Justifed

[JeffertonFromTX]

So, I watched the finale tonight and I wanted to blather about it in order to deal with my feelings.

Anyone else watch it?

[Omar]

Great show, great final season.

[buffcoat]

I agree with Omar. I liked the writing, but the plotting was the real deal.

I'm much more forgiving of final episodes than other people are. I think generally if Graham Yost (or David Chase, or Jerry Seinfeld) feels good about it, it's ok to give the audience some of what they want. Or not.

I thought the Justified end was a good wrap-up without being too much of a sop. I correctly predicted a couple of things (the outcomes for Avery and Boone) and missed a couple of things.

My favorite character, the guy who is now in Fiji, won the show, and I'm happy about that.

[akaJudge]

Love the show, loved the final season, loved the final episode. I was shocked that Boyd refused to pull on Raylan, but I think they left that open for a reason, maybe a movie.

[Omar]

Wynn Duffy, gloriously played by Jere Burns, is a legend.

[JeffertonFromTX]

Boyd refusing to pull on Raylan might be one of my favorite moments in the whole show. I was very satisfied with that finale. This show is going to hold way the hell up and I can't wait to watch it all as a complete work.

I'm also happy to see so many Wynn Duffy fans come out of the woodwork. Burns walked away with episodes constantly and his last scene was just perfect. I'm glad we got to see his goofy new van. He even added some much needed momentum to some episodes of Bates Motel here recently.

Has anyone read all the books? I've read Pronto and loved it, as well as "Fire in the Hole", but I haven't finished Riding the Rap just yet or Raylan. I'm still kicking myself that it took me this long to read any Leonard. His prose is incredible.

[buffcoat]

I have a new favorite type of character. I first discovered it when lady buffcoat and I watched Alias, which is in no way as good a show as Justified.

I really liked the character Sark. Then, when we binge-watched Justified last year, I found myself really liking Wynn Duffy for the same reasons.

I'll call this character The Put-Upon Bad Guy. He shows up, chews the scenery and establishes himself as a badass. Then a much more insane bad guy comes on the scene and the PUBG immediately goes "whoa, whoa, let's talk about this" and "Shouldn't we be focused on the money, not on your weird agenda?" and so on.

[JeffertonFromTX]

SARK WAS SO GREAT! David Anders is another one of those amazing That Guys. He's (literally) killing it on iZombie right now.

I still haven't gotten all the way through Alias just yet, but yeah, Duffy is the quintessential Put-Upon Bad Guy. I love that he was in an ever shifting constant just orbiting around the big bad of every season. He always looked out for his "friends" but had no problem going where the heat was.

[buffcoat]

Seasons 4 & 5 of Alias are a bit of a rough go. They tried, they really tried, but you can see where the last season of Lost came from.

I didn't mind the very end so much - I'm forgiving, as I said above - but the show's true fans hated it with a capital HATED.

[JeffertonFromTX]

I'm sure I've heard that. I remember an ex of mine being into Alias and spitting a lot of venom about the finale.

Of course, I'm the guy who LIKED the Lost finale so I may dig it.

[Kurz]

Has anyone read all the books? I've read Pronto and loved it, as well as "Fire in the Hole", but I haven't finished Riding the Rap just yet or Raylan. I'm still kicking myself that it took me this long to read any Leonard. His prose is incredible.

I liked Pronto and Riding the Rap, but stopped Raylan after a few pages. The problem is that the antagonists there are sort of a combination of the Crowes of season 5 and the Bennets of season 2. So you get Mags' storyline, in a way, but with Daryl in her place. It was written before season 5 was made, so I can't fault Leonard for that, but it's jarring and Mags is just so awesome a character that is sorely missed and I just couldn't deal with that combination. It almost felt like an alternate history/fanfic of season 2, but decidedly lesser...

[masterofsparks]

I'm currently working my way through season 5 so I haven't read anything in this thread too closely so as to avoid spoilers.

Glad to see the Jere Burns/Wynn Duffy love. I love the character, and it's one time where apparently botched plastic surgery seems almost like a character choice.

Although Nick Searcy appears to be some sort of "Obama is secret Muslim" lunatic in real life, I love the character of Art and I think Searcy gives a great performance.

I like how, as the show went on, they managed to make what would seem like stunt-casting in lesser hands totally work, ie Michael Rapaport as a murderous hillbilly and Mary Steamvirgin Steenburgen as a cold-blooded criminal mastermind.

[buffcoat]

Although Nick Searcy appears to be some sort of "Obama is secret Muslim" lunatic in real life, I love the character of Art and I think Searcy gives a great performance.

He called me in 2014 and told me that if North Carolina didn't elect Republican Thom Tillis to the Senate he would start telling people that he was from Tennessee rather than North Carolina. That would have been fine with me - it actually started me rooting for them to kill off the Art character.

[masterofsparks]

Although Nick Searcy appears to be some sort of "Obama is secret Muslim" lunatic in real life, I love the character of Art and I think Searcy gives a great performance.

Thom Tillis

Please tell me he's the "Don't give a rip" guy pictured in your avatar.

[Aaron_from_Louisville]

Michael Rappaport's southern accent is hilarious in that season. I actually made fun of it on Twitter, without tagging him mind you. Turns out, he searches his own name and favs my tweet. Slightly unsettling.

Jake Busey has a funny arc in the final season that I enjoyed just for its absurdity. This was a great show overall. It's not at all like Breaking Bad, and I really appreciated how it took itself less and less seriously as it progressed. Seems like it almost became self-aware once Patton Oswalt was added.