About a year ago, I finally caught up on the acclaimed series Justified and reached it's series finale. As much as I knew I would miss Timothy Olyphant as Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens, all good things must end and Justified's finale stuck the landing as well as one can hope for a series finale.
Boyd Crowder was in his hell (prison) and all was right with the world as Givens finally shook off the penance of being consigned to the Marshal's office in Kentucky and made his way back to Miami, FL to co-parent his daughter.
Was there a reason for the good deputy's return?
Which brings us to Justified: City Primeval.
Events have transpired to bring Givens (with his now 15 year old daughter Willa along for the ride) to Detroit where the US Marshals have put Givens on a task force with the Detroit police to find out whose been trying to kill Judge Guy, a hard ass African American judge.
Givens and the cops quickly zero on the the dipshit who was trying to kill the judge.
Only for the judge and his assistant to be murdered by an unrelated problem: the return of Clement Mansell AKA the Oklahoma Wild Man, a psychotic trigger happy thief and murderer who resolves his anger over a traffic incident with the judge with a gun. And he executes the aide for good measure.
The Detroit police are pissed.
1) They saved the judge from one nut case would be murderer only to have him killed by another nut case murderer.
2) The judge's aide was one of their own, a CI planted to be near the judge as part of a corruption investigation.
And Clement Mansell has secured the services of high powered defense attorney Carolyn Wilder who one thinks should have better things to do than represent such low life trash like Mansell but damned if she isn't in Givens' face telling him to stay away from Mansell.
It's a directive that Mansell himself does not feel compelled to reciprocate as he sidles up to Willa as an "old friend of Raylan's". Givens extricates Mansell from Willa, takes him outside and beats the unholy crap out of this fucking psycho.
OK, Mansell had that coming but I'm sure Carolyn Wilder will turn this around to make Givens pay for it.
So this new series? Look, I have no problem seeing my real life man crush Timothy Olyphant slip back into the role of my fictional man crush Raylan Givens. Olyphant's deputy marshall is as laconic and witty and insightful as ever, not missing a beat at returning to this role.
But I think what's missing from Justified: City Primeval is why this is Raylan Givens' story. Unlike the original series with Givens' connections to Harlan from his youth that added color and depth to the proceedings, this new series is basically just a "police officer fish out of water" story that's been told before.
Like it's predecessor, Justified: City Primeval is a brutally violent show. But has horrifying as these acts of murder are, Givens' lack of personal connection make them proverbial ducks in a shooting gallery. Which is why I guess Mansell makes his threat against Willa, to make this personal.
I'm here for the long haul. It's Olyphant as Givens, who am I to say no?
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Here's an interesting change of subject.
A few weeks after the season finale of Superman & Lois, we have new Superman to watch in the form of a new animated series, My Adventures With Superman.
The series follows a very young trio of Daily Planet interns named Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent as they face life in the big city of Metropolis and prove to Perry White they can be real journalists.
Oh and there's that new super hero in town, Superman.
Jack Quaid is the voice of Superman/Clark Kent and dang if it's not perfect casting. Whether it's as the eager new reporter or the awkward super hero still figuring out what he can do, Clark is just an earnest guy who just wants to help. And the sincerity in Jack Quaid's performance just sells that mission statement.
My Adventures With Superman takes advantage of a lot of lore from Superman and DC Comics in general in it's world building for this new series.
I'll have more on My Adventures With Superman in a later Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Speaking of Jack Quaid...
The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds crossover with Star Trek: Lower Decks was originally supposed to drop July 27th. But after the episode was shown at San Diego Comic Con, Paramount+ did a surprise showing of the episode Saturday night.
Andrea and I watched it and... WOW!
There is so much to unpack into this funny as hell but also unexpectedly tender love letter to Star Trek, I can't begin to even...
Within minutes of finishing this episode, Andrea and I were both like "We can't wait to watch it again!"
I think I will need to go into greater detail in a later post.
But for now....
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!
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