Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/FX
Reboots rarely equal their beloved predecessors, so it comes as a joyous surprise to discover that Justified: City Primeval (currently airing weekly on FX) is just as great as the six-season 2010-2015 show that preceded it. And credit for that triumph—even beyond its fantastic writing, directing and supporting cast—goes to its peerlessly cool star, Timothy Olyphant.
Once again donning a Stetson and jacket-and-button-down uniform, a holstered pistol poised on his hip, Olyphant slides comfortably back into the role of U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens in Justified: City Primeval, an eight-episode adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novels City Primeval and Fire in the Hole that gives him a change of scenery (Detroit, vs. his native Kentucky) and pits him against a fresh foe (Boyd Holbrook’s menacing “Oklahoma Wildman” Clement Mansell).
Despite a different environment and adversary, however, Raylan remains the most compelling gunslinger in modern fiction, a hybrid of old-school quick-draw stoutness and laconic confidence, and new-school wit and impudence. He’s a bad (i.e., good) man with a badge, and he’s the lifeblood of the series’ return, which boasts the spirit of its ancestors and, also, of Leonard’s inimitable crime stories.