TV Review - Justified: Season 3

I'm in a weird predicament with this TV series. I like the series and I want to see how it ends, but I don't like the way it's currently going. I'm more interested in the characters and less so in the over-arching story. The over-arching story this year concerns a man named Robert Quarles, played by Neal McDonough. Quarles is the mafia boss' adopted son who has perhaps violent homosexual tendencies.

McDonough is a fantastic actor and this role gives him plenty opportunities to shine, which he does. His villainy has been sprinkled over the first six episodes in specks of dust. It was only in the seventh episode that he did anything. Till then, he's merely sat back and given orders. His presence was less felt than last season's villain who essentially just sat back too.

The episodes have all been well done, well acted and well produced. I think Timothy Olyphant who plays Raylan Givens, the U.S. Marshall exiled in Kentucky, is great, but I can't seem to get excited over the series as a whole this year. My lack of excitement ironically started last year, the year that everyone thinks was the best season of Justified. It was last year when the format essentially changed.

The first season was basically a group of stand-alone episodes, each one dealing with a different criminal that Raylan had to hunt or handle in some way. There was an undercurrent but not as over-arching a story as the second and now this third season. I miss the stand-alone episodes. It does seem interesting that the character of Raylan as this season goes along seems more disengaged and more likely to quit his job and go live a more peaceful life, despite his love interest, Winona, telling him that he would never do that.

Three Stars out of Five.
Rated TV-MA-LV.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Tuesdays at 10PM on FX.