Quick Take: Justified, "Fire in the Hole"
"I might be doing some undertaking around here." – Raylen Givens
Review: Justified, "Fire in the Hole"
(S0101) The series opens on a great and ironic note: a man in a cowboy hat is at a pool in a tropical locale while a hip fueled Caribbean beat pumps in the background. It helps of course and is no less ironic that the man in the cowboy hat is Timothy Olyphant, who is already iconic from his stoic character Seth Bullock on Deadwood.
And immediately we're thrust into a tense situation, an old West-like standoff if you like, where Raylen Givens (Olyphant) is giving the bad guy a chance to walk away. A Han Solo and Gredo-like shootout ensues, and immediately we know that Givens is brave, has a sense of a code and honor about him, and might be just a little bit nuts. And there's a great payoff where Givens' boss (presumably) at the U.S> Marshals service chews him out, telling him that you "just can't shoot people one site" like you could do 100 years ago. Givens stares back with a look that says it ain't like the old days.
Soon Givens hears that, "The weather forecast is for a shitload of shit raining down on this office" and is sent off to the eastern Kentucky region from whence he was raised.
So, we've got a great premise and things just keep getting better. The first thing is that the series is based on a short story by legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard, and Leonard in fact is an executive producer on the show. (I read somewhere that he feels that Justified has come the closest to capturing the quirky/gritty/strikingly witty atmosphere of his books, and so far I'm inclined to agree.)
Then we get ourselves some Walton Goggins (who plays Bowd Crowder), who was fantastic throughout The Shield's run as a dirty cop, and is Givens' first target here in the small Kentucky town of Harlan. It's super fun to see Goggins freed up here from any law abiding or moral considerations and just be a flat out bad ass / bad guy.
What's not as fun is that Crowder is a full blown white supremacist who thinks nothing of killing people (including his friends), but that only makes him a more worthy target of Givens and his code. Well, that, plus the gal (Ava Crowder, played by Joelle Carter) that had a crush on Givens back in the day (she was too young at the time) killed her husband, Crowder's brother, for being a generally abusive and stupid-headed lout.
That sets things up nicely for Givens to both protect and rekindle his feelings for Ava while going after Crowder. The series premiere ends on an intriguing psychological note after a blast of action (and several astoundingly good scenes featuring Goggins and Olyphant together), with Raylan's ex-wife (Winona, played by Natalie Zea) telling him that he's the angriest man she's ever known, even though "he's so good at hiding it." He seems genuinely surprised to hear it.
And all in all I think we're in for one hell of a ride: this was the best pilot I've seen in years (maybe since Mad Men S0101?).
More thoughts on "Fire in the Hole":
Video: Justified, "Fire in the Hole"
Here's a nice backgrounder on Raylan and the show:
Recap: Justified, "Fire in the Hole"
Gunslinging U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens faces off against his oldest friend in Harlan, Kentucky, a 21st Century Wild West.
From Around the Web: Justified, "Fire in the Hole"
