"Riverbrook"

Aired March 23, 2010



With the Pilot I didn't feel as connected to the characters I should've been, but this episode sold me on the show. In fact, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) became my favorite character on this show even though he was barely in the episode. After being shot in the chest last week, this episode featured him being visited by Raylan in a prison's hospital wing. So despite his screen time being only 3 minutes, Boyd steals the show when he informs Raylan that God has allowed him to live and he's going on a new path in life. I am really intrigued about where this is headed.

Meanwhile, Boyd seems to be repenting for his criminal ways, while his buddy Dewey just gets dumber and dumber. Raylan is on prisoner transport duty and allows Dewey to drive his car, except Dewey thinks he can pull a fast one on him. It's not too hard to figure out what came next. But he's not the only dumb criminal in this hour of television. The whole episode is just one dumb criminal after another, with its humor being right up my alley. The case that Raylan is on this week is that he's tracking down a pair of escaped criminals who were part of a band of criminals that play musical instruments. I loved their old timey prison jumpsuits with the black and white stripes; so combined with their bumbling antics, its like a modern Three Stooges episode. One of the criminals is after his lost fortune, so he joins forces with his ex wife and her cousin. Their "joining forces" is in the loosest sense of that term, because in this case three heads are not better than one. I cracked up at the mentions of Shirley (the ex-wife) and her cousin having more than just a friendly relationship, even the way Cooper says, "con doms", as if it's two words.

I wish that Justified would stick to this formula, with Raylan tracking down the world's dumbest criminals every week, like a real life version of COPS. Given my hatred of reality shows it's probably surprising that I'd want to watch the world's dumbest criminals every week, but the appealing part of Justified is that they're actors playing the role. They aren't just dumb people being exploited on tv, like Honey Boo Boo and swamp men. On the other hand, I know that "Raylan vs. dumb criminals" wouldn't be a winning formula every week as tv shows these days that are on cable don't have much shelf-life if they remain in "standalone" mode. But they are on the right track with Boyd and his change of heart.