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Justified - Season 3 - Timothy Olyphant & Walton Goggins - Tuesdays on FX

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Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
We are "only" 3 seasons in, but I would like to declare Justified the TV show with the most satisfying season finales EVER.

As somebody else put it, Justified is the only show that makes me want a cigarette after the final episode of each season.

Like a three course meal with a thick slice of
shoofly
pie at the end.
 
We are "only" 3 seasons in, but I would like to declare Justified the TV show with the most satisfying season finales EVER.

As somebody else put it, Justified is the only show that makes me want a cigarette after the final episode of each season.

Like a three course meal with a thick slice of
shoofly
pie at the end.
Sounds delicious.
 
We are "only" 3 seasons in, but I would like to declare Justified the TV show with the most satisfying season finales EVER.

As somebody else put it, Justified is the only show that makes me want a cigarette after the final episode of each season.

Like a three course meal with a thick slice of
shoofly
pie at the end.
Final lines (I might botch these, but I think they're right...)

S1: “No Raylan, I’m betting my life on the fact that you’re the only friend I have left in this world.”
S2: “Get to see my boys again....get to know the mystery.”
S3: “He just saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd.”
 
We are "only" 3 seasons in, but I would like to declare Justified the TV show with the most satisfying season finales EVER.

As somebody else put it, Justified is the only show that makes me want a cigarette after the final episode of each season.

Like a three course meal with a thick slice of
shoofly
pie at the end.


I think it's easy to love this show, because it's not afraid to give viewers what they want. So many shows seem to go down plot twists and turns just for the sake of trying to catch the viewer off guard or something. This show will do what you want, but in ways you weren't expecting, such as Quarles losing a fucking arm. Just awesome.


S3: “He just saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd.”

Impact of this line is still ruined for me, because that's not what happened. He saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at someone who was trying to kill Boyd.
 
Impact of this line is still ruined for me, because that's not what happened. He saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at someone who was trying to kill Boyd.


Why? Raylan wasn't there either. Does he know the specifics?

Anyway, I'd bet that scene outside the bar was shot a buncha ways and it wasn't decided on when they shot the final scene I bet.

But either way, RayRay has plausible deniability for the goof/spoof.
 
Why? Raylan wasn't there either. Does he know the specifics?

Anyway, I'd bet that scene outside the bar was shot a buncha ways and it wasn't decided on when they shot the final scene I bet.

But either way, RayRay has plausible deniability for the goof/spoof.

Yeah, I don't know. Just bugged me. I mean, I get Raylan feeling the impact of it, but as the viewer, that's not what we saw happen. It seemed like it was more of a "we're retroactively changing this" then a moment of Arlo is senile or Raylan wasn't there so just has the facts wrong.

Any way, awesome season and finale.
 

Solo

Member
Just finally got around to watching it. Hmmmm....... am I the only one who felt this season really took a nosedive in the second half? I thought the show was firing on all cylinders the first half (in fact I recall vividly saying it was better than both S1 and S2 at that point), but once all the plot threads began being intertwined I thought the whole thing kind of went off the rails. The last few episodes were fairly convoluted and had too much alliance making/breaking/backstabbing/bait and switches and not enough of the great character stuff I expect from the show. I felt Quarles' demise lacked any kind of punch (although it was funny as shit), Limehouse's story just kind of ended, and Boyd getting off seems a bit tidy for me (although I did love the idea of Arlo "adopting" Boyd as his surrogate son and taking the fall for him). Basically I think it got too plot driven in the end and got away from the characters. Anyways, there was some great stuff in this one too. I loved Wynn Duffy's whole bit. One of the best pre-title sequences ever. Lots of great lines and shots and of course the cast shined like always. I just hope next season they scale back some and regain their focus, as the show the season ended on isn't the show I have loved for three years.

Overall, S2 > S3 > S1.
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I can accept that the final episodes felt a bit convoluted with so much backstabbing going on behind the scenes, but I cannot understand how could anybody think that S1 was superior in any way or form to S3.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
It was definitely more complex than previous seasons but I never felt like this season was too complicated or difficult to understand.
 
