Justified, Season Four, Episode Two: “Where’s Waldo?” Written by Dave Andron Directed by Bill Johnson Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX If you were concerned that Justified‘s third season may have suffered from a character glut, now might be a good time to check out entirely. Boyd’s new/old pal Colt isn’t going anywhere, and …
Justified, Season Four, Episode One: “Hole in the Wall” Written by Graham Yost Directed by Michael Dinner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX In a recent blog post summing up the joys of watching Justified, Vulture’s Matthew Zoller Seitz compared the show to Cheers – not because the shows share thematic or structural DNA, …
10. (tie) The Thick of It Is there a better tonic for election-year hype than an Armando Iannucci series? The apparently-final series of the show that made Iannucci’s name, The Thick Of It, upped the ante on its pitch-black style, stripping nearly all of its characters of any remaining semblances of humanity and daring us …
It’s been such a deathly slow year at the movies so far that attempting to list ten great TV series is far easier than naming ten great films. With the premieres of TV’s two best shows, Breaking Bad (July 15, AMC) and Louie (tonight, FX), imminent, it seemed as good a time as any to …
Justified, Season 2, Episode 12: “Coalition” Written by Taylor Elmore Directed by Benjamin Cavell Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX So long, Dickie Bennett. No, “Coalition” doesn’t kill him off, exactly – the shot that he takes from Raylan hardly seems fatal – but a pretty definitive dressing-down (“You’re just a craven, stupid hillbilly …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 11: “Measures” Written by Benjamin Cavell Directed by John Dahl Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX “Measures” is far from the greatest hour of Justified‘s so-far stellar third season, but it’s a crucial one. After a season full of shifting allegiances, double-crosses, schemes, and new threats, we finally have a …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 10: “Guy Walks Into a Bar” Written by VJ Boyd Directed by Tony Goldwyn Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX In what was easily the best episode of the totally serialized portion of Justified‘s third season, we finally get to see just how freaky Robert Quarles can be. Now he’s …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 9: “Loose Ends” Written by Ingrid Escajeda Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX We’re getting to the home stretch of Justified‘s third season. The ninth episode of last season was “Brother’s Keeper,” in which poor Coover memorably met his end. Where that season had a pretty …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 8: “Watching the Detectives” Written by Graham Yost Directed by Peter Werner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX A curious thing happens on Justified this week: it collides with reality. Sort of. We’ve now spent 30-some-odd hours enjoying the antics, quips, shootings, and beatdowns handed down by Raylan Givens, sometimes …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 7: “The Man Behind the Curtain” Written by Ryan Farley Directed by Peter Werner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX Justified‘s third season premiere, “The Gunfighter,” promised a different kind of Justified, one with a greater number of characters and interlocking conflicts, while still retaining the show’s patented blend of …
The Walking Dead, Season 2, Episode 9: “18 Miles Out” Written by Glen Mazzara and Scott M. Gimple Directed by Ernest Dickerson Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on AMC Simon Howell: “Triggerfinger” was emphatically not good television, with its many illogical character beats and frustrating sense of arrested development, so it;s no surprise that “18 …
30 Rock, Season 6, Episode 8, “Leap Day” Written by Luke Del Tredici Directed by Steve Buscemi Airs Thursdays at 8pm ET on NBC After a dismal Valentine’s Day episode that made it look like it might finally be time to write 30 Rock off, they follow up the deliriously sublime “The Tuxedo Begins” with …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 6: “When the Guns Come Out” Written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and Dave Andron Directed by Don Kurt Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX I’m out adventuring in Chicago this week, so this week’s review is a little more curt than usual. If Justified‘s second season had an agreed-upon nadir, …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 5: “Thick as Mud” Written by Jon Worley and Benjamin Cavell Directed by Adam Arkin Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on AMC As the episode’s title implies, Justified gets dense, tricky and seriously murky this week, in what’s probably the strongest outing yet of the new season. The show has gotten …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 4: “The Devil You Know” Written by Taylor Elmore Directed by Dean Parisol Airs Tuesdays at 10pm on FX As a brief digression, allow me to spin a little pre-emptive Justified fan-fiction. With the welcome re-appearance this week of Kaitlyn Dever as Loretta, and witnessing the return of her easy repartee …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 3: “Harlan Roulette” Written by Dave Andron Directed by Jon Avnet Airs Tuesdays at 10pm on FX It’s still early to make too many predictions about Justified‘s third season, but it’s noteworthy that there are distinct shades of Breaking Bad in this week’s installment, “Harlan Roulette.” The effects of Oxycontin (aka …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 2: “Cut Ties” Written by Benjamin Cavell Directed by Michael Watkins Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX Moreso than with most “prestige” dramas, seasons of Justified tend to follow a pretty set formula in terms of serialization. After a premiere in which the season’s major players are introduced, we get …
Justified, Season 3, Episode 1: “The Gunfighter” Written by Graham Yost and Fred Golan Directed by Michael Dinner Airs Tuesdays at 10pm ET on FX When last we saw Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), he was bidding an unwitting adieu to Mags Bennett (Margo Martindale), one of the most feted TV villains in recent memory (even …
For the first time ever, we polled the entire SOS staff on their favorite TV of the last 12 months. We knew that, given the fact that our contributors are (principally) spread out across Canada, the US, and Britain, that the results might well be a mixed bag. What we didn’t necessarily expect was the …
The 63rd Primetime Emmy Nominations were announced bright and early today in Los Angeles by Joshua Jackson and Melissa McCarthy. Looking through the nominations, there was plenty of good and plenty of bad. Since I am a mostly positive person, let’s start with the positives. While not nabbing a nomination for Best Drama Series, Justified, …
The Broadcast Television Journalists Association has just announced their nominations for the first Critics’ Choice Television Awards. Modern Family leads the comedoes with six nominations, while Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and The Killing dominate the drama series. We’ve been focussing more and more on television here at Sound On Sight and …