Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin in the Coen Brothers movie ‘No Country for Old Men’

Crime. Drama. Thrills. Intensely drawn characters. The movie No Country for Old Men (2007) as directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen is drawn from the 2005 Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men. The dark violence and stylistic complexity from the book translated to the something equally dark and complex with the movie. Join us in learning a bit more.

(From left, Kelly Macdonald as Carla Jean Moss and Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss in the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

We come upon hunter Llewelyn Moss in the western fringes of Texas in the desert near El Paso when Moss discovers the aftermath of a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Moss, as portrayed by Josh Brolin, does nothing to render aid for the lone survivor of the carnage; he does decide to walk away with the large sum of money along the way. Moss offers few details to his wife Carl Jean, as portrayed by Kelly Macdonald, when getting home with the spoils. The pair are clear with one another that the heat of those looking to recover the money will be looking for them.

(From left, Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell and Garret Dillahunt as Wendell in the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

The notion that someone who would know that their money was missing would come behind the desert carnage was of little mystery to sheriff Ed Tom Bell and deputy Wendell. Tommy Lee Jones and Garret Dillahunt portrayed the sheriff and deputy, respectively. Bell, who we learn had been sheriff from a young age, aims to help Llewelyn and Carla Jean Moss navigate this situation with their lives, if he could. We find that Bell is on a journey of his own through the course of this movie.

(From left, Gene Jones as Gas Station Proprietor and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

That the single-minded, psychopathic and eccentric Anton Chigurh is on a mission to recover the stolen money soon becomes clear. That Chigurh isn’t your typical man out for money is clear as Chigurh has an intense yet brief interaction with a Gas Station Proprietor as portrayed by Gene Jones. Javier Bardem portrayed Anton Chigurh. Besides having armed himself with a homemade sawed-off shotgun with a coffee-can silencer and a trademark compressed air-driven cattle gun, Chigurh carries with him an eccentric philosophical conviction that he is merely an agent of fate.

(Stephen Root as Man who hires Carson Wells in the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

Multiple men are pursuing the recovery of the money in the wind from the drug deal gone wrong. Carson Wells, as portrayed by Woody Harrelson, pursues Chigurh and the money after being hired for expressly this purpose by the character portrayed by Stephen Root. Wells aids in bolstering the backstory of Anton Chigurh, whose eccentricity defies explanation for some without the explication a scene between Wells and the man who hired him offers.

(From left, Woody Harrelson as Carson Wells and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

The fates of many are messy throughout the course of No Country for Old Men. Few if any come out of the mayhem of this story clean, with Chigurh, Wells and others are sharing in some measure of this fate. Where the characters stake their claim in this regard feels like a clear and present message throughout the film. This thematic exploration offers a measuring stick for the success of the storytelling, if my estimation offers a sufficient guidepost for your thoughts of this film.

(From left, actor Javier Bardem, director Joel Coen and director Ethan Coen on site of the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen movie No Country for Old Men).

The movie No Country for Old Men earned three BAFTAs and four Academy Awards in 2008 for direction, acting and adapted screenplay. Ethan Coen and Joel Coen adapted the screenplay from the Cormac McCarthy book, with Javier Bardem claiming a BAFTA and an Academy Award. I grant the movie No Country for Old Men as directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance and Chris Chalk in season one of ‘Perry Mason’

Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance and Chris Chalk starred in the first season of HBO Original Series Perry Mason (2020- ). The updated series is set in the 1920s based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner. This incarnation of the Perry Mason series was developed and written by Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald. That there would be a second season was announced in July, 2020.

(From left, Matthew Rhys as Perry Mason and Chris Chalk as Paul Drake in the HBO Original Series Perry Mason).

The opening season of Perry Mason offered a decidedly contemporary look into the origin stories and existing human relationships for existing characters known to many familiar with the original Perry Mason (1957-1966) television series or the series of detective novels. This series offers much in terms of offering backstories of characters in ways that would be borderline taboo even on modern day late night network television. Included in this would be the origin story of Perry Mason, as portrayed by Matthew Rhys, his complicated love interest Lupe Gibbs, as played by Veronica Falcón, and the stories involving Paul Drake, as portrayed by Chris Chalk. Diarra Kilpatrick portrayed Clara Drake, the wife of Chris Chalk.

