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| Image courtesy of FX |
Revival seasons aren’t always the most satisfying. Some rely too heavily on nostalgia that serves no function while others make a hard turn towards becoming more relevant and diverse. Fans with high hopes finish a season disappointed and questioning why anyone couldn’t leave something good alone.
Justified: City Primeval (2023) stands above other revival seasons by sticking to a formula that worked well in its previous run. A contemptible finale few minutes, however, nearly ruins the good rhythm and lean storyline that elevates this new season.
Still a U.S. Marshal, Raylen Givens (Timothy Olyphant) has moved to Florida to be closer to his daughter and ex-wife, Wynona. A chance encounter there finds Givens transporting a criminal with warrants from Detroit back to the Motor City with his teenage daughter in tow. This trip pulls Raylen into helping Detroit detectives to nab villain Clement Mansell, played with ease and swagger by Boyd Holbrook.
What’s familiar is seeing Olyphant scowl and growl in pursuit of that season’s villain. What’s new is seeing Givens as a father to daughter Willa, played by Olyphant’s actual daughter Vivian. Willa has to ride along to Detroit and sit in the courtroom while her dad testifies about the criminal they transported there from Florida. She gets slighted while her dad gets pulled into a case involving a crooked judge Alvin Guy (Keith David chewing scenery in the best possible way) and his book of payoffs.
What made the previous series, which ran from 2010-2016, work so well were snappy, genteel dialogue, startling violence, and dynamic character arcs. The show’s pilot was based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, who consulted on the series until he died in 2013. Leonard, along with his son Taylor, worked to keep the show full of what made the novels so enjoyable throughout out it’s six seasons.
City Primeval, originally a novel Leonard wrote about Detroit in 1980, follows a formula often found in that author’s other novels and the series that sprung from it. Your hero, Givens, tries to do things right in spite of his desire to dole out Old West justice. The villain, Mansell, tangles with Givens while also endangering a love interest; this time, it’s casino cocktail waitress Sandy (Adelaide Clemens) whom Givens tries to convince to get away from her dangerous boyfriend.
The eight episodes of this revival season keep a tight storyline involving a solid supporting cast of lawyers, detectives, and bar owners all wrapped up in trying to get Judge Guy’s book and bring down Mansell. Each of these characters get decent character development, including former jazz musician and current bar owner Sweetie (Vondie Curtis Hall), who fills the role of the rare queer character on the show.
Plenty of ‘almost got him’ moments propel the plot forward and complicate things for each character; Givens especially gets used for other characters’ schemes, making the viewer question if Raylen is really needed there at all.
This standout, standalone season hits a fatal snag with the final ten minutes of the finale. The clichés that fill these minutes are such a stark contrast to the near-perfect finale of the original series, which was a fitting and moving bit of closure calling back to the original bond of two of the series’ main characters. City Primeval’s ending is cheap and lazy; it sours all the good built up by the previous episodes.
Jusitied: City Primeval is currently streaming on Hulu.
- EB