A smart and beautifully character-driven show where you never quite know what will happen next -- and even when you think you do, you sometimes find you were wrong. Or at least I did. The first few seasons were exceptionally great, with amazing characters, delectable dialogue and both (innumerable) hilarious and (fewer, but even more memorable) heart-wrenching moments. The later seasons perhaps lost a little bit of creative steam in comparison, but could probably still go toe to toe with most dramas out there. "Justified" was something special, standing out from the crowd of cop-and-robber shows that are so familiar that they become (even when done very well) rather a dime a dozen: "Justified" was something else entirely. It had perhaps more in common with crime dramas, regularly spending a lot of time with the antagonists as well as the protagonists, but even there it is something of its own. It's not about good people or bad people, but just about people, and their decisions and relationship, which can be good or bad. Or often a little bit of both. The term 'frenemy' sounds a bit silly, but the core relationship of Raylan and Boyd is nothing short of a beautiful example of just how rich and rewarding a well executed relationship like that can be in a long-form drama. I'm fairly omnivorous when it comes to good television, but it's no secret a list of my main genre preferences hardly would include a modern day western in pseudo-procedural cop show trappings. "Justified" somehow still managed to make a mark on me that few other dramas do, and I'm excited at the thought of revisiting it -- hopefully many times throughout my life. ( )