First of all, I was seriously depressed that Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), Raylan Givens’ (same old beloved Timothy Olyphant) criminal du jour, is not here.

Goggins was so good, so perfect as Given’s foe, he will be missed.

In fact, none of the old crowd from Harlan County, Kentucky, are here, and I miss them.

That of course is to be expected. Time marches on, Raylan has moved on, and Harlan County must surely be gentrified by now with golf courses, Trump rallies and giant Walmarts and Home Depots. So you see, Thomas Wolfe was right, we can’t go home again.

I must admit, after viewing the opening segment of the new “Justified,” I too have moved on. I’m older, softer, addicted to romances and lobster.

When Raylan left us, there was no COVID, no Ukraine war, no President Joe Biden and not a mask in sight.

In this new world dominated by strikes from Hollywood to Broadway, Kiev to Israel, to killer heat dropping bodies into the streets from L.A. to Phoenix, drowning apple pickers in Vermont in 10 feet of curling water, I’ve found myself, as surely you have, weary of bad news and soaring temperatures.

From the start, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy) is on the highway with his daughter Willa (real life daughter Vivian, a star born who will be with us long after her father retires) when four bad guys show in the rear view mirror and demand instant obedience from this apparent cracker in a cowboy hat and boots.

I can’t tell you how that situation turns out. In fact, I can’t tell you how anything works out, because each shot, each moment, each new face, comes with last second explosions, from Raylan’s sawed off super gun to what happens when Black Detroit Judge Alvin Guy (played by Keith David) gets a new car.

Detroit? Yes, suddenly, (everything in “Justified” happens suddenly).

We’re in a hot courtroom in Detroit, Michigan, where Raylan is testifying while his daughter is in the back row watching a small creature play a piano on her iPhone.

Somewhere soon, we will meet Marshall Givens’ new adversary in the form of Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) aka “The Oklahoma Wildman” who starts his debut by cutting a huge buck deer from the back of a car and riding away, not with the deer, just the car. That’s one of Clement Mansell’s soft loving moments.

You will soon notice that unlike the old Kentucky days, there is here a lot of explicit sex.

Here we meet (Adelaide Clemens) who plays Sandy Stanton, Clement’s moll.

As Judy Garland famously once said to her dog Toto, “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

And Vivian, we’re not in Harlan County, Kentucky, either, and there is not a yellow brick road to be seen.

“Justified … City Primeval” plays loudly every Wednesday on HULU. … Brace yourself, Dorothy.

 

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.

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