Justified (season 3)


release year: 2012
genre: crime drama
viewing setting: home DVD, 4/1-5/13

synopsis: The third season introduces a new bad guy from Detroit as well as one more local, as Boyd tries to get his budding crimnal empire organized and eventually, everyone tries to find the missing $3 million.

impressions: I guess this is kind of a soap opera, except with lots of violence and bad-ass-ness. I wrote the brief summaries below just for posterity, but it'd be better if you just watched the show. Basically, if you watch the first couple of episodes from season one and like them, you can just march right on through all the seasons like I did. Episode briefs:
  • (1) Detroit enforcer Quarles appears and begins to seize power; Raylan confronts a sadistic hitman
  • (2) In jail, Boyd pushes Dickie to find the location of a pile of money
  • (3) Various infighting goes on among several levels of middlemen in the Dixie Mafia
  • (4) Dickie is broken out of prison and forced to go after the money, while Devil betrays Boyd
  • (5) Quarles and Boyd have their initial meeting and confrontation; Dewey wakes up with no kidneys; Winona leaves Raylan
  • (6) The early stages of a war between all the criminals happen
  • (7) Quarles tries and fails to buy Raylan off
  • (8) Winona's ex-husband Gary is found and then killed; Raylan is framed for multiple things by multiple people
  • (9) Some bad guys find that an old bomb maker can't be double-crossed; Ava takes over the pimp job
  • (10) Raylan finds that he can't keep Dickie out of prison
  • (11) Detroit sends more hired guns to clean things up
  • (12) Raylan's friend, Tom the state trooper, is shot and killed by an unknown bad guy
  • (13) Everything comes to a head, violently


    • acting: Timothy Olyphant is the quirky main character Raylan, who follows up on this threats, notices details and puts them together to figure things out, and can't get along with any woman for long. Walton Goggins is Raylan's childhood friend who's now an aspiring criminal kingpin. Neal McDonough is the ruthless and nasty mob enforcer sent from Detroit. Natalie Zea is Raylan's ex-wife who's still involved in his life. Jacob Pitts and Erica Tazel are the other Marshals in the office, and Nick Searcy is the head Marshal who cuts his people as much slack as he can.

    final word: Gritty and entertaining crime drama set in a somewhat-backwards town

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