Justified: City Primeval
When Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens hung up his hat in 2015 after six seasons on JUSTIFIED, it was a dark day for television. At the time it was an anomaly. 
Here was a show that was still in its prime, telling compelling stories while utilizing drama, comedy, and action. After a first season whose initial episodes were largely episodic without much of a connecting thread (with the exception of the nefarious deeds of the Crowder clan) the subsequent installments featured a full arc each season. Threads of these stories were woven throughout the series run, introducing equally interesting and deplorable characters along the way.
You don’t see him show up on many lists of the greatest performances and characters of all time, making Timothy Olyphant’s performance shockingly underrated. He was calm yet intense, serious yet hilarious, and unassuming yet ruthless. He was, in many ways, an endearing enigma, likable from the very first frames of the very first episode. Mix in a typically incredible performance by Walton Goggins as the complex Boyd Crowder, and excellent co-starring turns from Joelle Carter, Jacob Pitts, Natalie Zea, Erica Tazel, Nick Searcy, Jere Burns, Margo Martindale, Damon Herriman and countless others, and it became must-see viewing on a weekly basis.
JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL “City Primeval” Episode 1 (Pictured: (l-r) Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, Norbert Leo Butz as Norbert Bryl, Victor Williams as Wendell Robinson, Marin Ireland as Maureen Downey. CR: Chuck Hodes/FX.
After six entertaining seasons, showrunner Graham Yost and Olyphant decided to call it a day, leaving the show and Givens to retire at the top of their game. At that time, they believed all the stories worth telling had been told, and left the door open to revisiting the Marshall at a later time if the planets aligned.
Thankfully, that is now exactly what has happened with JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL.
Since the conclusion of JUSTIFIED, Raylan has been living in Miami. His daughter Willow (played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter Vivian Olyphant) needs a ride to a camp for kids who have found themselves in a little bit of trouble. Willow punched a girl in the face, but since she totally deserved it and Givens either punched or shot dudes in virtually every episode of the show’s original run, he doesn’t seem too worked up about it. On their way, they have a run-in with a couple of thugs who pick the wrong guy to mess with. Father and daughter end up in Detroit with the bad guys. Tactics that worked back in the day (stuffing his detainees in the trunk for example) in Harland County don’t exactly fly here, and Raylan is forced to stick around and do a little work as a result of his unconventional techniques. 
What begins as minor involvement in a case develops into something much more, particularly after a judge and his assistant are mowed down in cold blood by the psychopathic Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook). Charming but ruthless, he is a fella who can dance around in a kimono and tighty-whities while singing “Kokomo” one minute, and then shoot an innocent person in the face in the next. He wreaks havoc on everyone who is within his orbit, including his girlfriend Sandy (Adelaide Clemens) and defense attorney Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis). Everyone knows he is bad news, but finding an escape plan is virtually impossible.
JUSTIFIED: PRIMEVAL is the rare series that not only honors its predecessor, but modernizes it in a way that will win over new viewers who hadn’t seen the original. There are plenty of references and easter eggs to keep diehards pacified, but the knowledge of what happened previously is not a prerequisite for enjoying this incarnation. It stands out on its own as a sleek and well-paced tale without compromising what made the original so great. The tone is darker (though the original wasn’t without its moments of depravity) and much of the good ol’ boy charm has been traded in for a grittier exterior, but it works within this storyline. It has certainly lost a little of its humor (though there are still plenty of well-placed lines and music drops) but Givens is as likable as ever. Olyphant hasn’t lost a step, and though he curses a bit more than he used to, he has the same magnetism that made him a legend. Whereas some reboots stumble out of the gate, JUSTIFIED has forged ahead, solidifying its place amongst the best in the business.
JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL “The Oklahoma Wildman” Pictured: (l-r) Boyd Holbrook as Clement Mansell, Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens. CR: Chuck Hodes/FX.
JUSTIFIED-PRIMEVIL: A
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