Cheers & Jeers: Justified's Great Big Bads

Cheers to Justified for cooking up a juicy new family of miscreants to tussle with Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in Season 2.

Want more Cheers & Jeers? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

The prodigiously gifted character actress Margo Martindale (Million Dollar Baby) heads up the clan as Mags Bennett, a marijuana queenpin who seamlessly slides between warm-hearted affection and cold-blooded murder. She steals the season opener with a chilling scene in which she poisons a disloyal associate (the always-marvelous Chris Mulkey) and unofficially adopts his now-orphaned daughter (impressive youngster Kaitlyn Deaver).

Jeremy Davies pulls a 180 from playing Lost genius Daniel Faraday as disabled Dickie Bennett, the least dim of Mags' three henchmen sons (but that's not saying much). Brad William Henke, who was memorably creepy as a perv in Miranda July's indie flick Me and You and Everyone We Know, adds another indelible character to his rogue's gallery as baby brother Coover, a slow-witted giant reminiscent of Of Mice and Men's Lenny. And Joseph Lyle Taylor reunites with Martindale — a costar in Sidney Lumet's great, all-but-forgotten A&E drama 100 Centre Street — as Doyle Bennett, a local lawman who's far from a straight shooter. The only question is: Which one will Raylan gun down first?

Are you fired up for Season 2 of Justified?

Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!