Blu-Ray Review — ‘Justified: City Primeval’

Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) isn’t in Kentucky anymore, but he’s still a US Marshal in season 1 of the Justified spinoff, Justified: City Primeval. Since the box art goes to the trouble of calling it the first season (and the finale lays the groundwork for what a second outing could look like), it does seem like there’s reason to hope a second season might be possible, but whether that’s the right approach — calling it season one … I actually think it’s not.

Maybe it’s a “toe-mate-o/toe-maato” situation, where it doesn’t really matter how the word’s pronounced, but Justified: City Primeval feels more like a miniseries than an ongoing, and I think it would’ve been smarter to let the program standalone.

Because that’s ultimately what makes this season special — the fact that you don’t have to have seen the original series or be caught up on Justified to watch it, and that it tells a complete story. Other than the tease for season 2, everything is wrapped up at the end.

It’s the beauty of mystery novels themselves. Once you find a detective you like, you don’t have to read the books in order. You can just go with whatever case sounds good and read that book first, and that’s the format Justified: City Primeval opens up to the show. Instead of another ongoing series, the creators could just keep putting out new miniseries in new locations that are as accessible to fans new and old alike. Timothy Olyphant could play this role for as long he wants.

Are there going to be viewers who prefer when Raylan worked in Harlan? I’ll be the first to admit I missed the country setting and that the change to Detroit for City Primeval makes a big difference. On the one hand, it’s fascinating because you get to see Raylan adjust, too, and see how his skills translate to this new environment. At one point he has to talk to the Albanian mob and it’s when he appears the most at ease, having dealt with sensitive families before. Ultimately, though, having the series take place in a major city makes it feel more like every other crime show out there, if one still entrenched in Elmore Leonard‘s world of idiosyncratic characters (like a killer who only boosts cars with tape decks because he loves music).

In Harlan, Raylan knew a lot of people and a lot of them knew him. That personal-ness is lost in Detroit, and instead of getting to go off on his own, Raylan is almost always with the city police here. The show does confront police corruption more and the commentary about how technology like Venmo has made it harder for would-be thieves in 2023 to steal cold, hard cash is pretty humorous.

It’s tough to get into the exact details of the case without giving too much away, but essentially it all starts when Raylan is brought on to investigate a murder attempt on a circuit court judge (Keith David). The other new element this season is getting to see Raylan interact with his daughter,  Willa (played by Olyphant’s real life daughter, Vivian Olyphant). Rather than have her be a closed off, chip off the old block, Willa is a Givens who’s in touch with her emotions and wants her father to communicate. She challenges him like no character has before.

Sony’s Blu-ray doesn’t come with any bonus features, so there’s no additional content to act as an incentive for viewers to buy a copy instead of streaming the episodes on Hulu. The main menu on disc 2 actually has a major flaw, in that it spoils the season finale for anyone who decides to use the episode menu instead of clicking “play all.”  The image for the finale gives away the surprise — a development that is genuinely surprising. Viewers would’ve had no reason to expect anything otherwise. So yeah, that’s pretty bad, but the show’s still good and hopefully this won’t be the last time Olyphant dons Raylan’s cowboy hat.

Justified: City Primeval is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.