(From left, John Lithgow as Elias Birchard ‘E.B.’ Jonathan, Juliet Rylance as Della Street and Shea Whigham as Pete Strickland in the HBO Original Series Perry Mason).

The story of the opening season of Perry Mason begins with some seedy investigations pursued by detectives Perry Mason and Pete Strickland pursuing seedy private investigation work. Pete Strickland, as portrayed by Shea Whigham, secondhand through lawyer Elias Birchard ‘E.B.’ Jonathan, as portrayed by John Lithgow. E.B. Jonathan, a lawyer down on his luck with his glory days in the past, employed Mason, Strickland, and substantially more than secretary Della Street. Street is portrayed by Juliet Rylance. Street is in a relationship with Hazel Prystock, as portrayed by Molly Ephraim, in the opening season.

(From left, Gayle Rankin as Emily Dodson, Tatiana Maslany as Sister Alice McKeegan and Lili Taylor as Birdy McKeegan in the HBO Original Series Perry Mason).

The case at the center of involves the kidnapping and death of Emily and Matt Dodson’s son Charlie Dodson. Gayle Rankin portrayed Emily Dodson as Nate Corddry portrayed Matt Dodson. The circumstances and political mechanization behind the ensuing investigation, along with the odd circumstances occurring at a radio religious ministry inextricably tied to the happenings of the death become connected to the events. Birdy McKeegan, as portrayed by Lili Taylor, Sister Alice McKeegan as portrayed by Tatiana Maslany, and Herman Baggerly as portrayed by Robert Patrick all have a hand in the prospects within and without the ministry connected to this case.

(From left, Robert Patrick as Herman Baggerly and Andrew Howard as Detective Ennis in the HBO Original Series Perry Mason).

Regarding the disappearance, death, and subsequent trials of Emily and Matt Dodson, police detective Ennis and policeman Paul Drake run afoul of each other in formulating the official theory of the crime. Andrew Howard portrayed Detective Ennis. The theory of the crime, and the subsequent prosecution of it by Maynard Barnes as portrayed by Stephen Root, who aims to make sure the facts to be presented at trial at a minimum will not be derailed due to clever investigation and mechanization by the investigations of Perry Mason, Pete Strickland, and others. The sense of desperation in what motivates some through the investigation and conduct of the trial, in addition to the self-motivation and crime that underpins how justice was operating through the season, certainly offered a grit to the storytelling that I do not recall from the original television series that I remember.

(Stephen Root as Maynard Barnes in the HBO Original Series Perry Mason).

The first season of the HBO series Perry Mason was an intriguing re-imagination of the original characters that were present. That the season chose to focus on a single case with deeper looks into the relationships of the people and the drama does service to a series airing on a premium cable platform. I’m all for additional seasons, acknowledging that the edge this series brings both in violence and sexual content will not be for all viewers. I grade for season one of Perry Mason at 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, August 26, 2020

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

We first introduced you to the FX television series Justified (2010-2015) with our look into the first season last July. We followed with a look into season two in September. The third 13-episode season of Justified brings an exiled Detroit mobster to Harlan through Lexington, Kentucky to establish the oxycontin trade. Meanwhile, a couple of other criminal feuds breakout with allegiances changing with rapid fire, ending up with Nobles Holler playing a decent part in the larger story.

(Natalie Zea as Winona Hawkins, left, and Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens in the television series Justified).

Timothy Olyphant continues to star in season three of Justified as the righteous yet rule-bending lawman morally mixed-up with his ex-wife Winona Hawkins, as portrayed by Natalie Zea. The story involving Gary Hawkins, as portrayed by William Ragsdale, is one worth keeping an eye on through the season.

(Left to right, Neal McDonough as Robert Quarles, William Ragsdale as Gary Hawkins and Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy in the television series Justified).

