16 Years Ago Today, Timothy Olyphant’s Justified Rewrote The Rules Of Westerns

On March 16th, 2010 — 16 years ago today — Justified premiered on FX. Deadwood, Timothy Olyphant’s alma mater, is largely considered one of the best and most critically acclaimed Westerns of all time. Yet it’s Olyphant’s Raylan Givens and his hometown of present-day Harlan County, Kentucky, that brought about a permanent evolution to the Western genre.

Neo-Western TV shows have blossomed in recent years, but even at the time of its release, Justified had an ageless, wise beyond its years quality to it. It was a southern crime drama wearing a cowboy hat, and it was a trailblazer in proving that the Western is a sentiment, an atmosphere, and a soul more than it is a recreation of a small sliver of time and space.

Timothy Olyphant’s Justified Perfectly Blended The Western & Crime Drama Genre

Many of Justified‘s most Western qualities stuck out like a sore thumb in its modern, southern world, and that friction of a Western mindset against present-day law and order was actually a perfect encapsulation of the cowboy’s struggle.

Visually, Justified instantly stamped itself as a Western with Raylan’s trademark cowboy hat, but for Raylan, that hat instantly became an identifier and conversation starter because he was the only one wearing such a thing. Raylan’s role as a U.S. Marshal also harkened back to the Western tradition of the lone sheriff more effectively than his being an actual sheriff in the year 2010 ever would have.

Nonetheless, it was the year 2010, and characters were often nonplussed at the presence of a U.S. Marshal in situations typically saturated with cops and FBI agents. This, paired with Raylan’s preferred peacekeeping method of effectively goading criminals into quick-draw duels, solidified Justified‘s unique, practical nostalgia for the simplicity of Western-era law enforcement.

It was not lawlessness so much as the balance brought about by the eternal duel between cowboy and sheriff. While Raylan grew hungry to take down every criminal in Harlan, Justified continued to emphasize the inevitability of crime and the lawman’s duty to simply do his part to fight it. It’s a deeply Western theme, and seeing that injected into a world that’s anything but is what makes Justified so fun to watch.

Neo-Westerns Only Got More Popular After Justified’s Success

Before Justified, neo-Western TV shows were much more of a rarity. Now, neo-Western shows set in more modern times or that blend Western themes with those of other genres are taking TV by storm.

Yellowstone is one of today’s biggest neo-Western titles, and in fact, creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan has built an entire career on the genre with his Western-coded collection of modern series. Landman captures a Western sensibility in the present-day Texas oil business. And Sheridan is far from alone. Longmire, Dark Winds, Outer Range, and Joe Pickett have all joined the conversation post-Justified.

Comparatively, Justified had very little company at the time that it aired. Some say Breaking Bad falls into the category, though it’s a title it largely earned later, after the genre gained popularity in the wake of Justified‘s more direct engagement with Western themes.

Why Justified Still Holds Up 16 Years After Its Debut

Those Western themes are exactly what give Justified its timeless quality. Raylan and his foil, Walton Goggins’ Boyd Crowder, feel like symbols of a larger, infinite conflict between law and order. By nature, it’s something that will never end, and by masterful character work, it’s something that audiences never want to end.

Boyd Crowder has just as much cowboy charm and likability as Raylan himself — if not more. As sympathy builds for Boyd among the audience, the lines blur between who to root for and how to feel when they fail or succeed. It’s not a mere good guy-bad guy, catch the criminal crime series. It’s a character study that makes its setting of Harlan County, Kentucky, feel like a real, living, breathing place.

With timeless themes, riveting characters, and a fresh, original blend of genres, Justified burst onto the neo-Western scene 16 years ago and proved without a shadow of a doubt what the genre could do.