Justified – See, dramas can be funny, too

Tonight’s Justified proved something that I wish more series would take note of. “Full Commitment” had me snickering for a few reasons, including one that I’m not sure it was supposed to.

The episode was light on plot developments, but the biggest one was Raylan’s uncovering of what was semi-revealed to the audience last week: that Gary had put a hit out on him and mutual ex-wife Winona, with some help from the villainous Wynn Duffy. The confrontation between Raylan and Duffy felt anticlimactic, if for no other reason than even though Duffy sorely deserved it, Raylan decided not to shoot someone for once. It was more notable for putting the cap on the Gary storyline, as Raylan told him in no uncertain terms that he didn’t want to see him again, and Gary walked out of Duffy’s RV and presumably into Justified history, leaving me shaking my head.

I never really liked Gary all that much — he always struck me as a bit whiny, and kind of spineless — but “Full Commitment” completed his second-season characterization as a villain. The problem is, it was never a believable transformation. Nothing he was accused of in season two meshed with the guy we met in season one. No matter how much Gary loathed the idea of Winona having an affair with Raylan, there’s a big leap between that and hiring hitmen to have them killed. And no matter how many times Raylan called him unflattering names, it didn’t convince me that Gary was anything more than a harmless guy who just wasn’t too bright.

It all seemed forced, and it wasn’t hard to see the underlying motivations. If Gary was a bad guy, there was a reason for the show to get rid of him, and once he was gone, so was the primary hurdle for Raylan and Winona’s romance. Putting aside my feelings toward that subplot, the show’s obvious pushing of it at the expense of a character — even if it was one I didn’t even like — was the kind of heavy-handed play I never expected from a show this good.

That aside, though, “Full Commitment” still goes down as an enjoyable episode in my book, because the rest of my laughs were for all the right reasons. Imbued with the wit of Elmore Leonard, Justified is the funniest drama series on television, oftentimes funnier than some sitcoms I’ve watched. There were so many great character moments here, many of them leaving me laughing out loud. The scene with Raylan, Rachel, Tim, Winona and Gary in Winona and Gary’s living room felt like it was right out of a sitcom.

Tim: “I feel like I’m in The Big Chill.”
Raylan: “Except no one’s dead.”
Tim, unruffled: “Yet.”
Rachel: “And the music sucks.”

Justified benefits from an amazing supporting cast that knows how to play humor very well, from Erica Tazel (as Rachel Brooks) to Nick Searcy (as boss Art Mullen), and my personal favorite, Jacob Pitts (as Tim Gutterson). This episode showed us just how sorely missed the characters of Rachel and Tim were, as they added much of the hour’s humor and made it look easy.

In particular, the show has crafted a great relationship between colleagues Tim and Raylan, where Tim almost seems to delight in messing with Raylan at every available opportunity. This is bolstered by the great acting from Pitts, who needs very few lines to get Tim’s point across. Though he has a perfectly deadpan delivery, he does even more with his expressions. In the scene between Tim and Raylan at Raylan’s hotel, all he had to do was give a look with that arched eyebrow and it was spot on. Nothing needed to be said for Raylan — or the audience — to get it, and for me to be snickering. Not to mention that Timothy Olyphant has one of the best “WTF” expressions on television. It’s work like that which has gotten me as attached to Justified‘s supporting characters as I am to its leads.

It also makes me appreciate how effective humor can be in a drama series. Both Justified and The Chicago Code have found an effective place for the lighter side in their narratives, and I’ve come to look forward to the laughs as much as I do to the plot twists. Not only does the humor balance out the heavier subject matter, but when done right, it adds a whole other element to the show, one that I wish other series would take advantage of. And I don’t mean the pithy one-liners that get thrown out to make characters look witty; I mean legitimate humor that really works within the shows themselves. As much as I liked The Game, the show became almost entirely a drama in its fourth year, and the lack of laughs in the former comedy was really glaring. And if Nikita wants to lighten up, it could do that with some more humor — certainly we’ve already seen that Shane West and Aaron Stanford capable of delivering it, and Xander Berkeley was pretty darn funny on 24, which was a pretty dark show itself.

Drama series are and will always be primarily serious shows, and I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t be. But Justified has proven that a strong dose of humor can go a long way and the show is still an outstanding drama – so I’d love to see other series take a chance at mixing things up now and then. Although they’re going to have a long way to go before they can catch lines like “It’s the only reason I’m not beating you over the head with a phone book.”

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Apr 21, 2011 @ 10:30 EST5EDT