By Jeff Michael Vice
Quoting the show’s theme song, by Gangstagrass: “I see them long, hard times to come!”
“Justified,” the acclaimed, semi-popular FX Networks drama about lawless law men and even more lawless, drug-running criminals in eastern Kentucky, will end in 2015.
The program, which uses characters and setting created by late author Elmore Leonard (in the short story “Fire in the Hole”), follows Raylan Givens, a trigger-happy, Deputy U.S. Marshal played by Timothy Olyphant.
After shooting one criminal suspect too many, the loose-cannon character finds himself re-assigned from his home in drug-infested Miami to his now, more-overrun-by-drugs childhood home in eastern Kentucky (specifically, Harlan County). Back in semi-familiar territory, loose cannon Raylan butts heads with his new co-workers and his new, no-nonsense boss, Art Mullen, and also has an uneasy reunion with his estranged family members, as well as his childhood friend, Boyd Crowder, who has become a local drug runner.
The show recently returned for its fifth season (read the Big Shiny Robot! recap/review of the first, fifth-season episode here: https://bigshinyrobot.com/56793/tv-reviewrecap-justified/). But FX Networks officials announced on Tuesday that the sixth season will be its last.
During an FX Networks spotlight at the TCA press tour in Pasadena, FX CEO John Landgraf, told Entertainment Weekly and other television writers that the decision was made by the show’s creators and not the network, saying that he “regretfully accepted their decision.”
According to Landgraf, “Justified” developer and show runner Graham Yost and star/producer Olyphant had the final say in the matter. “We talked about it a year ago and they felt that the arc of the show and what they had to say would be served by six seasons instead of seven,” he said.
For those who haven’t seen the program, it’s one of the better-written, police-centric dramas currently on the air. Despite its deceptively simple trappings, “Justified” mixes socio-political commentary, character drama and humor and some very strong performances (from Olyphant, co-stars Walton Goggins and Nick Searcy, and an array of guest stars, among them Margo Martindale, Patton Oswalt, Neal McDonough and Michael Rapaport).
It’s also constantly re-inventing itself. The first season established the characters and the character of its peculiar setting. The second (and arguably, best) season featured Martindale as the matriarch of deadly pot growers and moonshiners. The third pitted Raylan and his fellow U.S. Marshals against the “Dixie Mafia.” And the fourth re-established Raylan’s childhood friend, Boyd Crowder (Goggins) as a major threat.
And yes, the announcement of the show’s end comes as a huge shock, considering how new the current season is, as well as announcements last year that FX had renewed it for the foreseeable future. But at least we get the remainder of this 13-episode season and another, debuting presumably next January. After that? “Long, hard times to come” indeed!
Jeff Michael Vice, aka Jerk-bot, can be heard reviewing films, television programs, comics, books, music and other things as part of The Geek Show Podcast (www.thegeekshowpodcast.com), as well as be seen reviewing films as part of Xfinity’s Big Movie Mouth-Off (www.facebook.com/BigMovieMouthOff