A Guest Pandora’s Box: Thoughts on Justified
Earlier this year, I asked Twitter for suggestions for great TV. Many in the romance community suggested Justified. This show, which just concluded its six series run, stars Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, an old-school U.S. Marshal who returns to the place of his troubled childhood in the deadly poor towns and hollers of Eastern Kentucky. Like many–Thomas Wolfe was indeed right–Raylan’s return to the people of his past is full of tragedy, heartbreak, and betrayal. The show began as it ended, showcasing the complicated relationships between Raylan, Boyd (Raylan’s nemesis), and Ava. The three, brilliantly portrayed by Olyphant, Walton Goggins, and Joelle Carter, made for addictive watching. Lexxi and Laura (they are social media friends of mine) were among those who suggested the show to me last year–for which I thank them–so I asked them whether they thought Justified had a great love story in it. This Pandora’s Box is their answer.
(Warning: This blog may contain spoilers.)
Laura: Justified is obviously not a romance, but the vast majority of romance readers who watched it loved it (except those for whom the violence was too much). I’ve been considering why that is. Do you think there was a great love story on Justified that might have drawn them in?
Lexxi: Strangely enough I think there was but it was unrequited. I think Boyd sincerely loved Ava but I don’t think Ava ever got over Raylan. So I guess it was really more of a triangle that does not resolve in a happily ever after for any of them. Although Raylan and Ava do seem to find some peace.
Laura: I agree that Boyd truly loved Ava, but I don’t think Ava loved anyone but herself, really. I think she cared very much about both Raylan and Boyd, but her number one priority was Ava. She teased and flirted a lot with Raylan and tried to play on his feelings for her, but I don’t think she really believed he would change. And when Ava kills Delroy, and then plans to kill—or have Boyd kill—Ellen May, I think it sort of seals the deal of her as both stronger and less romantic than Boyd.
In fact, in many ways, despite everyone talking about Raylan as the hero, I think that’s debatable. I think it would be just as easy to see Boyd as the hero, albeit a violent one. At the beginning of the series, it is Ava’s action—shooting her husband—that sets the stage for Boyd and Raylan to come up against each other. It’s worth remembering that Boyd doesn’t start out as all that bad a guy. He “finds God” at the beginning of the series and then goes a wee bit overboard, blowing up meth houses, etc. Yeah, it’s violent, but until Ava kills Delroy, Boyd’s violence has a perverse morality. It’s not until the Ellen May mess that Boyd really goes over to the dark side.
Lexxi: Well, other than his hat, Raylan doesn’t really have any other heroic traits. He uses his friends, his co workers, and pretty much anyone to accomplish his goals. He’s not a good husband to Winona and sacrifices his marriage for his job. He constantly puts Art and Rachel’s careers at risk. And his pursuit of Boyd depends on whether or not it meets Raylan’s immediate goals. With the exception of Loretta and Constable Sweeney, I don’t see where Raylan really does anything to help anyone. He even delivers a gangster to the ganster’s boss so he can be executed. None of his actions are heroic. So, for me, Raylan is more of an outlaw who finds himself on the right side of the law. Similar to Lucas Hood in Banshee. And looking back, I don’t think Raylan really changes over the course of the series.
What do you think? Am I being to hard on Raylan?
Laura: I am laughing so hard right now. “Other than his hat…” I don’t watch Banshee, but in many ways Raylan does remind me of another Lucas, Lucas Davenport in the Prey series by John Sandford. And Sandford said once that he though Lucas might be a sociopath. I agree, Raylan doesn’t change much. He’s charming, suave, and willing to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. I do think that over the series he grows up a bit but his fundamental personality doesn’t really change. I think the thing that’s Raylan’s saving grace is his sense of responsibility to people he considers weaker than himself. He’s willing to throw Art to the wolves because he’s pretty sure Art can take care of himself, but he really does care about Loretta and he even is even tries to get the Marshal service to let Ava go after she’s given them minimal information.
So if Raylan’s not really heroic and the great love story is unrequited, what do you think Justified has to recommend itself to romance readers?
Lexxi: Raylan is a true alpha male, similar to what you find in romance novels. Hollywood prefers beta male leads so it’s hard to find a true alpha on television who isn’t also a criminal. So I think that has some appeal. Plus Timothy Olyphant could read the phone book and make it sexy and charming. Then there’s Boyd Crowder. If you like bad boys in serious need of redemption, then Boyd is your man. He’s the charming outlaw that really wants to do better. He just hasn’t found the right woman to help him walk the straight and narrow. (Like Arlo, Raylan’s father, did. Raylan’s mother kept Arlo straight but then died.) I think romance readers who like westerns might find Justified appealing, because that’s really what it is. A modern day western. Plus the hat. You’ve gotta love Raylan’s hat.
