Review of Justified: City Primeval

Coming out nearly a full decade following the conclusion of the original series, 'City Primeval' marks the return of U. S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) with a completely new cast, transitioning from the backwoods environs of rural Kentucky to the mean streets of Detroit, Michigan. As if to mark the passage of time, Raylan sports a chin full of gray stubble and spends a minimal amount of time with his teenage daughter Willa, portrayed by Olyphant's real life daughter Vivian. I'm pretty much in agreement with a host of other reviews here that state she wasn't entirely necessary for this sequel, and I wasn't sorry to see her exit after the third episode. The principal story has Raylan on the hunt for homicidal sociopath Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), who by some estimates might have been even more evil that Boyd Crowder, if not slightly more sophisticated than Dewey Crowe. I was somewhat conflicted by Givens' relationship with attorney Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor). You can include diversity in films and TV to a certain extent, but here I thought it fell outside of Raylan's ethical boundaries, such as they were established in the prior series. My favorite character here was probably tavern owner Marcus Sweeton (Vondie Curtis-Hall), going by Sweetie, conveying the world weary exhaustion of a man beaten down by the circumstances of his life and looking for that one big score to set it off in a different direction. Only problem is, he got tangled up with Clement Mansell, realizing too late that teaming up with the madman was a wrong career move. Admittedly not as strong as the original series, it would have been hard to compete with six full seasons of revolving characters in a one and done format, although the final episode hinted at both an end to Raylan's story and a continuation of it, should the powers that be decide on a sequel. I'd be all for it if it meant the return of some of the original principals, among them the notorious Boyd Crowder, fresh out of prison and on the run.