Who said it was?
A couple of people ranked it that way on the previous page.


A few thoughts on the three seasons:

Season 1 started with a slew of standalone crook-of-the-week episodes as dictated by FX, but they didn't develop much in terms of a long story arc. I liked most of those early S1 episodes, but they served more as independent short stories about Raylan dispensing justice in Harlan county (and LA). They struck gold with the Boyd Crowder character and Walton Goggins and used him to put together the longer Crowders vs the Givens narrative towards the end of the season.

Season 2 saw the rise of the Bennett clan as the central arc. There were still a number of stand alone episodes (particularly in the front end of the season - pregnant fugitive, Rachel's brother in law, etc...), but they keep in touch with the Bennett clan enough that it stays in focus. A couple other storylines are introduced, but they're all tied into Mags & Co in one way or another. The only misstep that's out of left field is Winona's theft.

Season 3 juggles a number of storylines as people rush to fill the power vacuum left by the Bennetts. We have Quarles stepping in, Dickie out of prison, Boyd and his crew, Limehouse, and the Dixie Mafia. I never felt that it was overly complicated (though there certainly were a number of things to keep track of), but it did lack an overall narrative focus or something thematic to tie it all together. It's something of a messy season (deliberately so, I'd guess) that might fall slightly short of what we saw in S2, but it's still great television with the acting and action working at such a high level.

memles does a good job summarizing this in his review of the finale:
In my view, Quarles was a sign of the writers’ willingness to play with this universe. The tone of the character felt experimental, the impact of the character seemed forceful, and the pace of the narrative was willing to go with the flow of the creative forces at work. I don’t think all of this “play” worked, but the worst thing that can happen to a show as it becomes a success is for it to lose the desire to try new things. It would have been very easy, and likely still quite compelling, if the show had simply built another legacy Harlan character (like Limehouse) into the season’s central antagonist, but I’m not convinced it would have been in the show’s best interest.

While that scenario might have been something we could more cleanly identify as a carefully plotted season of television, I feel it would have struggled to provide the dynamism necessary to move the show as a whole to the next level – in other words, I’d much rather be complaining about some uneven episodes than a complacency from which the show might never recover. That the show remained brilliantly acted, and continued to deliver tremendous setpieces, even amidst this experimentation and play is a sign of a show that knows what it’s doing and yet is also willing to expand into the space where it doesn’t have the same level of confidence, delivering a season of television that bodes well for the future while still proving incredibly fulfilling on its own merits.
He brings up a good point that the willingness to try new things gives the series some unpredictability and life moving forward. They've discussed doing something like 3 different 4-episode arcs next season, and I'm all for them playing with a new formula if they have the confidence to go for it. They've created a great sandbox with Justified (sense of place, use of language, acting talent, tone, etc...), and it's up to them to use it how they see fit - hopefully in some creative ways that continue to surprise us.
 

Solo

Member
I never felt that it was overly complicated (though there certainly were a number of things to keep track of), but it did lack an overall narrative focus or something thematic to tie it all together.

It wasn't that it was complicated or confusing (it wasn't), it was that it was messy and near the end, quite convoluted. S2 was a sprawling saga that felt tight as a drum. This season just went in 100 different directions.
 

gdt

Member
I don't like the idea of 3 or 4 major arcs next season one bit. Reminds me of the S1 standalone days. No sirree. I'd rather we keep the season long arc format.
 

Solo

Member
The "S1 was standalone" myth needs to die. The first half of the season, the procedurals almost all tie into the Florida business, and the second half is straight up serialized.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
The "S1 was standalone" myth needs to die. The first half of the season, the procedurals almost all tie into the Florida business, and the second half is straight up serialized.

I agree. Also I loved the procedural early episodes. Not that I want it back that way, but one or two in a season doesn't hurt.
 

gdt

Member
The "S1 was standalone" myth needs to die. The first half of the season, the procedurals almost all tie into the Florida business, and the second half is straight up serialized.

