Should I Check This Out - Justified season 3
So season one spent time establishing characters and relationships via formulaic storylines that proved surprisingly affective. This was then followed up by the fantastic second season, where the story focuses around the criminal Bennet family and their troublesome relationship with Raylan's. Now with the family boss, Mags, dead by her own hand when cornered off by the police, and her surviving son sent to prison, a gap formed for a new villain to take her place. While Raylan's bitter dad, Arlo, remains a personal antagonist, it's Neal McDonough who takes centre stage as Robert Quarles, a man from the city with a gun up his sleeve. Right from the start, he kills off several minor characters who had been around for a short while, and with that entrance things looked good for season three.And while McDonough gives an impressive performance as a man who could easily take on Raylan at his own game, somewhere along the line, the show stumbles and fails to live up to the two previous seasons. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins, along with the rest of the cast are fine, and have great chemistry with McDonough, but unlike season two, the story here felt somewhat messy. This is particularly evident in the season final, which unlike the previous two, fails to leave an impact.
But having said that, this season is still filled with many of the elements that made season two so good. Quarles presents a more complex villain new to the show when compared to Boyd's ruthless father or to Mags' sense of power and security. Here, he is aware as much as everyone around him that he is an outsider, surviving on his own instincts while burning bridges.
Unfortunately though, season three is the weakest so far but is in no way terrible. While I have heard mixed news regarding season five, season four makes up for its predecessor. So for any latecomers, Justified is worth watching, but like all shows, some seasons are stronger than others.
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