by Scott Batchelor, Contributing Writer
Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan Givens is one of the coolest characters to appear on television. A modern day cowboy charged with bringing down the country’s most foul criminals. A man who knows he is cool, and wears it as proudly as the U.S. Marshal badge he wears on his hip. The opening of the original 2010 series, Justified, shows Raylan shoot a man for not obeying his demand to leave the state in 24 hours. The shooting turned out to be… justified… though as the show went on, that word got a bit muddy when talking about Raylan. But if there was one thing you could at least count on, he always had good intentions even if his actions were a bit harder to — gosh darn it — justify.
In the sequel series, Justified: City Primeval, we are missing literally everyone from the original (save, of course, Raylan), which is a double-edged sword. On one hand, I fell in love with the rest of Justified‘s Marshals (Tim [Jacob Pitts], Art [Nick Searcy], and Rachel [Erica Tazel] were just as awesome to watch), but if I saw anyone from Kentucky showing up in Detroit, it would feel like fan service, which, sadly, this show probably needed to keep it fresh. I would have loved for Givens to call in a favor to Art to request one of his Marshals to come help with a criminal of the week, but this show is devoid of any cameos, which lets Olyphant carry the show by himself. As a character and an actor, he largely succeeds. It is actually the story that lets him down.
We open up City Primeval with our badass Marshall transporting maybe the hardest perp he has ever had to deal with: his teenage daughter, Willa (played Olyphant’s real life daughter Vivian Olyphant). Very quickly, we are reminded what makes Raylan so fun to watch, as he has to deal with a couple hotheads trying to steal his car. This is just the beginning of our story, as it is the catalyst for what is to come. It brings Raylan to Detroit, where he is forced into a case that, by the end of the first episode, grows into something much larger and a bit more personal.
Olyphant brings a weathered, more subdued Givens back. He does not shy from aging, with his gray hair and lower tendency to get into a fist fight. He has always had a charm to him, and we see that in the opening episode, as he is able to sweet talk a fugitive into giving himself up.
But there are still threads to the old Raylan that lead him to not being able to walk away from Detroit after his initial stint is resolved. Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) takes his criminality to a personal level, and Raylan is not one to let that go. The rest of the series becomes a cat-and-mouse game of Raylan doing everything he can to bring Mansell down under the eyes of law.
Mansell isn’t nearly interesting as any of what we got in the original show. City Primeval is missing a Walton Goggins type to really give Raylan a match for wits. Mansell is shown to be just as violent as our classic Justified baddies, but that doesn’t necessarily make him interesting. Even some of the lesser crime families, like the Crowes or Crowders, had more interesting longterm stories for us to at least get a laugh out of.
We are introduced to a friendly foe in the form of defending attorney, Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who quickly lets Raylan know he is not in Kansas Kentucky anymore. Raylan is going to have to go more by the book than he is used to, because his cute ways of skirting around the process he would use to bring in the fugitives will not fly in the more socially conscious city of Detroit. There are a couple of nice scenes reminding Raylan that even though he may be a good guy, there is a racial shift in the type of people he is used to going up against. He can’t get away with “accidentally” dropping a fugitive. There are consequences for how he brings people in now.
Carolyn brings a much-needed charm to Raylan’s life as they begin to have romantic interest in each other. It is nice to see that Raylan is more attracted to strong personalities, rather than strong bodies. This back and forth works pretty well, as they enjoy each other’s company, but also work different sides of the legal field, which creates some conflict that Raylan again is experiencing for the first time.
Willa is around for the first few episodes and has a run-in with Mansell that sends Raylan spiraling. I was a bit worried that Willa being in the picture would cause a number of contrived stories that could be avoided if she was not around. Thankfully, the story does something smart and allows Raylan to work his job without having to worry about the safety of his family. This was common practice of the original show, as Winona (Natalie Zea) was often used against Raylan. I’m happy to see he is growing.
What this show really misses, though, is the criminal-of-the-week episodes. Oftentimes, the overarching storyline plays in between Raylan’s manhunts. Justified is a fun show. Justified: City Primeval is hard to classify as fun. I think it is a causality of the shorter series, that it focuses so much on trying to root against Mansell, that we don’t get to have any real fun with Raylan. Mansell is often shown doing deranged acts. Like Reservoir Dogs levels of deranged. But they never let up. As the series trudged on, I was left thinking, “Okay, I get it. He needs to be stopped. Can I have some fun now?” But the fun never comes.
The threads of what is justified starts to seep through as Mansell keeps slipping through the cracks and Raylan gets more desperate. It feels like the whole Justified of it all should have been explored much earlier on. City Primeval could have done more reflecting the namesake of how far Raylan will go until he is no longer justified. He has walked along this tightrope a bit too long, and now he has to be the antihero he has avoided. But he never really gets there, and that discussion happens for all of 45 seconds, but then is not reflected on.
The supporting cast is mostly fine, but this is not Harlan County. By the end of the series, I miss Art and Tim and Rachel and Boyd (Goggins)! Gosh, do I miss Boyd. Mansell is not Boyd, and I never really buy him as a real foil for Raylan. He is so comically evil that I can’t take him seriously. I was also hoping that we would get a bit more Detroit out of this revival in the same way Harlan is used. Any fan of Justified is going to enjoy the ride at first because Raylan Givens is an icon, but as the show goes on, you realize that Justified was made by Harlan and the colorful cast of characters, and that includes the character of Harlan itself.
Every episode of City Primeval had me hoping something would click, allowing me to feel the magic, but instead, I was just longing. It’s like following a recipe, but trying something just a bit different. The ingredients are there, but they are sadly sugar free. And while at least a sugar-free version of Raylan Givens is still sweet, it doesn’t quench the thirst I have for more Justified.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
Justified: City Primeval is currently streaming on Hulu
You can read more from Scott Batchelor, and follow him on Letterboxd and Twitter