Justified, Season 2

JUSTIFIED, SEASON 2 (DVD)
Sony Pictures Home Ent.

Release date: July 18th, 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 524 minutes

Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Natalie Zea, Walton Goggins, Jeremy Davies

Only a few shows have managed to have me as gripped as Justified. After its first season I couldn’t wait to see where it would go next. US Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) makes quite an impression. He’s a tough talking, no nonsense kind of guy who’s quick to draw and always ready to take the law into his own hands. Where he goes, trouble follows and vice versa.

Season 1 saw him being sent back to his home town of Harlan County while under investigation for a shooting incident. Faced with his ex-wife Winona Hawkins (Natalie Zea) and a town full of trouble it seems like you can take the boy out of Harlan but you can’t take Harlan out f the boy.

After the shoot-out in the season finale, Season 2 picks up with Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) turning over yet another new leaf. With a new job and living with his sister-in-law, Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter), things look like they’ve changed for him and he’s happy to stay out of Raylan’s way, for the time being.

Someone who’s definitely not staying out of his way is Winona. Their relationship is back on track and her divorce proceedings will be in full swing soon. Proving that he’s ready to do anything for her, Raylan helps her out after she foolishly steals a counterfeit $100 from the evidence room in a moment of madness. It then ends up being stolen again during a bank robbery. The episode Save My Love is pure class as we watch Raylan trying his best to retrieve it, but his colleagues on this particular day are more eager than usual to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s, making it virtually impossible to do a simple swap.

There’s more than swapping counterfeit bills though. A war between two clans is brewing and there’s a long standing feud that’s about to be reawakened. The unruly Bennett clan headed by Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale) steps up to fill the void left by the Crowders.

Mags proves to be a force to be reckoned with when she deals out her own brand of justice and together with her boys Doyle Bennet (Joseph Lyle Taylor), Dickie Bennet (Jeremy Davies) and Coover Bennet (Brad William Henke) they have the town cowering at their feet.

As Harlan County comes under siege, it’s a deadly mix of drugs, guns, family feuds and plain cold business when a company steps in to buy up land. With Boyd hired by the company to persuade residents to sell up, it’s only a matter of time before he too gets caught in the crosshairs of what’s about to happen. It’s refreshing to see Raylan adapat and grow as a character. In Season 1 he got into a lot of trouble for his quick draw attitude and now he finds other ways to deal with conflicts that don’t involve a round of bullets.

One of the strengths of this show is its consistency and ability to portray such complex characters so it never once feels cliché or overdone. The casting and writing is top notch and there’s something chilling about the way everyone remains superbly civil to each other but at any moment they could easily pull out their shotguns and shot each other in the stomach.

This makes for a lot of tension packed episodes where we can’t wait for Mags to get her comeuppance, or a taste of her own medicine at least. She’s definitely one of television’s coldest villains, alongside Glen Close as Patty Hewes in Damages.

There’s a lot going for this show and am glad that’s been picked up for a third season. Like with the end of Season 1, I can’t wait to see where it goes next or who Raylan’s going be up against, one thing’s for sure though – he’ll take it all in his stride.

Patrick Samuel

The founder of Static Mass Emporium and one of its Editors in Chief is an emerging artist with a philosophy degree, working primarily with pastels and graphite pencils, but he also enjoys experimenting with water colours, acrylics, glass and oil paints.

Being on the autistic spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome, he is stimulated by bold, contrasting colours, intricate details, multiple textures, and varying shades of light and dark. Patrick's work extends to sound and video, and when not drawing or painting, he can be found working on projects he shares online with his followers.

Patrick returned to drawing and painting after a prolonged break in December 2016 as part of his daily art therapy, and is now making the transition to being a full-time artist. As a spokesperson for autism awareness, he also gives talks and presentations on the benefits of creative therapy.

Static Mass is where he lives his passion for film and writing about it. A fan of film classics, documentaries and science fiction, Patrick prefers films with an impeccable way of storytelling that reflect on the human condition.

Patrick Samuel ¦ Asperger Artist

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