

I still want him to be gay.

And Rachel was extra hot in the first episode, I noticed.

We were watching Fried Green Tomatoes on the teevee last weekend - I hadn't realized that the guy who plays Art also played evil Frank Bennett in that movie.

Have you guys ever listened to any of the DVD commentary with Tim Olyphant? I hate to say it but he sounds like a bit of a prick in the one commentary I listed to. Funny, of course - and the commentary on writing / shooting / acting on the show was interesting - but he was kinda jerky. It may be that he's playing the stereotypical self-absorbed obnoxious leading-man as humor, but if so he's doing such a good job that it's difficult to tell.

Tim is kind of a crusty asshole. This is why nobody particularly looks forward to talking to him at press tour. I'm sure he's fine to hang out with, but he's....well, crusty. He's kind of a curmudgeon.

Is he? He didn't come off as curmudgeonly, just arrogant and a bit full of himself.

Granted, if I were him, I probably would be too.

Maybe that's why he plays Raylan so damned well...

Hmm, I have a friend like that, nice guy to his friends, fun to hang out with, but wow, can he be a bit of an asshole to people he doesn't like.

He was recently on the Nerdist podcast, and he kinda owns up to that.

I'll have to track that down. And this is literally one DVD commentary from the "Hatless" episode in the first season, where he, Natalie Zea (Wynona), and the writer of that episode talk about things. I'm not drawing huge conclusions from it (and like I said, it may have been satirical), it just made me wonder if he's a big jerk in Real Life(tm).

In related news I've almost finished the whole first season and goddamn. Shit's crazy!

I about lost it when he deputized Dewey Crowe and convinced him that Dewey had to inform on his buddies because he's now a deputy.

Dewey Crowe continues to pay out. I kind of hope he doesn't show up this season. I think we'd do better with a short break.

I don't know if this constitutes a spoiler or not, so I'll tag it, but....

Also, I really, really like Walton Goggins' portrayal of Boyd Crowder. He's now out of prison and running his 'church' and it's great how you really can't exactly tell if he's for real about this whole born-again thing or not. Raylan certainly thinks it's all a show, but it's pretty clear that Boyd's not so simple as that. The scenes with Boyd and Raylan are so awesome.

Welcome to the light.

Yeah, Boyd is totally my favorite, mostly due to Goggins. Apparently he was a one-off character, but I'm glad they kept him in. Any scene with him and Raylan is golden (though this past week's scene with the Preacher AND Wynn were both freaking priceless).

Wynn Duffy? The blond SUPER CRAZY dude who first get introduced via Greg's real estate loan-sharky guy (Mr Emmett?), that one? He is awesome too. The commentary for that episode said he was going to be a one-off as well.

Oh yeah, Wynn sticks around and gets even MORE awesome.

RE: Boyd being a one-off character, I admit I was pretty surprised when Raylan shot him in the very first episode of the first season. Because everything up to that point screamed "big setup for long-term story arc" and then bam, Ray-Ray just puts him right down. Even that scene plays out like Boyd's dying but then ta-daaah, he's back in the next episode.

ALSO (I'm sorry, I know this is obnoxious for those of you who have been watching since day 1) - I think the more we learn about Raylan and his past (WRT both Arlo / family and his marriage to Wynona) the more interesting he gets. I mean duh, obviously, but I think some of the best moments in the first season are when you slip past Raylan's facade and see the real inner conflict there. And outer conflict, too, even at his job between him and Art - one of my favorite scenes so far is when Art completely loses his shit on Raylan and chews him out at top volume for minutes on end.

It'd be pretty easy for this show to fall into the stereotypically trite rogue cop bullshit, but Raylan's fuck-ups have real consequences and I like that the show holds him to them. (Sometimes.) The fact that his relationship with Ava has changed so significantly already - as a result of his poor judgement effectively undermining the case against Boyd - is another tangible consequence. That's clearly not headed anywhere good, but I like that Raylan's shown as being fallible and human rather than just cowboy-sexy and so smooth as to talk his way out of every situation.

That's how the original short-story ends, with Boyd shot dead.