Justified (season 1)

Plot

The story arc of season one concentrates on the crimes of the Crowder family. Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) seeks to protect Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) from the rest of the Crowder clan after she shoots her husband Bowman Crowder dead in retaliation for years of abuse. Her biggest threat initially comes from Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), a local criminal masquerading as a white supremacist whom Raylan shoots in a stand-off. Boyd survives the shot to the chest and claims its lack of fatality is a sign from God that he should change his ways. Raylan hesitates to believe him but Boyd is soon sent to prison, spending his time reading the bible and preaching to convicts. The season builds towards the release of family patriarch Bo (M. C. Gainey) who wishes to re-build his family's drug trade and to settle old scores, including one with Raylan's father, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry), who has cheated him out of money. Bo's release is soon followed by Boyd's, after a technicality prevents him from being further incarcerated. While Bo works on gaining dominance over the local drug trade, Boyd collects a camp of spiritually reformed criminals whom he trains to blow up meth houses in the county to "clean up Harlan". The explosions cause a few casualties, leading Raylan and the other US Marshals to keep an eye on the team. In the meantime Raylan is dealing with his own personal dilemmas, including working in the same building as his ex-wife (Natalie Zea), for whom he continues to harbor feelings. His continuing visits to Harlan are peppered with small crimes and big shootings, and his success in dealing with these matters draws Bo's attention. Bo promises the niece and nephew of Gio that he will deliver Raylan to them in exchange for a large shipment of drugs. Boyd catches word of this and, with his "flock" of reformed prisoners, blows up the truck carrying the shipment, leading the niece and nephew to hold Bo accountable for the damages. This leads Bo to go to Boyd's camp and threaten to kill his own son, illustrating the harsh family relations that provide some insight as to how Boyd turned out the way he has. But instead of killing Boyd, Bo offers his son the option to abandon his group, after which Bo will leave all of them alone. Boyd walks away into the forest, where he hears gunshots, and returns to see that all of his followers have been killed. This sends him, depressed, to Raylan's door, saying he will help Raylan find Bo as long as he's allowed to be the one to kill him. A plan to deliver Raylan into Bo's clutches is foiled, but Bo has taken Ava hostage. This is the turning point that drives Boyd and Raylan to join forces for the first time, and Boyd leads him to the Crowder cabin an hour or so away. There they manage to kill Bo's guards and shoot Bo in the leg, but as he runs outside a truck pulls in with Gio's niece and nephew, and they attack the house with machine guns. Bo is killed, while Boyd, Ava, and Raylan are trapped; the niece and nephew demand Raylan be turned over to them. After Boyd attempts to pass himself off as Raylan, Raylan tells him and Ava to leave out the back way, and he walks forward, hands in the air. As the niece and nephew step out to shoot him, Boyd shoots the nephew and the niece runs away. Boyd wants to go after her but Raylan stops him, saying it's against the law. However, Boyd absconds with Raylan's car, while neither using or facing violence. This signifies the beginning of a somewhat-friendship between the two characters that will continue throughout the series.

Main cast

Filming

While the pilot was shot in Pittsburgh and suburban Kittanning, Pennsylvania and Washington, Pennsylvania, the subsequent episodes were shot in California. The small town of Green Valley, California often doubles for Harlan, Kentucky. In the pilot, Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center appears on film as the small town "airport" and the construction of the new Consol Energy Center serves as the "new courthouse".

Reception

For the first season, the series received very positive reviews. TV Guide critic Matt Roush praised the show, particularly the acting of Olyphant, stating: "The show is grounded in Olyphant's low-key but high-impact star-making performance, the work of a confident and cunning leading man who's always good company." Chicago Tribune critic Maureen Ryan also praised the series, writing: "The shaggily delightful dialogue, the deft pacing, the authentic sense of place, the rock-solid supporting cast and the feeling that you are in the hands of writers, actors and directors who really know what they're doing—all of these are worthy reasons to watch Justified." Mike Hale of The New York Times praised the shows "modest virtues", but was critical of the first season's pace and characterisation, writing: "Justified can feel so low-key that even the crisis points drift past without making much of an impression... It feels as if the attention that should have gone to the storytelling all went to the atmosphere and the repartee."

Awards

Justified received a 2010 Peabody Award. For the first season, the series received a single Primetime Emmy Award nomination, for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.

Ratings

The first season averaged 2.417 million viewers and a 0.9 rating in the 18–49 demographic.

Home media release

The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on January 18, 2011, in region 2 on November 29, 2010, and in region 4 on June 7, 2012. Special features on the season one set include four audio commentaries by cast and crew, five behind-the-scenes featurettes, a music video, and a season two trailer.