Laura K. Curtis has always done everything backwards. As a child, she was extremely serious, so now that she’s chronologically an adult, she feels perfectly justified in acting the fool. Her first book written at age six, was released in (notebook) paperback to rave reviews and she’s been trying to achieve the same level of acclaim ever since. Although she’s published three romantic suspense novels, a contemporary romance, and several short pieces of crime fiction, her mother still thinks nothing measures up to that first book. Laura lives in Westchester County, NY with her husband and a pack of wild Irish Terriers, which has taught her how easily love can coexist with the desire to kill. Her latest book is Echoes.
Lexxi Callahan writes sexy, contemporary romance novels set in the deep south. Lexxi stays online so you can usually find her on Twitter @callahanlexxie. Solving for Nic, the second book in her Southern Style series, was released in December of 2014 and book three is expected later this year.
I was glad that Wynn Duffy lived – he is such a survivor. Raylan was the hero – a very flawed one. And Boyd was the villain, but a very complex and interesting one. Every season Boyd re-invented himself. I think “”we dug coal together”” is code for going through a singular experience together that nobody who didn’t go through it can share in or understand. Like men in combat for example. You may not like each other that much or have much in common but you’ll always have that experience in common and that is a bond that will never be broken.
I am glad that they all left Harlan alive.
The romance at the core of Justified is the bromance between Raylan and Boyd. It’s the one true thread through the whole show. They dug coal together and everything always comes back to that.
That is my take as well. Especially from the Raylan perspective. Winona never had the pull on him that Boyd does.
Hmm. I guess it can depend on perspective, but in reality, Elmore Leonard usually wrote three kinds of characters in his career
1. The good guy(every now and then, it has been a woman). Maybe not what you’d consider a 100% pure hero, but still someone that you can root for and not really feel guilty about it.
2. The love-able bad guy. Usually a criminal that you end up really liking.
3. A woman who’s sort of stuck in a pinch and has to find her way out.
I figure, if anyone thinks Boyd is the hero of Justified, they’re mostly delusional. Boyd isn’t anywhere near a hero. He’s the villain of the series, but he believes he’s the hero instead(and since we as the audience like him so much, there are times when we believe it too). It’s pretty obvious that Boyd, for the most part, is completely full of crap the entire way through the show. He loves Ava, but he doesn’t love her more than himself. If he actually did love her, he would have never let her go to prison for him. By the end, Ava ended up caring more about herself than Boyd, but that’s only something that she learned from Boyd himself(go back to the finale and she explains this to Boyd when he asks why she betrayed him). Boyd loves Ava only if it’s convenient. There was a time when Ava loved Boyd no matter what, but that changed after season four. It’s hard to care about a man who only cares about you when he feels it won’t affect him negatively. Ava was all in when it came to their relationship. Boyd wasn’t. Boyd will always choose himself.
Raylan is the hero of the story and it’s not really up for debate. It’s just how Elmore wrote him in the books and it’s how the show portrayed him. Sure, he’s an asshole who’s terrible at romance, but he protects people that needs to be protected. He’s good at his job and does what needs to be done, regardless if people think he should do it by the book. It’s what separates Raylan from Boyd. Boyd is a bullshitter. Raylan is not. He’s an asshole, but at least he’s honest about it.
As for a love story. I guess you could argue that there was a bit of a love story(not romantically though) between Raylan and Boyd but that seems a bit simple. They don’t even like each other all that much, but they did dig coal together which I think is something not even we the audience can truly understand. But really, Justified isn’t a romance.
Boyd and Ava were always going to fail for the reasons I stated above. Raylan and Ava had, has, and always will have potential, but the show ended before giving us much of an answer on that. Considering Winona got remarried, it’s plausible Raylan and Ava reconnected.
You humble me, R.L. I was too flippant and my comments above were meant as casual-conversational in the spirit of the blog. I am a great fan of Elmore Leonard’s writing. I see some “”Elmore-esque”” traits in his characters but I don’t find them easy to fit in the traditional archetypes.
There’s an interesting wrap-up interview with Graham Yost (elmoreleonard.com)
and he talks about Leonard’s philosophy:
“”“In Elmore’s world, character is destiny, and people don’t change that much. Raylan is pretty much as he was at the beginning, but we do see a change in him over the course of the series,” Yost says. “Boyd changed a lot, but you never knew if the changes were real.”
This resonates with me… because so many different traits make up one’s character. Each time we come to a crossroads, we make a decision to chose one direction or another. In a series like JUSTIFIED, we could see the people making the decisions- and experiencing the outcome of their choices/actions.