Ehh. Throwing in a line or two about Florida doesn't really tie it into that. And Florida was barely apart of the arc at all, aside from the two hitmen at the very end of the season.

They were good motws, but I generally vastly prefer arcs to strung together MOTWs.

Florida was involved so little that they got rid of the whole thing in the first 3 minutes of S2.
 

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
First half of S1 is still totally dope to me. I didn't mind the standalone at all. But I guess that's not the majority opinion.
 

smr00

Banned
Mykelti Williamson ruined a lot of S3 for me, i like the character Limehouse but Mykelti to me is just a terrible actor.

But Neal's character Quarles on the other hand.. What a great villain and what a stellar fucking performance, this is easily my favorite show since The Shield, it's just brilliant but for the love of god don't cast anyone like Mykelti again, maybe it's just me.. I just cannot stand him as an actor i think he is horrible at his job.
 

NaM

Does not have twelve inches...
Mykelti Williamson ruined a lot of S3 for me, i like the character Limehouse but Mykelti to me is just a terrible actor.

But Neal's character Quarles on the other hand.. What a great villain and what a stellar fucking performance, this is easily my favorite show since The Shield, it's just brilliant but for the love of god don't cast anyone like Mykelti again, maybe it's just me.. I just cannot stand him as an actor i think he is horrible at his job.

I liked Mykelti Williamson performance but Neal's was even better. In terms of characters I disliked Limehouse and liked Quarles, overall this season was great but the best moments were given by Quarles dialog and his top notch acting.
 
I don't like the idea of 3 or 4 major arcs next season one bit. Reminds me of the S1 standalone days. No sirree. I'd rather we keep the season long arc format.
I guess it isn't the prospect of a season long arc that might get stale but rather the idea of introducing a new villain at the beginning of each season that you know will be killed in the finale.
First half of S1 is still totally dope to me. I didn't mind the standalone at all. But I guess that's not the majority opinion.
I liked them, too. I just think they work a little better when sprinkled into the season rather than all bunched up in a row. We've had some good ones over the years including W. Earl Brown holding the hostages and Dewey Crowe on the lam (though the latter included some more serialized elements.)
 

Bruiserk

Member
Not a bad season, although kind of confusing at some points. This is the one season finale that didn't end with "You'll never leave Harlan alive" playing in the background. Will be waiting for Season 4.
 
Sweet, I think this is my favorite recurring Onion A|V Club feature:

- Graham Yost walks us through Justified’s third season (Part 1 of 4)
Built around the Elmore Leonard character of Raylan Givens—seen in Leonard’s short story “Fire In The Hole,” and bits of the novels Pronto and Riding The Rap—the FX crime show Justified has been such a success that Leonard wrote a novel about Givens (titled simply Raylan) that was released the day the first episode of the latest season aired. [Spoilers ahead, throughout the rest of this piece.] The third season begins with Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) still recovering from wounds sustained at the end of season two; he can’t shoot straight, which causes problems as new forces try to take over the crime business in Harlan, Kentucky. Chief among them is Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough), a sadistic Detroit enforcer who wants to set up shop as an OxyContin dealer. There’s also perennial wrench in the works Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), whose romance alliance with Ava (Joelle Carter) has provided the core for their own operation, which stands in direct conflict with Quarles’. On the sidelines is another new character, Ellstin Limehouse (Mykelti Williamson), a powerful, mysterious player from the black enclave of Noble’s Holler who works behind the scenes to protect his turf. And as usual, there are many great character actors in recurring roles and one-offs, including Desmond Harrington, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Carla Gugino, and Michael Ironside. Creator Graham Yost recently sat down with The A.V. Club with a detailed postmortem on the latest season. In part one of four, he discusses the first three episodes, beginning with “The Gunfighter” and concluding with “Harlan Roulette.”
 
Also:

- FX Production Blog: “Slaughterhouse” – Writer’s Recap
And with a clean chop of the arm, season three of Justified comes to an end.