The exiled Detroit mobster Robert Quarles, portrayed by Neal McDonough, interplays with Dixie Mafia enforcer Wynn Duffy, as portrayed by Jere Burns. The banter among these characters highlights cultural differences between the Midwestern United States and Appalachia, aiming for humor in the approach.

(Left to right, Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder, Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens and Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder in the television series Justified).

Old feuds surface in the telling of the story of introducing new players into the vacuum caused by the deaths of Mags Bennett and others in the second season of the series. The feud between Boyd Crowder, as portrayed by Walton Goggins, and Dickie Bennett, as portrayed by Jeremy Davies, is a central part of that tale. Ava Crowder remains in league with her former brother-in-law, Boyd, while Arlo Givens joins the Crowders, including wheel-chair bound Johnny Crowder, in that process. Joelle Carter plays Ava Crowder. Raymond J. Barry plays Arlo Givens, the father to Raylan. David Meunier plays Johnny Crowder.

(Todd Stashwick as Ash Murphy, left, and Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett in the television series Justified).

Almost everybody through the third season of Justified has an interest in the money that Mags Bennett has left in trust with the Ellstin Limehouse in Noble’s Holler. Dickie Bennett believes himself to be the rightful heir to the fortune, which in separate parts motivates behavior for Boyd, Johnny and Ava Crowder, Arlo Givens, Raylan Givens, Ash Murphy and Ellstin Limehouse. Ash Murphy, a Kentucky jailer, is portrayed by Todd Stashwick. Ellstin Limehouse is portrayed by Mykelti Williamson.

(Left to right, Mykelti Williamson as Ellstin Limehouse, Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks and Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens in the television series Justified).

Law enforcement officers with the U.S. Marshals Service in Justified continue to include Rachel Brooks as portrayed by Erica Tazel, Art Mullen as portrayed by Nick Searcy and Tim Gutterson as portrayed by Jacob Pitts. A nebulous and entertaining fictional part of this series is the different degrees of gray that these characters, and all the characters to some degree, in this series occupy.

(Left to right, Nick Searcy as Art Mullen, Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson and Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens in the television series Justified).

The third season of this series hits another home run of entertaining for me, which allowed me to move quickly through the season. The emotional truths of different characters in the story, flaws and quirks right there for the telling, is part of what resonates in the storytelling of this season. The same has been true of the series overall, with payoffs among the different seasons as well. I grade for season three of Justified at 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, January 18, 2020

Alexa Davalo, Rufus Sewell and the last season of ‘The Man in the High Castle’

Season four of the Amazon Original series The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019) brings about a conclusion to the stories of an alternative, dystopian history where Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were the dominating powers in an America that lost World War Two, and the United States no longer existed. Reviews of season one, season two and season three are included with the links in this sentence. The intrigue explored with the alternative outcome, inspired by the original writing of Phillip K. Dick, led to an exploration of the Multiverse that offered a means of bringing the larger stories to completion.

(Left to Right, Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crane, Ann Magnuson as Caroline Abendsen and Stephen Root as Hawthorne Abendsen in The Man in the High Castle).

Bringing resolution to the larger personal stories of central characters to the series was a genuine accomplishment of the fourth season for the series. The loss of the Nobusuke Tagomi story from the beginning of the beginning of the season felt like it left part of the Juliana Crane character incomplete, though her determination being touched by the connections to Caroline and Hawthorne Abendsen, with Hawthorne being the namesake underpinning the series name, was handled with a dignity and feeling that felt appropriate to the occupying national forces that influenced his fate.

(Quinn Lord as Thomas Smith and Rufus Sewell as Reichsmarschall John Smith in The Man in the High Castle).

The notion of the Multiverse explored with The Man in the High Castle included the existence and an infinite number synonymous universes where many different versions of the people in our own world exist and interact. A redeeming sense of hope for the oppressed, and a new means for oppression for the ruling parties, were parts of what bound the stories of different characters together in this series. That notion, as interesting as that is, gives us the means of seeing individuals explore what it meant to have chosen differently than the circumstances of our world affords. Nobusuke Tagomi and Juliana Crane had been exploring this.

