It was a consistently strong, generally underrated series, with fine acting and the kind of crisp writing that strove to stay close to its Elmore Leonard origins. But to stay true to that, too, the writers of “Justified” (FX, 10 p.m.) felt they had to put the thing to rest after five seasons.
“We didn’t want to outstay our welcome,” writer and executive producer Graham Yost says. “We just, sort of, felt like if this chapter of Raylan’s life was about Raylan and Boyd, that we can only take that story so far.”
And the vitality of one particular villain — Walter Goggins’ Boyd Crowder — led to a series long battle between he and the wary U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, so well played by Timothy Olyphant that it might eclipse his work as a “Deadwood” sheriff. It ends tonight with the final battle between them, expected to be violent, with Jolelle Carter’s Ava again playing a key role.
For Olyphant, speaking at the TV critics’ winter press tour earlier this year, during a crucial NFL playoff game, at least the ending for this character is better than the one he played on “Deadwood.”
“It is nice knowing that, you know, the show to have an opportunity to know the end is coming,” he says. “Usually, when things end, I’m not the first person to find out. So that’s been lovely. And I think it’s been wonderful to just be able to see the finish line and enjoy it.”
As for Carter’s part, “I think the predicament that they’ve put me in at the beginning of this season is for an actor is delicious, [but] for Ava is unfortunate,” she says. “She’s just been saved by a man that she has some distaste for, for the way he left their relationship, and she’s having to reunite with a man she’s quite angry with, for abandoning her in prison, and yet she’s going to have to rekindle that relationship somehow and make this work.”
“I think she’s looking for the best opportunity and just trying to figure out how to play out this new role and fill this new identity,” Carter says. “It’s exhausting for Ava, and it’s exhausting for me — and very exciting.”