The return of 'Justified', now in Detroit

It was one of the most respected series of the past decade, earning two Emmys and six other Emmy nominations throughout its six seasons on the FX cable channel.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
05 September 2023 Tuesday 11:26
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The return of 'Justified', now in Detroit

It was one of the most respected series of the past decade, earning two Emmys and six other Emmy nominations throughout its six seasons on the FX cable channel. However, although the chain that was then owned by 20th Century Fox would have wanted to continue for another year, its creator, Graham Yost and its protagonist, Timothy Olyphant, felt that shooting a seventh was stretching something that was no longer enough. Based on the stories that the legendary writer Elmore Leonard left us with a peculiar protagonist named Raylan Givens, the series, which in Spain was called Justified: Raylan's Law, was based mainly on one of those stories, entitled Fire in the Hole.

Justified recounted the adventures of a charismatic officer in the United States federal marshals, primarily concerned with enforcing court orders and protecting judges, whose somewhat unusual methods were tolerated by his superiors (hence the title Justified). , that is, justified). Probably the reason both Yost and Olyphant felt at the time that the story could not continue was that it was all set in Harlan County, eastern Kentucky, in what is known as the Appalachian mountain culture. Givens, who had grown up there, moved to Miami to try to escape that world, but due to a trigger-happy incident, he was transferred to the place he knows best, and part of the charm of the series was precisely its funny look at the region.

Justified: City Primeval, whose subtitle can be translated as Primitive City, brings Raylan back 15 years after the end of the sixth season, already a calmer man and with the maturity that his age gives him, but now his circumstances are different. Although he has returned to Miami, where he continues to work in the sheriff's department, he has taken time off to take his daughter Willa, played by Timothy's own daughter Vivian, to a camp for troubled girls. . Along the way, a couple of outlaws have the bad idea of ​​trying to steal his car. And although they end up arrested and in jail, to prosecute them he must travel to Detroit to give his testimony.

There, a bomb attack against a judge will launch an investigation that will require his services, so the man who never goes anywhere without his characteristic hat will have to stay for a while in a luxurious hotel accompanied by his daughter.

In the same way that in the original series Givens made sparks with a notorious criminal played by Walton Gaggins, here that place is occupied by Boyd Holbrook, the adventure partner of Pedro Pascal in Narcos. His villain, Clement Mansell, is a relentless killer who is also a white supremacist, and yet, when he wants to, he can be truly charming.

Dave Andron and Michael Dinner, who worked with Olyphant on the previous series, have taken the reins as creators and writers, drawing inspiration from another Leonard book, a novel titled City Primeval. Filmed mostly in Detroit, this new installment also stars The Williams Method Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Mansell's fierce defense attorney, Vondie Curtis-Hall as a judge with a few things to hide, and Adelaide Clemens as a woman who is willing to do anything to protect the villain. The series, which premiered in July in the United States on Hulu, arrives this Wednesday on the Disney platform in Spain.