(Left to right, Gracyn Shinyei as Amy Smith, Genea Charpentier as Jennifer Smith, and Chelah Horsdal as Helen Smith in The Man in the High Castle).

Reichsmarschall John Smith, who had been Obergruppenführer John Smith through much of the first three seasons, came to this much later than others. This was true, too, for Helen Smith, his wife. Even bigger relationship questions followed this for how Helen and John thought of there children, Thomas, Jennifer and Amy, and who each other really were. Existentially, deciding who the Smiths were, and then revisiting those decisions after having lost World War Two and then considered their choices and familial outcomes, were truly emotionally crisis worthy.

(Jason O’Mara as Wyatt Price, left, and Rick Worthy as Lem Washington in The Man in the High Castle).

Juliana Crane, in addition to being central to the stories that were expressed through the Smiths, had a central place in the stories that transitioned through the neutral zone of the United States, in addition to the imperial Japanese states of the ‘former’ United States. Lem Washington had been in contact with the myth building of the films associated with Hawthorne Abendsen and the resistance. The story of Juliana’s connection with the resistance intersected with Wyatt Price in the neutral zone, and in part with stories of Frank Frink, Ed McCarthy, Robert Childan and even Joe Blake. The resistance romance for Wyatt and Juliana in part were slow moving and reluctant owing to complications to the experiences each had overtime, though Wyatt, Lem and Robert each took significant roles in combating the Japanese military authority alongside either the Black Communist Resistance (BCR) or the Japanese monarchy.

(Left to right, Alex Barima as Oscar Watson, Clé Bennett as Elijah, and Frances Turner as Bell Mallory in The Man in the High Castle).

Oscar Watson, Bell Mallory, and Elijah, along with Equiano Hampton (played by David Harewood) were key figures in the BCR, with Lem Washington able to work readily with the group though outside of it owing to Lem’s affiliation with other elements of the resistance. Robert Childan plays a hand in the interactions of these resistance elements against the Japanese, through a means that follows separating from the outcomes of Frank Frink and Ed McCarthy.

(Joel de la Fuente as Inspector Takeshi Kido, center, and Sen Mitsuji as Toru Kido, right in The Man in the High Castle).

Family, and the decision of reaffirming who he really is in the changing world politics of the fourth season of The Man in the High Castle, becomes part of Inspector Takeshi Kido’s reality. Toru Kido, Takeshi’s son who struggles with the trauma of military service outside of North America, struggles with that trauma in ways that affect the on-going story of Takeshi beyond the series resolution. Inspector Takeshi Kido, too, has a hand in bringing about multiple stories resolved for The Man in the High Castle, including the romantic resolution for Robert Childan and his Japanese servant and love interest, Yukiko.

(Brennan Brown as Robert Childan, left, and Chika Kanamoto as Yukiko in The Man in the High Castle).

The fourth season of The Man in the High Castle, became a degree of hard hitting that I felt, at least the second season of the series, lacked. Having not read the book titled The Man in the High Castle, I am partially left to wonder what liberties the television series took in comparison with the story told there. For example, were the characters and story of the BCR more strongly told? Was the story of Nobusuke Tagomi, Frank Frink, or Mark Sampson less abruptly brought to resolution? Was there a clearer sense of family for Juliana Crane once the larger story of these characters resolved? In part, these are questions I am asking as hopes or wants from the television series, too.

(The Man in the High Castle series creator Frank Spotnitz).

Largely, I found the show sufficiently interesting from a historical fiction for television perspective, with characters whose outcomes I wanted to see, to invest a total of forty episodes over the four seasons of the show to watch. The path forward for Europe, Asia, what would be the former United States, and the power we understood to be the former Soviet Union were not addressed in huge detail, though I don’t think that is a fully justified observation. My rating for the final season of The Man in the High Castle is 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Alexa Davalo, Rufus Sewell and Season Three of ‘The Man in the High Castle’

Season three of the Amazon Original series The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019) marks a genuine level of reward for my time investment in sticking with this series through season one and season two. This series, which is due to culminate in a series-ending fourth season, reflects what the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) describes as “a dystopian America dominated by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, [wherein] a young woman discovers a mysterious film that may hold the key to toppling the totalitarian regimes.”

