Justified- From Girls to Guns

Boyd Crowder- "Would you shoot me, if you get the chance?"

Raylan Givens- "You make me pull, I'll put you down."

Sure I may be a few days late and a couple dollars short, but FX's new series Justified showed so much promise that I needed to get my initial thoughts on the premier down.

Now he may be most famous for his time on Deadwood, but the only thing I knew Timothy Olyphant as was Kelly from The Girl Next Door. He was great as Elisha Cuthbert's porn producer, but we're only one ep in and his Raylan Givens character seems to be that much more fantastic. Olyphant portrays such a hard U.S. Marshall that is yet so calm and collected all the time that he is hard not to love immediately.

The prologue-esque cold open starts the series in Miami. Raylan is in a meeting with a South Florida gun runner played by Peter Greene. The protagonist desperately pleads with the mobster to leave Miami or he will have to do away with him.  Unfortunately for Greene's character, this time there was not time for one last kiss as Raylan shot him on sight. Greene pulled first though, so it was "justified".

Of course this horrific event leads to Raylan's necessary transfer to Kentucky, where he grew up. Fortunately for Raylan, his giant cowboy hat won't look so out of place anymore. Once relocated, the heat in southeastern Kentucky is already brewing as an old acquaintance of Raylan's is around town blowing things up.

This fella is a Nazi by the name of Boyd Crowder. Apparently somebody forgot to tell Boyd that Roy O'Bannon took away his "wingin' it" privileges back in 2000 (skip to 9:00 mark). Seriously where does this Boyd character get off blowing up Sanka's church like that?

Speaking of the former bobsledder, I loved him in this small role as the pastor that only has a church so that he can sell weed from it. I also love that Raylan knew that all he had to do was name drop Peter Tosh to get the champion push cart driver to talk.

Anywho, how bout this chick Ava? Of course she had a crush on Raylan. I love that she is real cute and unassuming even though less than 24 hours ago she murdered Boyd's brother Bowman (also her husband) in cold blood. All she wants to do is make out and cook fried chicken for Raylan. The good U.S. Marshall could get used to that.

And by the end of this series premier Raylan finds himself in a similar situation that he went through back in Miami. This time it was him and Boyd at the dinner table discussing life and chicken. Of course the roles were reversed as Boyd now wanted Raylan to get out of town before he shot him on sight. Although the roles were reversed, the results were the same. Boyd pulled first and Raylan took him down, with his holstered gun no less.

Justified has all the key components for a great show. A great lead character. A few good surrounding characters. Promise of good storytelling. And an interesting and different setting (I do not watch another show that takes place in Kentucky). There's only been one episode, but it is one that I would recommend starting.