What I’m Watching: Justified

Justified: Season 1, Episode 10 “The Hammer” (B+)

This show does an excellent job of maintaining its greater storyline regarding Raylan’s career, his romance with Ava, and the tumultuous personality that is Boyd Crowder while still exploring a different, less important case each episode. In this case, Stephen Root’s guest appearance as a despicable judge who isn’t corrupt (as ends up being the case in similar storylines on shows like “Law & Order: SVU” and “The Good Wife”) but rather just eccentric and desperate to cause a ruckus. The judge’s conversations with Raylan were very intriguing and enlightening. The judge telling the waitress that “he’ll have what I’m having or he won’t have anything at all” followed by Raylan’s addition of “and water” was fun. The judge’s explanation that he picked Raylan because he thought he would shoot the man trying to kill him on sight was interesting as well. Seeing a lot more of Boyd is a great thing, and I love the relationship he and Raylan have. That was quite a sermon that Raylan gave at the start of the episode telling Boyd’s flock to turn him in with any evidence that would send him back to jail. Boyd really is a tricky fellow to figure out, spouting lines like “the truth always sounds like lies to a sinner” but still blowing up people just like he used to before he went to prison. His accidental murder of a man will likely plague his conscience, but Raylan will definitely be doing his fair share of bothering Boyd in the meantime. After tackling the preacher played by Doug E. Doug, Raylan became rather frightening when he whispered “you think you’re scared of him – you got no idea what you can expect from me.” His closing assertion that “I’m not that guy” solidifies the idea that he is a good man trying to do the right thing, not just shoot as many people as possible.