Justified: City Primeval Review: A Welcome Return To The Wild (Mid)West
- Incredible cast
- The writing is spot-on
- The action works really well
- Occasionally runs out too many storylines at once, leaving some of them feeling a little neglected
There's a certain timelessness to the character of Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, writer Elmore Leonard's iconic lawman played for six seasons on FX by Timothy Olyphant. There's a swagger to him, an easy, unhurried way in which he moves through the world, that makes him seem like he'd fit right into the 1880s, or the 1980s, or even the 2080s if you gave him time. He carves his own path, and that makes him both adaptable and endlessly watchable.
But there's another element to Raylan's character, one explored in great detail throughout the original run of "Justified," that any follow-up series has to both remember and master if it's going to be a worthy successor. For all his gunfighter poise and Western charm, Raylan is also a man who carries a heavy burden, one built on a tattered legacy, a fractured family, and of course, a career full of bodies left in his wake. We may keep watching him because of all that swagger, but we keep caring because we know there's more to him than that.
To justify (pun intended) Raylan's return in the new miniseries follow-up, "Justified: City Primeval," the series' creators had to remember the essential push-pull of his nature, but they also had to deliver a story that would expand beyond the Kentucky hollers of the original series. It's a tall order, but "City Primeval" comes out of the gate with the same cool confidence we remember from its main character. Tense, funny, and full of new twists on the classic "Justified" tone, it's the return we've been hoping for, and then some.
New town, same marshal
Adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel "City Primeval" (which does not, in its original form, feature Raylan Givens), the "Justified" sequel sees Raylan headed out to Detroit on a detour while traveling with his now-teenaged daughter, Willa (played by Olyphant's own daughter, Vivian). He's there ostensibly to make a brief court appearance but soon finds himself working with the Detroit Police Department on a wild and increasingly violent case. It seems that a "wildman" from Oklahoma named Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) has made his way back to the Motor City, bringing chaos with him, and his path of destruction may have blown right through a corrupt local judge (Keith David), an ambitious attorney (Aunjanue Ellis), a bartender with a past (Vondie Curtis-Hall), and a local casino waitress (Adelaide Clemens) who's been trapped in the wildman's orbit for so long that she doesn't know which way is up. It's a chaotic mystery so twisty and raucous that only Raylan Givens can apparently solve it, even if it does mean broadening the rift between him and his daughter.
Right away, "City Primeval" strikes a graceful balance between the old and the new, carefully shepherded along by series masterminds (and "Justified" alums) Dave Andron and Michael Dinner, with help from many of the writers and producers who made the original show into a crime drama masterpiece. The wealth of experience on the writing, directing, and producing team, coupled with Olyphant's own ability to slip right back into Raylan's Stetson hat, means that there's an unbroken link between this show and the previous one — not just in terms of plot, but in terms of tone. It feels like "Justified" from the opening frames, and that's especially impressive because as much as the show is working to preserve the things we remember, it's also constantly breaking new ground in Raylan's story.
Yes, Raylan is instantly recognizable, and his very presence imbues "City Primeval" with the neo-Western charm that so defined "Justified," but even with that legacy in place, this is a Detroit show through and through. The warm, almost sepia hues of the Kentucky hollers are gone, replaced with the cool blues and grays of a city of steel and concrete, tinged with the neon highlights of a nightlife that could turn dangerous at any moment. Motown Records and the unmistakable tunes of the White Stripes pipe through speakers in scene after scene, while cars of every possible vintage drift through the narrative, thanks in part to Mansell's tendency to only steal vehicles that still have tape decks. It's a different flavor right away, and because it's always tinged with the familiar, it envelops us like a smooth embrace.
Raylan's battles
More impressive than the show's tonal balance, though, are the ways in which it expands on the kinds of moral and psychological dilemmas that Raylan faced over and over again in the original series. As in "Justified," Raylan's up against a daring, clever, and charismatic outlaw in "City Primeval," a point driven home by Holbrook's endlessly fun performance as Mansell. Unlike "Justified," though, Raylan has to balance the savagery of the moment with the patience that he must summon as a father and as a maturing U.S. Marshal, someone trying to do things right not just to avoid trouble, but to prove to the people he cares about that he still knows which way to turn. As always with this particular lawman, it's not an easy fight, and the show does a wonderful job of balancing Raylan's battle with Mansell with his battle with his own daughter and his own legacy as a father, a Marshal, and a man.
This is all wonderfully underscored by several towering performances, led by Olyphant, who imbues an aging Raylan with a measured intensity that allows us to see the tough calculations in his head up close and personal. Ellis is a very welcome addition to Raylan's story as well, giving us a closer look at the power dynamics of Detroit in a very human, relatable way while matching Olyphant step for step. Then there's Curtis-Hall, who has to play opposite Holbrook in a very interesting, often mismatched way, and finds deep wells of vulnerability in the process.
It all adds up to a must-watch new achievement in crime drama storytelling. "Justified: City Primeval" won't just remind you why you love "Justified," or why you'd watch Raylan Givens do just about anything. It will sweep you away with its own unique spell, and it might just make you start wishing for even more "Justified" stories to come.
"Justified: City Primeval" premieres with two episodes on July 18 on FX, with new episodes premiering every Tuesday through the rest of the season.