This season has been the definition of an adventure! We discovered a new world in Nobles Holler and found tragedy in a villain’s fall from grace. We’ve watched Boyd—with his queen beside him—strengthen his hold over Harlan, but not without struggle. And, most of all, we’ve seen Raylan’s understanding of “family” move further and further away from home, settling somewhere between a lonely apartment above a bar and the Lexington Marshal’s office.

I remember, at the start of the season, the big question was: how do you fill the shoes of Mags Bennett. Well, from the start, the writers of Justified knew that those shoes were not to be filled, rather to be complimented. And so we met Quarles and Limehouse. Two new pairs of shoes, formidable and intriguing.

Thirteen episodes later, we are left with just as many questions as answers. Where will Raylan, Winona, and their unborn child find themselves next season? How much further can Boyd and Ava push their luck before the law wedges them apart? And they say you never get out of Harlan alive, but will we see Quarles and Limehouse again?

Well, before we get ahead of ourselves and jump into season four, I sat down with Executive Producer Fred Golan for one last, season three Writer’s Recap video. Fred and I discussed the season finale and more than a few juicy, behind-the-scenes moments, including how the Justified team managed to cut a man’s arm off!

So enjoy the video. Thanks for watching. And we’ll see you next season!
Video via the link.
 
18866949.jpg
 

AAequal

Banned
Bit LTTP but I finished the 3rd season yesterday and the ride was awesome. Can't wait for the next season! Will it be Limehouse vs. Crowder or will they start constructing story arc for Dixie mafia? Then again Theo Tonin don't really have reason for come back except his dealings with Duffy.

Do FX shows usually run long? I mean how many season of Justified we can expect?
 

Plissken

Member
I think we might be done with the Dixie mafia, the idea to come to Harlan and deal Oxy seemed like it was Quarles idea more than Theo's. I think in season 4 we're going to have Boyd go up against Limehouse, with Johnny trying to maneuver behind his back to take over.

I believe the longest running original FX show was the Shield, which went 7 seasons. My guess is Justified will run 5 seasons, after Boyd vs Limehouse I would guess we'll have a final season of Boyd vs Raylan, and then end it.
 
Yeah, I think five seasons is a good bet for Justified. As you said, The Shield went seven and Sons of Anarchy is set up to go seven, but the ratings for Justified, while solid, aren't quite as high as those two.
 

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
I could go for 6-9 seasons myself. Show can go on forever. Yost said himself the show kind of feels like it's emerged from it's first act after all this. I'd like to see more long term characters introduced into the mix next season, not just one offs. More Limehouses and the like.
 

Lonestar

I joined for Erin Brockovich discussion
5 Seasons is a nice round number, with a midpoint, which it felt like, in season 3. Raylan having a few episodes of "bliss" with having Winona back and making a baby, and Boyd's highpoint of having Ava and Harlan to himself (though really really short, before Quarles came around).

Now, it's on the way "down" for the 2 of them. Winona's gone, Raylan's in a darker place after what Arlo did, and Boyd has problems ahead with Johnny and Limehouse, and Ava's turned into a bit of a baddie.
 
Just finished this season. What an awesome show.

I just found out that Carla Gugino was playing Karen Sisco from Out of Sight. I also didn't know she had previously played her in a series about the character.
 
- A brief comment from the FX Executive session with John Landgraf at the TCA event.
Regarding "Justified," he predicts a run of "at minimum six seasons."
Kinda surprised to hear that, though it's good that they're happy with it and want more.



Also:

- From TiVo's 20 Most Time-Shifted TV Shows of 2011-2012
#8: Justified (FX): 86.5 percent

Increased competition at 10 p.m. on Tuesday evenings—with Justified, Southland, Parenthood, and others all vying for audiences—have meant that viewers have had to pick which shows to watch live and which to time-shift. While the overall ratings of Justified have been healthy, it’s surprising to see FX’s modern Western—starring Timothy Olyphant as trigger-happy lawman Raylan Givens—end up in the Top 20 shows. By an overwhelming margin, most of the sample preferred to watch the show time-shifted this past season, the show’s third.
 
Z

ZombieFred

Unconfirmed Member
That's good to hear that we are at least getting three more seasons of our favourite Marshal.
 
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