(Jason O’Mara as Wyatt Price, left, and Alexa Davalos in The Man in the High Castle).

Much of the trippy, plodding quality of season two of the Man in the High Castle became much clearer and understandable from the onset of the third 10-episode season of this series. Much of the storytelling has brought us back to what I understand to be the vision of the 1962 Phillip K. Dick book of the same name, with the larger narrative of Juliana Crane (portrayed by Alexa Davalos) coming into play. Juliana has a clear role in tying together the man in the high castle to her ties to Wyatt Price (played by Jason O’Mara), John Smith, Nobusuke Tagomi, Frank Frink, Joe Blake and others becoming eminently clearer to the larger narrative of the story.

(Rufus Sewell as Obergruppenführer / Reichmarshall John Smith, left, and Chelah Horsdal as Helen Smith in The Man in the High Castle).

The role played by Obergruppenführer / Reichmarshall John Smith (portrayed by Rufus Sewell) continues to evolve to something further tied to what the story identifies as the Greater Nazi Reich (GNR), which we see signs has begun to alienate the man from his family, specifically Helen Smith (played by Chelah Horsdal). Smith has been feeling the pressure of the decisions confronting him, which are embodied in part by being drawn further and further under the influence of the fictional successor to German fuhrer, which The Man in the High Castle has made Heinrich Himmler.

(Kenneth Tigar as Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler, leftt, and Janet Kidder as Lila Jacobs with Michael Gaston as Mark Sampson in The Man in the High Castle).

Himmler (as portrayed by Kenneth Tigar) portrays elements of the strident fashion of Fascism associated with the German forces that prompted World War Two in the first place, which in part is told through the Jewish resistance in America in part shown in this series through Mark Sampson (as portrayed by Michael Gaston) and Lila Jacobs (portrayed by Janet Kidder).

(Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Nobusuke Tagomi, left, and Joel de la Fuente as Inspector Takeshi Kido in The Man in the High Castle).

Additionally harder hitting in season three of The Man in the High Castle has been the actions of the Pacific Japanese States in the form of Inspector Takeshi Kido (as portrayed by Joel de la Fuente) and Nobusuke Tagomi (as portrayed by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). Both maintain the truths of their characters while playing at different agendas in service of serving their cultural heritage and sense of  right and wrong to the limits of their consciences. Their histories lead to different personal truths, and hands in confronting those brutal truths in the face of new brutalities in the present day of this larger tale (early 1960s). That the narrative has taken this bent in a harder hitting manner is satisfying in portraying a truth that is relevant to the time and place fears that were at the heart of the moral imperatives of the time (as I understand them).

 (Rupert Evans as Frank Frink with Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crane, left, and Bella Heathcote as Nicole Dörmer and Luke Kleintank as Joe Blake in The Man in the High Castle).

The fate of characters and the fate of the future are larger messages of the third season of The Man in the High Castle. We learn much of the fate that was held in store for Frank Frink (as portrayed by Rupert Evans), Juliana Crane, Joe Blake (as portrayed by Luke Kleintank) and Nicole Dörmer (as portrayed by Bella Heathcote). None of these four experience particularly happy outcomes, with intrigue, propaganda and the larger views of the past and future central to their backstories as well as the stories they tell. The decisiveness of the telling, along with choosing to tell those stories in the form of 10-episode seasons, has been rather satisfying from a storytelling perspective.

(DJ Qualls as Ed McCarthy, left, and Brennan Brown as Robert Childan in The Man in the High Castle).

