Some television shows suffer when they pull the focus from their leading man or woman. That's not true of FX's Justified, thanks in no small part to the endlessly watchable Walton Goggins and his backwoods kingpin Boyd Crowder.
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Originally conceived as a white supremacist with a penchant for blowing things up, Boyd was supposed to die in the pilot at the hands of the show's hero, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), one of Boyd's childhood friends. Once the writers saw fit to postpone Boyd's fate, he's spent three seasons vacillating between being a reformed preacher, a faithful lover and a self-interested crime lord — all the while trading barbs with Raylan while (usually) managing to keep his dirty hands out of Raylan's cuffs.
But in Season 4, the old friends and sworn enemies have yet to share a scene. (And according to executive producer Graham Yost, they won't until Episode 5.) Instead, Boyd's once again trapped in a Bible battle with snake-handling Preacher Billy (guest star Joe Mazzello), who has moved into Harlan with the intent to save the souls of Boyd's Oxycontin-addicted customers....
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[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers about Tuesday's episode of Sons of Anarchy. Read at your own risk.]
Thanks to Sons of Anarchy, we've now seen a side of Walton Goggins we never thought we'd see.
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On Tuesday's episode, the former star of The Shield reunited with Sons creator Kurt Sutter for a jaw-dropping cameo. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) asks Mayor Hale (Jeff Kober) to lease one of his properties to the Sons so that they could get their "companion" business with Nero (Jimmy Smits) off the ground. When Hale refuses, Jax promises to help the mayor push through the Charming Heights development project. Jax's plan: to blackmail a council member who opposes the mayor's plans.
Enter Goggins as...
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If "Slaughterhouse" is what you're going to call your season finale, after building up to a major bloody showdown all season, you'd better be able to justify it. Thankfully, we're talking FX's Justified here, and when does it ever not live up to expectations?
Even before he completely went off the rails ...
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[WARNING: The following story contains major spoilers from the Season 3 finale of Justified. Read at your own risk.]
It wouldn't be a Justified finale if things didn't get bloody.
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After an episode-long manhunt for Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough), the loose cannon Detroit mobster took Raylan (Timothy Olyphant) hostage and stormed Noble's Hollow...
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Question: I'm really surprised by the lack of comment (here and elsewhere) on this season of Justified. It had a lot to live up to after that near-perfect second season and (in my opinion) has been maintaining the standard extremely well. I haven't enjoyed TV-show dialogue this much since The West Wing went off the air.
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