Justified - TV Series Review

‘Justified’ tells the story of Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens who is a classic American shoot-‘em-up of the present time who gets transferred back to his crime-riddled home town in Harlan country, Kentucky. As a man responsible for delivering justice with his own set of rules, in criminal fronts and family disputes, Raylan is a law unto himself in a city of gray shades. The serie successfully merges the personal score and the crime business within the show in a way that makes viewers interested.

Another facet is the successful blending of traditional Western with contemporary crime show in ‘Justified’. The show is not black and white – it is grey and dark, focusing on themes like justice, repentance and sin, and the battle between good and evil. Describing moral dilemmas, it adds layers to the Western clichée, giving the genre meaty material to chew on and rich storytelling to explore. It is also echoed through its noir-styled suspense accompanied by adrenaline-fueled stunts.

Timothy Olyphant portrays Raylan Givens as convincingly as one can imagine the character to be. Raylan is an interesting protagonist and this show of quiet intensity by the actor makes the character all the more intriguing. Walton Goggins, who plays Boyd Crowder, is just as compelling in his opposition as Quinn is, making a wise choice in portraying a character who is as beguiling as he is terrifying. The key cast of the series is really good Joelle Carter, Nick Searcy and others underline the series’ depth needed to present a world of grey characters.

The direction of ‘Justified’ can be considered first-rate as such chiefs as Adam Arkin and Jon Avnet successfully adapt Elmore Leonard’s visions. It stays with this tone for the series’ episodes, making good use of tense pacing and composition within scenes to both the narrative and character arcs. Nevertheless, the directors serve a good dish of procedural episodes with portions of personal stories that seem well-coordinated.

The use of the soundtrack also offers ’Justified’ a Western twist while maintaining a modern and rather tense atmosphere. Instead, the music accompanies the plot and intensifies the dramas indicating that it aligns with the show’s mood, not the message. Music and lyrics are integrated into the structures of the story and enhance emotional and dramatic episodes.

Using cinematography ‘Justified’ specifies the setting to complement its plot. It captures the analog cowboys of rural Kentucky through wide-angle and close-ups, referencing classic Westerns but looking at present-day. The movements of the camera do not sacrifice the storyline and make a movie more intense and intriguing.

Some of the features of cinematography are magnificent; it contributes to the creation of the specific atmosphere of the series and the specific time and place – Kentucky – is represented authentically. Codified realism can also been seen in how environments of the local bars or the marshal offices contribute to the storytelling and making the setting more credible.

Another significant aspect of ‘Justified’ series is that despite the lack of excessive reliance on the special effects this show uses them rather purposefully in order to amplify the actions scenes. Hence, the effects work to enhance the realistic idea and the storyline and do not overpower all these aspects thereby achieving their primary goal of enhancing character and plot development.

Overall the editing in ‘Justified’ is excellent and appears flawless and seamless as it holds the audience’s attention all through. For instance, it narrates different stories without confusion while at the same time maintaining suspense. The editors establish a pattern for the show that flows and builds the story at a good pace.

While the show is rife with gunfights and intense scenes, it has an excellent blend of action and substance. As the tension is gradually accumulated, the series guarantees that every storyline is revealed and developed properly. The pacing permits the action to work according to the speedy excitement of a shoot out or the slow and brooding tension of a suspense sequence.

The use of dialogue in ‘Justified’ is witty, intelligent and quite often filled with the mention of delightful dark humor. It portray the clash of the characters’ beliefs and values which enriches the conversation. Retailing the shows internal dynamics, the script entrenches the mysterious side to the characters, letting oddities to appear, and the voices to be truer to form.

For all the successes of appealing to western genre and crime drama at once ‘Justified’ does testify to redundant episodic structures. It is also possible for some narratives to have been more creative, especially on the choice of certain arcs that turned out to be too familiar. However, the series avoids these vices with some of the best dialogue and character progression shown in a TV series.

Thus, watching ‘Justified’ is like watching a modern cowboy story where justice is served with both intensity and style. In one or two aspects, it stays in the heart of the viewer, and the show is all about characters and the plot. It is a series that strikes a chord, that echoes the classic themes of cowboy justice with a subject entirely human.