The backstories of Ed McCarthy (as played by DJ Qualls) and Robert Childan (as played by Brennan Brown) take on a fuller flavor that gets to some of the heart of a larger question of the series, namely what will it take to remember what the fight of the second world war was for the people of what was (in the story) the former United States. There are similarities in the stories of Ed McCarthy and Nicole Dörmer, though their paths never cross. Similarly, the stories of Robert Childan and Wyatt Price take on a degree of similar scope, though certainly the places where the characters of McCarthy, Dörmer, Childan and Price reside are quite different. The sense of place and time in shaping these stories is a strong part of what makes The Man in the High Castle in general, as well as season three of the series, work. My grade for The Man in the High Castle is 4.00-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, October 30, 2019

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

Alexa Davalo, Rufus Sewell and Season Two of ‘The Man in the High Castle’

It was two months ago that we at Matt Lynn Digital first reviewed the first season of Prime Original Series The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019). The Axis Powers had won World War Two, and Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany rule over the former United States had begun. A fourth season will be released soon most likely in the fall of 2019, so take a ride with us now as we review the show’s second season.

(Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crain in season two of The Man in the High Castle).

Alexa Davalos continues as a clear star of the series when she, as Juliana Crain, seeks asylum with the Nazi regime in the United States. Rufus Sewell as Obergruppenführer John Smith sponsors Crain, who had seemingly abandoned Frank Frink at the end of season one while seemingly making a morally questionable decision to secure the freedom of reluctant John Smith lieutenant Joe Blake, also at the end of season one. The heartfelt and apparent feelings that Crane has for both men is unresolved as the series moved to its second season.

(Rufus Sewell as Obergruppenführer John Smith, left, and Chelah Horsdal as Helen Smith in season two of The Man in the High Castle).

Obergruppenführer John Smith was painted into a corner at the end of season one in terms of a would be assassin, Reinhard Heydrich, as played by Ray Proscia. Through a cunning and initiative of his own making, Smith outmaneuvers Heydrich in a manner that declares his allegiance to Nazi leader in the alternate timeline, Adolf Hitler. A dominant thread of story through the second season, adjacent to Smith, his wife Helen Smith (played by Chelah Horsdal), and the character Juliana Crain has to do with the multiple sclerosis diagnosis of Smith family son, Thomas Smith (as played by Quinn Lord).

(From left to right, Bella Heathcote as Nicole Becker, Luke Kleintank as Joe Blake, and Sebastian Roché as Reichsminister Martin Heusmann in season two of The Man in the High Castle).

While the Thomas Smith story is revealed through season two, Joe Blake (as portrayed by Luke Kleintank) learns through series protagonist Obergruppenführer John Smith that he, Blake, was not abandoned with his mother by Blake’s father. Confused, reluctant and curious, Blake travels from New York City to Berlin and meets his biological father as portrayed by Sebastian Roché, Reichsminister Martin Heusmann. Through the actions of Heusmann, Joe Blake meets love interest Nicole Becker, as portrayed by Bella Heathcote, learning the truth of Heusmann’s past, his beliefs, and that Blake and Becker were both born of the odious Lebensborn Program. The unfolding of these threads of story interweave with the story of the Pacific States, and with characters with which we’re familiar from the first season.

(Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Nobusuke Tagomi, left, and Joel de la Fuente as Inspector Takeshi Kido in season two of The Man in the High Castle).

Inspector Takeshi Kido, as portrayed by Joel de la Fuente, continues his dedicated service to the Japanese empire in aiming to steer the unwieldy alliance in the Americas between the Japanese leadership in the west and the German leadership in the east. We see from as early as the asylum for Juliana Crain that Obergruppenführer Smith and Inspector Kido might be aiming to keep the threat of the nuclear proliferation that fictionally landed at Washington DC in this series at bay. Crain appears in an alternative timeline with Nobusuke Tagomi, as portrayed by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, through much of the second season. Tagomi is Crain’s father-in-law in a reality where the Germans and Japanese lost World War Two, wherein the known history runs its course with films relevant to the alternate history of Axis victory present in the first and second seasons of The Man in the High Castle.

(From left to right, Rupert Evans as Frank Frink, Brennan Brown as Robert Childan, and DJ Qualls as Ed McCarthy in season two of The Man in the High Castle).

