NY Daily News ran sizable feature this week on Justified, premiering March 16 at 10: http://bit.ly/57ltwz
“The thing that was most frightening,” exec producer producer Graham Yost told TV writers Jan. 17, is “could I hit that same tone” as EL—who was at the media tour event in LA.
Also, for anyone who hasn’t seen the trailer via Road Dawg‘s link to EW last month, here’s a large-screen version at Time: http://bit.ly/5iD2I6
Elmore spoke about ‘Justified’ in January 2010 during the Television Critics Association press tour. Mekeisha Madden Toby of The Detroit News, describing the FX series as “a testosterone-fueled ride into crime fighting in the south,” posted a 3:22 video of his informal comments that you can see here on YouTube:
Fans of The Shield*, one of the five best shows ever to air on American TV, will remember him as Det. Shane Vendrell, sometime partner and often times antagonist of Det. Vic Mackey.
Also the guy who killed Lem, blew him up in a car. And didn’t yell “fire in the hole.”
In the short story, the Boyd - Raylan showdown happens at Ava’s place. Ava, in the story, is semi-hot, but looks worn out. Not so in Justified. Check out Joelle Carter as Ava:
Hey Gregg, can we make an official Justified episode discussion thread? Or will this one suffice?
I really liked last night’s episode. Was a little worried that it might suffer after the pilot, but I thought it was a very solid second episode.
Nice ‘ride the rap’ reference too.
One thing I’m noticing is the role that music has played thus far in the series. It’s a nice touch, since Elmore’s novels always incorporate music in one way or another.
Episode 3 (March 30) earns a glowing review in Slate from Troy Patterson [http://www.slate.com/id/2249405/]. Excerpts:
Last night’s episode was its most Leonardian yet, which is saying something. From the show’s mid-March debut, Justified has prospered by capturing a particular sense of place. The setting is Kentucky hill country, shot to make you sweat with the humidity that further dulls the bad guys’ wits. It is lush with the beauty and weirdness of the folkloric backwoods, gritty with the coal dust of the miserable mines—a sublime pulp terrain.
Which is to say that the setting is archetypal Elmoravia. Whether that land is dirty snow-banked Detroit, overchlorinated pool-blue Miami, or “this here” Harlan County, a majority of the citizens are of the sort best described by Martin Amis in a 1995 review of Leonard’s novel Riding the Rap:
“He understands the post-modern world — the world of wised-up rabble and zero authenticity. His characters are equipped not with obligingly suggestive childhoods or case-histories, but with a cranial jukebox of situation comedies and talk shows and advertising jingles, their dreams and dreads all mediated and secondhand. They are not lost souls or dead souls. Terrible and pitiable (and often downright endearing), they are simply junk souls: quarter-pounders, with cheese.”
. . . Amis was also efficient in defining his sympathetic nature: “Raylan is perhaps the cleanest character in the entire [Leonard] oeuvre, dead straight and ‘all business,’ a genuine enforcer. . . . Raylan isn’t post-modern; he is an anachronism from out of town.”
Yeah, I’m reading Riding the Rap again and noticed the early scene at Chip Ganz’s place with the bounty hunter Bobby Deo and his pruning shears played a big part in last week’s Justified.
Good stuff.
“What’s your name?”
“Louis Lewis.”
“You putting me on?”
“It’s my name. You want me to spell it for you?”
Just like in Justified when Raylan meets Travis Travers, except Travis offers his driver’s license as proof.
And later still, when Bobby Deo wants to practice his quick draw:
“Like in the movies,” Louis said.
“Yeah, only it’s real life. I want to practice doing it with you, so I be ready.”
“You want to practice . . . ?”
“Get so I can pull it out quick.”
“Man, you crazy. You know it?”