"Fire In The Hole"
Aired March 16, 2010
That might seem odd- why am I watching this episode for a third time, even continuing to watch more episodes, if it didn't win me over? I do enjoy the character of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and he has a unique presence as a lead character who seems to be plucked straight out of a Western. The only problem is I felt like this started in the middle of a story and I'm forced to play catch-up. It started with Rayland meeting a hitman for lunch, only for it to end with Raylan firing his gun and killing him, except he's "justfied" because the other guy pulled first. Ah-ha! Very clever way to link this to the title of the series. Except Raylan's quick-draw skills only earn him a one-way ticket back home to Kentucky. Now Raylan is back home and there are so many mentions of people from his past- an ex-wife named Winona (Natalie Zea), a redneck named Boyd (Walton Goggins), and a chick who lusts after him named Ava (Joelle Carter.) I guess I was a bit confused at who each person was and why Rayland left.
Aside from trying to get caught up on all of the characters, I did enjoy the healthy dose of comedy this show has. Its not a "laugh riot", but it's more my style of humor because its all about the dialogue. For example, Boyd is a racist redneck and he fired a rocket launcher at an African church after yelling "fire in the hole!" Well, none of the witnesses actually understood what he said, instead they mistook it as "liars and hoes" and even "hidy hidy hidy ho." Raylan's quick-witted response is to put out an A.P.B. for Cab Calloway. Along with the humor, the series seems to have a lot of quirky characters, mostly the criminals in Boyd's band of misfit racists. You'd almost question why someone would have awful tattoos like that, but these fictional tattoos are nowhere near as bad as many I've seen in real life.
Raylan is on to Boyd and catches up with him by the end of the episode, where we have another stand-off with guns pulled. I guess his ex-wife is right, he is angry. Maybe this episode is better the third time, now that I know Boyd actually sticks around longer than just this episode since he's the only compelling character other than Raylan. It seemed too early to shoot him and never hear from him again. Though I do have a question: how did the Marshal Service know Ava had shot and killed her husband when they don't even know where her house is?
I remember watching this Pilot episode the night it aired because just a month earlier I had watched Timothy Olyphant starring in the remake of The Crazies. The calm and cool town sheriff he played in that movie seemed like it would be fun to watch on a weekly basis, which is what I thought this show would be. I honestly tried to like this pilot back then but it just didn't "hook me." Flash forward to this past "Black Friday" when I spotted Justified on sale; I bought it because I felt it deserved another chance. Well, the episode still didn't win me over.That might seem odd- why am I watching this episode for a third time, even continuing to watch more episodes, if it didn't win me over? I do enjoy the character of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and he has a unique presence as a lead character who seems to be plucked straight out of a Western. The only problem is I felt like this started in the middle of a story and I'm forced to play catch-up. It started with Rayland meeting a hitman for lunch, only for it to end with Raylan firing his gun and killing him, except he's "justfied" because the other guy pulled first. Ah-ha! Very clever way to link this to the title of the series. Except Raylan's quick-draw skills only earn him a one-way ticket back home to Kentucky. Now Raylan is back home and there are so many mentions of people from his past- an ex-wife named Winona (Natalie Zea), a redneck named Boyd (Walton Goggins), and a chick who lusts after him named Ava (Joelle Carter.) I guess I was a bit confused at who each person was and why Rayland left.
Aside from trying to get caught up on all of the characters, I did enjoy the healthy dose of comedy this show has. Its not a "laugh riot", but it's more my style of humor because its all about the dialogue. For example, Boyd is a racist redneck and he fired a rocket launcher at an African church after yelling "fire in the hole!" Well, none of the witnesses actually understood what he said, instead they mistook it as "liars and hoes" and even "hidy hidy hidy ho." Raylan's quick-witted response is to put out an A.P.B. for Cab Calloway. Along with the humor, the series seems to have a lot of quirky characters, mostly the criminals in Boyd's band of misfit racists. You'd almost question why someone would have awful tattoos like that, but these fictional tattoos are nowhere near as bad as many I've seen in real life.
Raylan is on to Boyd and catches up with him by the end of the episode, where we have another stand-off with guns pulled. I guess his ex-wife is right, he is angry. Maybe this episode is better the third time, now that I know Boyd actually sticks around longer than just this episode since he's the only compelling character other than Raylan. It seemed too early to shoot him and never hear from him again. Though I do have a question: how did the Marshal Service know Ava had shot and killed her husband when they don't even know where her house is?
Comments
Post a Comment