Contemporary to the non-dreamlike story of Inspector Takeshi Kido, Frank Frink (portrayed by Rupert Evans) cements himself into a fully committed member of the American resistance to the Japanese authority in the Pacific states. Frink’s story involves a path with Ed McCarthy (as portrayed by DJ Qualls) and Robert Childan (as portrayed by Brennan Brown), which includes a thread of with the Japanese Kempeitai. The dynamic amongst Frink, McCarthy and Childan bears attention, though the payoff for this thread seems like it might bear more fruit as the series continues, and bears more fruit with other timelines in the second season.

(Stephen Root as Hawthorne Abendsen, also known as ‘The Man in the High Castle’ in season two of The Man in the High Castle).

Hawthorne Abendsen, whom we understand to be the man with the films that underpin so much of this series, is portrayed by Stephen Root. Abdendsen’s role is important through the second season, and clearly through the series given that we know the series as The Man in the High Castle. I’ll allow the precise role that Abdendsen plays for this season remain the mystery the viewer deserves while saying that this season, with the mixing of realities, is perhaps not up to the same level as the original season. I do argue, however, that the means of further developing and resolving characters in the second season instilled compelling depth into the season. I want to continue watching this show through a third season 10-episode season, which tells you what you need to know. Overall, my rating of season two of The Man in the High Castle is 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, August 28, 2019

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

The FX television series Justified (2010-2015) recently entered our viewing rotation at Matt Lynn Digital. If you haven’t yet done so, we strongly encourage you check into this series. Season one gets into the first 13-episode season, which is the focus of this review. The season itself credits the Elmore Leonard short story Fire in the Hole as an influence. Elmore James novels Pronto and Riding the Rap are additionally credited for the series, which was developed for television by Graham Yost.

(Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, left, and Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder in the FX series Justified).

The central character of this series is U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, the central law enforcement officer forced back to his childhood home in the hill country of eastern Kentucky, specifically in Harlan. The opening scenes of the series, set in Miami, Florida, offer the audience a glimpse into a seemingly cavalier attitude that sets a tone for the series. We are introduced fairly quickly into the checkered history of the Givens and Crowder families as well as the many varieties of interpersonal relationships with lawfulness, lawlessness, and guns this involves.

(Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder, left, and Natalie Zea as Winona Hawkins in the FX series Justified).

Timothy Olyphant plays the fast and loose lawman Raylan Givens while Walton Goggins plays the masquerading as white supremacist criminal seeking spirituality Boyd Crowder. Raylan and Boyd dug coal together in the past. Joelle Carter plays Ava Crowder, the physically abused wife of Boyd Crowder’s brother. Ava’s husband ends up dead, breeding tension between Ava and the Crowders as her romantic inclination towards Raylan gains expression as Raylan aims to protect her. Boundaries are blurred. Meanwhile, blurry boundaries between Raylan Givens and his remarried ex-wife, Winona Hawkins as played by Natalie Zea, come into play often through the first season.

(Nick Searcy as Art Mullen, left, and Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks in the FX series Justified).

Nick Searcy as Art Mullen and Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks serve the Deputy Marshals service in roles that are played fairly straight when it comes to the dramatic flair of other characters in this season. Mullen plays Raylan Givens’ boss while Brooks plays the occasional partner to Raylan. Boyd’s father Bo Crowder, as played by M.C. Gainey, and Raylan’s father Arlo, as played by Raymond J. Barry, are equal parts cantankerous, corrupt, and confounding in their own ways to their respective sons. The nature of their self-interest was priceless, entertaining for being incorrigible, and worth the effort to see.

(M.C. Gainey as Bo Crowder, left, and Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens in the FX series Justified).

My aim here has been to offer you a sense for what the opening season of the series Justified has to give you in terms of criminal, hillbilly behavior. The story builds from episode to episode in a way that is engaging. It is easy to see relationships between characters that are interesting for being a train wreck of entertaining in that it kept me wanting to watch. My feeling is that many of you will feel the same. My overall grade for season one of Justified is 4.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, July 10, 2019