“”What she said!”” Both of you- Lexi & Laura- great review. I wish I could invoke the Tardis Code and traveled back in time to enjoy your blogging from the beginning of JUSTIFIED. Your summary was perfect: Raylen loved his hat. Boyd was the hero (lower case). Ava loved herself. JUSTIFIED was not a love story but it was a great STORY about everything-is-connected. Harlan-survival-coal mining-crime-moonshine-tradition-family- desperation-habit-depression-politics-hate-sacrifice-life-death et all. I found the show a stunning example of the fine line between “”criminal”” and “”law enforcement”” and the men and women who find themselves in roles they no longer control. Raylen was the cocky (led with his hat) alpha male. Boyd was always the hero in the story because he did transform and love Ava. Ava was a survivor. I think it’s extremely difficult to love, empathize, and be unselfish when you’re stuck in survivor mode. Decisions and our own actions get justified.
I think the title was so marvelously ambiguous.
I think “”Justified”” has some of the best written dialogue on TV, ever. I absolutely loved listening to Raylan and, especially, Boyd speak. There was almost a poetry about the language that I found mesmerizing. I’d recommend the show for that alone.
That said, I found Raylan to be the quintessential anti-hero. He certainly did a lot of questionable things, but I always felt that he was on the side of good and that his intentions were heroic, even if his methods not so much. Boyd was a bit too violent and unrepentant for me to ever see him as anything other than a villain. I still have to catch up with the last season (I DVR all episodes and then binge watch) so I’m not sure how it all plays out. But I can’t wait – and I will miss this show a lot.
I guess I’d want to know how you define “”anti-hero.”” I can’t see Raylan as a hero although I don’t think he’s a villain either. Elmore Leonard’s script, as embodied by Raylan and Boyd, defies genre categorization… to me. The show put all of its characters–OK, maybe not Constable Bob–in the gray zone of human and deeply flawed.
I’m in complete agreement with you that the script/show defies any kind of genre categorization. The characters are all very deeply flawed, and not a one of them falls into the truly good/heroic or truly bad/villainous mold. They are all terrifically nuanced characters, which I think is one of the reasons this show was so fantastic.
My definition of anti-hero fits Raylan well, I think, because he is so very flawed and falls pretty far outside the lines of traditional hero. He is courageous, loyal to those he loves, and is, ostensibly, working for the betterment of society, which are all traits I consider to be heroic. The fact that he often crosses the line or has no problem using people to achieve an ends definitely gives him the “”anti”” prefix. In the end, for me, an anti-hero is the guy who I want to win even if by some of his behaviour he shouldn’t necessarily win.
OK… I agree!
You can stream Justified on Amazon too.
For those of you that use Amazon streaming service, I was wondering if you are Prime members or do you just pay as you go? I’m contemplating the Prime membership, as it seems to offer lots of good programming. I have a friend though that uses Hulu though and swears by it. I do stream regularly from Netflix but the options are limited. I’m just trying to decide the best way to start watching _Justified_, as my interest is definitely piqued!
Always looking for high quality shows and based on the previous blog, _Justified_ definitely sounds like a good prospect. Unfortunately, Netflix doesn’t carry it for streaming, my preferred choice for viewing, and so I’ll need to rent the DVDs.
By all means, rent the “”Justified”” DVDs (or borrow them from your local public library if they have them). It is one of the greatest scripted dramas I’ve ever seen, and that includes a lot of what came from “”across the pond””. I started watching it because I had read a few Elmore Leonard novels, and I was curious to see a show based on one of his short stories (“”Fire in the Hole””). I watched every episode, have all the DVDs, and will buy the last season DVD when it’s released in June, so you could say I’m a huge fan!
Another reason I got into the show was because I really enjoyed Timothy Olyphant’s work in “”Deadwood”” and I wanted to see more of his acting chops! If you’re a “”Deadwood”” fan and you haven’t seen “”Justified””, you’ll be pleased to know that many members of the “”Deadwood”” cast had featured roles on “”Justified””–unfortunately, the writers were unable to create a role for Ian McShane!
While I loved every season, I guess my favorite one was the second season, which introduced the Bennett family (no, not the ones from “”Pride and Prejudice””! :)) and featured a marvelous (and Emmy-winning) performance by Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett. So, as you can tell, I’m going to miss “”Justified””, but thank heavens for DVDs!
Thanks!! It sounds great and I’ll definitely get the first season and give it a go now. I also did really like Deadwood and Olyphant in it.
“”what she said””
Loved that show. Raylan and Boyd sucked me in on the very first episode and didn’t let go until the end. I was kind of expecting all of them to die at the end but they did a good job wrapping it up. I’m sad to see it go.
Yes, Constable Bob and Loretta–my favorite–both survived!
I liked the way the series ended, for the most part. I think it’s hard to wrap up a series in a satisfying way, and this one hit most of the notes for me. I wondered, though, did we ever find out if Constable Bob survived? He was hands down one of my favorite characters.