TV Talk: FX’s ‘Justified’ comes full circle, returned to film in Western Pa. for 1st time since pilot episode

PASADENA, Calif. — Not all reboots and sequel series are the same. And they’re not all bad idea.

While some don’t have a creative reason to exist, others provide a welcome mix of closure and fan service (the third season of “Star Trek: Picard”) and the best ones take what’s great about the original and layer in something new.

That’s just what FX’s “Justified: City Primeval” (two-episode premiere at 10 p.m. Tuesday; available the next day on Hulu) delivers as it follows U.S. marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) to a new city for a new case.

The Givens character has been grafted onto the plot of Elmore Leonard’s novel “City Primeval” and it’s a solid match.

With Raylan as the sole holdover from the original “Justified,” what’s new are Raylan’s relationships, including with his teenage daughter, Willa, played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian Olyphant. Raylan just can’t get the work-life balance right in a way that satisfies Willa. (“City Primeval” fudges time a bit and is set 15 years after the original show’s finale even though just eight years have actually passed since that episode aired.)

There’s also a new location: Raylan gets caught up in a Detroit murder case, falls for defense attorney Carolyn Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis), whose client, psycho Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), is suspected of multiple murders and becomes Raylan’s No. 1 nemesis. Mansell is nasty, soulless and abusive towards his girlfriend Sandy (Adelaide Clemens), an adequate substitute for Raylan’s previous enemy No. 1, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins in the original series).

FX

Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens in “Justified: City Primeval.”

What also makes this iteration of “Justified” worthwhile is Raylan’s interaction with the new characters and the show’s willingness to explore race as it pertains to policing and this Detroit case in particular. But this is still “Justified” and the show is still overseen by the original series’ producers, Michael Dinner (“Manhunt: Deadly Games”) and Dave Andron (“Snowfall”), so it’s not so much heavy-handed as it is clear-eyed.

In addition to Ellis’ Carolyn, a welcome, layered addition to the “Justified” family of characters, “City Primeval” also introduces Marcus “Sweety” Sweeton (Vondie Curtis Hall), a bar owner torn between doing what’s right and doing what’s expedient. “City Primeval” explores these characters and their backstories with some depth. They’re not just cardboard characters for Raylan to interact with, but fleshed-out characters in their own rights.

For folks in Western Pennsylvania, “City Primeval” brings the “Justified” story full circle. Back in 2009, rural Western Pennsylvania played the part of Harlan County, Ky., for the “Justified” pilot. Production on the series relocated to Southern California for the next six seasons until the show wrapped in 2015.

“City Primeval” filmed in Chicago with the Windy City playing the role of Detroit except in a coda at the end of the eighth episode when producers needed a prison and wound up back near where the “Justified” pilot filmed.

It would be a spoiler to say which characters and under what circumstances the “Justified” production returned to Pennsylvania, but in January during the Television Critics Association winter 2023 press tour, director Michael Dinner told me although he directed that original “Justified” pilot locally, it was his more recent experience directing 2020’s “Manhunt: Deadly Games” locally that brought him back to film “City Primeval” scenes at SCI Greensburg.

Those scenes were supposed to be shot in an Illinois prison until Illinois state officials upended those plans dues to covid-caused staffing shortages. There wasn’t time/money to build the requisite sets in Chicago.

“I opened my big mouth and said, ‘Well, you know, I was just shooting in this prison in Pittsburgh two years ago and it’s empty and it would work great and I don’t even have to scout it. I can tell you exactly how I’d shoot it,’” Dinner recalled. “We literally pivoted and the next day we were on a flight to Pittsburgh and the film (office) was fantastic. It could usually take weeks to organize this stuff and they were able to permit everything and get it going. Some of the Pittsburgh crew were guys that had been on the original pilot. It worked out great.”

It seems unlikely that “City Primeval” will be the end of “Justified” as the season-ender goes to great lengths to set up a new story that lays the groundwork for another Raylan Givens adventure.

‘Barbie Dream House’

Fans of pop culture who don’t normally watch HGTV home makeover shows but were drawn to 2019’s “A Very Brady Renovation” series may be similarly intrigued by the new “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge” (8 p.m. Sunday, HGTV).

Yes, “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge” is a promotional platform for the new “Barbie” movie, which is being released by Warner Bros., a sister-company to HGTV under Warner Bros. Discovery ownership.

But the first semi-bloated, 90-minute episode of “Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge” still entertains as two teams of two have to make over portions of a home to resemble a Barbie doll dream home. Each team is charged with a different Barbie period (‘90s for the team making over the living room/dining room and ‘60s for the team redoing the kitchen/family room) and they’re required to include a “toyetic idea,” like an elevator or rising countertop.

Keeping with the pop culture theme, “Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick pops by as one of the judges.

Channel surfing

PBS’s “Masterpiece” series “Grantchester” will see another cast change in its ninth season next year as Rev. Will Davenport (Tom Britney) exits. The village will welcome a new vicar, Alphy Kotteram (Rishi Nair). … Comcast’s Xfinity “Summer of Movies” returns with five free movies to download, some $1 weekend movie rentals and BOGO Fandango tickets to “Oppenheimer” in theaters July 21. Visit Xfinity.com/rewards for details.