Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins and Season Two of ‘Justified’

We first introduced you to the FX television series Justified (2010-2015) with our look into the first season in July. Brad Paisley reprises the closing thought of You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive in bringing the second 13-episode season of this addictive elegy of dysfunctional hillbillies feuding over crime, mining rights for the mountain, and a fleeting sense of a way of life in a community seemingly committed to a violent end. Throw in a sliding moral sense of interpersonal intimacy and trust that complicate definitions of family and friendship, and you have a sense for what season one and season two of Justified have had to offer.

(Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks, Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder, Nick Searcy as Art Mullen, Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder, Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson and Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy from the television series Justified).

Central to the dysfunctional and blurred lines of friendship and family remains the complicated relationship of almost brothers, almost friends, and almost always murky yet tenuous bond between Boyd Crowder and US Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens. A gunfight at the end of season one cemented the tenuous bond and truce of sorts, which in part contributed to the end of the love interest of Givens Ava Crowder. Ava accepts Boyd into her home, where a complicated family history from the first season of Justified transpired, and led to a complicated transition of feelings between Boyd and Ava explored through the show’s second season. Additionally explored was a backstory for US Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks and her brother, as well as background introduced for Marshal Tim Gutterson.

(William Ragsdale as Gary Hawkins and Natalie Zea as Winona Hawkins in the television series Justified).

The complicated love triangle between Raylan, the glue to many story lines in Justified, explored the romantic ties and questionable entanglements with the law and each other for Gary Hawkins and Raylan’s ex-wife Winona Hawkins. Winona married Gary before the first season began, yet comes to a place where she questions the emotional priorities of Gary, as she had with Raylan before him. True to the series name, much of these questions are justified, as our the questions Winona also levels at herself through the season. Shenanigans ensue that touch characters Wynn Duffy and US Marshal Art Mullen. The nature of the enlightened perspectives of Duffy and Mullen, while expressed in different circles and levels of justification for sure, offer plenty of interesting fodder for those interested in considering the gray areas of personal ethics that Justified takes pleasure in questioning. Particularly for me, these last two questions seem particularly relevant heading into the next season, as is the question of where Raylan and the Hawkins’ are headed.

(Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens, left, and Linda Gehringer as Helen Givens in the television series Justified).

Further glue arises in the relationship of Raylan’s father and aunt, respectively Arlo Givens and Helen Givens. Wishing to hold back spoilers, I offer plenty in saying that either Arlo or Helen take a frightful turn during season two of Justified. The story of these two intersect with Boyd and Ava Crowder, whose story lines echo one another in enough ways to stir some questions.

(Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett, left, and Brad William Henke as Coover Bennett in the television series Justified).

The intersection of Boyd and Ava to Arlo and Helen brings season two of Justified to the central story line, which arguably should have come up earlier in the best way to pitch this season. First, who are the Bennetts? Second, what is their concern with Loretta McReady and her father? Finally, where does this leave us as far as the larger drama of the season?

(Joseph Lyle Taylor as Doyle Bennett, left, and Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett in the television series Justified).

Mags Bennett is the matriarch of the Bennett family. The Bennetts and the Givens family have some degree of a feud occurring that dates back generations in Harlan, Kentucky. Doyle Bennett is a police sheriff and arguably the most intelligent of the three sons introduced during the second season of Justified. The other two are Dickie Bennett and Coover Bennett, who lean more towards the criminal enterprise portion of the family business. Of the three sons, Mags favors one child over the other two. Dickie is the screw-up brother while Coover is the brother lacking common sense yet purported to have an aptitude for cultivating marijuana.

(Kaitlyn Dever as Loretta McCready in the television series Justified).

The story of the Bennetts overlaps with Loretta McCready, a 14-year-old girl who faces interpersonal criminal behavior at the hands of members of the Bennett clan. Through the season, Mags warms to Loretta as the daughter she never had. Whether fate plays a fickle or steady hand for the Bennetts regarding the McCready family and Loretta as Loretta struggles to understand the fate of her father through the course of the second season of Justified is plenty of reason to watch the series. I personally am impressed with the second season. My overall grade for season two of Justified is 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, September 14, 2019

Ryan Gosling and ‘First Man’

In watching the movie First Man (2018) in a theater last weekend, I came in with solid hopes of the familiar territory of the rising Gemini and Apollo programs that resulted in humankind landing on the moon. The story of First Man is not so much the means to the moon as it is the story of Neil Armstrong‘s adult family and NASA life from the point of being a test pilot shortly before the commencement of the Gemini program.

(Neil Armstrong)

The film First Man is based on the book First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong. Claire Foy stars as Janet Armstrong (Shearon), Neil‘s wife throughout the movie. The two would divorce in 1994 due to factors of the emotional unavailability of Neil. The unavailability was portrayed in the movie. In the onscreen portrayal, voice was given to Janet’s desire for additional emotional engagement from her husband in their relationship and with their children.

(Ryan Gosling, front and center, as Neil Armstrong)

An early part of the Armstrong family narrative included with the film was the emotional impact of the loss of Neil and Janet‘s daughter Karen. The emotional toll is revisited throughout the film. Some rather clear questions about how Janet and Neil cope with the loss, while how little Neil engaged with the couple’s surviving kids were evident from the portrait offered in the movie.

(Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong)

Historical facts of the flights, training, and gritty realism of being on flights were all redeeming traits of the movie. The production value of First Man, at least when compared to the blockbuster treatment given to the Apollo 13 (1995) movie, could find some folks wanting more from First Man. The subtlety with how the Apollo 1 tragedy was addressed, however, was compelling.

The narrative arc of the First Man mixed the opening flight into space by Neil Armstrong with his heartache over the loss of his daughter Karen. The imagery of leaving the bracelet of his daughter on the lunar surface seems like a Hollywood fabrication. The unspoken, yet fully understood interaction between Neil and Janet at the close of the movie spoke of the larger complexity of their relationship, even as Neil‘s largest non-familial success was fresh and at its pinnacle.

My recommendation is that fans of biopics, space movies, or Ryan Gosling should go ahead and see this movie in the theaters. Others that may be curious can.  wait for the movie to make its appearance on video, cable, streaming services, and the like. Overall, I give this movie 3.75-stars out of 5.

Matt – Thursday, October 25, 2018