While I sat waiting for the Coen Brothers to team up with crime mystery grandmaster Elmore Leonard, along came FX with JUSTIFIED. JUSTIFIED is a series of hour-long episodes based on Leonard’s short story ‘FIRE IN THE HOLE”.  As usual, ‘Dutch,’ as he is known to his legions of fans, comes correct as Executive Producer.

In Miami, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens has given Tommy Bucks 24 hours to get out of town. With several hours to go, the marshal shows up at a waterfront restaurant where Bucks is eating, and sits down for a chat. Shit-talking and gunfire ensues. Raylan is transferred to Kentucky where he grew up and from there, it takes off. You’ve got all the wild characters from a bunch of Leonard’s novels; detectives, gun molls, White supremacists, inmates, slick-talking wise guys and a pastor played by Doug E. Doug, who the police chief describes as “…from Ethiopia, by-way-of Jamaica, by-way-of being completely fulla shit.” That and all of the language and pop culture nuggets that the Detroit native is known for. Five episodes in, it’s damn good.

JUSTIFIED Airs on Tuesdays at 10PM on FX