I agree that Timothy Olyphant learned from Deadwood and is doing a much better job of portraying an angry person. It’s a more subtle, simmering anger than in your face all the time as happened in Deadwood.
The problem is defining masterpieces. We all have something (books, TV, movies) that we think is genius and don’t understand why others don’t, can’t or won’t see it. My wife and I have this argument about books often.
Justified is a masterpiece for me. (I define that as being entertained and coming back as soon as I can for more.)
It is on Amazon Prime for free but costs for the last season (four). I watched the first three seasons for free and figured that’s all I would do, watch it for free. Nope. I held off for a few days before I had to know what was going to happen next, so I bought it and watched it in a matter of a weekend. And can’t wait for the next season, even though I agree season four seemed to go in a strange direction. I agree that they made some things up about the big reveal but it was so enjoyable getting there that I can forget about it and be entertained.
I cannot believe how good they have written Boyd and what Walton Goggins has done and continues to do with the character. As was said, I have to remind myself that he is not a good person. But darn if, for some reason, I want to see him get some happiness. And I also enjoy what they have done with Ava as well.
I agree that Art and the rest of the office crew are great as well. Marshall Stiffy still makes me laugh in how it was used. I like how DxZero described them.
I wanna a spin-off of just Tim in the background delivering pithy one-liners and shooting people at an impossibly high rate/accuracy
*Art: Hell of a shot. Did you consider what might have happened if you missed?
Tim: I can’t carry a tune, I don’t know how to shoot a basketball, and my handwriting is barely legible, but I don’t miss. *
This was stated in a total matter of fact style by one of the stars of the esteemed genre-defining film “Eurotrip”, and it was still completely believable. Great writing, great acting. Even from the supporting cast.
And I think the Olyphant character in Deadwood is unfairly underrated, especially when compared to Justified. At their heart, both men are intensely angry people who are just short of losing control of themselves. Raylan gets to mask his anger better because he gets play the hero sometimes and be a smartass. In Deadwood, Olyphant’s character didn’t have that same outlet all the time. So he took the more noticeably simmering psychopath approach. His dullness and brooding was his character’s act to fool himself and the town into thinking he was normal (Deadwood normal,anyway) and not emotionally walking a tightrope without a net. It was the failure of the writers & directors and also due to the nature of the show that he wasn’t given an extra quirk that gave him some more depth as a character. There’s only so much an actor can do if the character isn’t developed as well it should be.
Not sure there are any other shows I’m more likely to laugh out loud during. Which is pretty amazing given the body count.
I usually stay out of discussions because I kinda just go along for the wild ride, and afterwards have trouble remembering exactly who did what to who. To paraphrase one of my favorite exchanges, this past season when Art was in the office going ballistic telling Tim what he should tell Raylan was going to happen if he strays off the reservation (yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen!), and Tim simply listens him out and then deadpans, “You want me to get a pencil or is it OK if I paraphrase.” Seriously, almost rolled off the couch at that one!
And Boyd, DAMN, I love to hear him spew that bullshit!