Justified 1.5

When I saw that Ray Barry was going to appear as Raylan's father, to say I was enthused would be an understatement. But then I saw that Brent Sexton ("Life") was in the episode. And then I saw that it was directed by Jon Avnet (FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, THE WAR). The reality is just as good as the expectation. We learn more about Raylan in this one episode than in the previous four combined. I am very close to being all in with this drama about...well...it's about expectations, in some ways, but that's not all. Oh, just watch the episode and we'll talk about it later.

Update: Oh, yeah, AND there's a baseball theme! I'm totally loving this episode.

Justified 1.4

Raylan is assigned to track a fugitive who turns up in LA, but there are drug runners just as intent to get at him first. Alan Ruck guest stars. You may not know him by name, but Ruck shows up in stuff I watch all the time: Ferris Bueller, Speed, Star Trek 7, Spin City; And here he gets a nice torture scene!

The Set-Up (1949)

The next week in our noir series was a Robert Ryan double feature: THE SET-UP and CROSSFIRE. First up was the Robert Wise-directed boxing masterpiece.

Gun Crazy (1950)

The second half of our Joseph H. Lewis double feature was GUN CRAZY, one of my favorite noirs, and a great time on the big screen.

Justified Episodes

Well, the first three episodes of JUSTIFIED have become available on Hulu, and are embedded below. So far, it's not exactly what I expected, especially since I perceive this series as taking THE SHIELD's spot in the FX lineup, and since I know what could've been. It's more episodic in nature, and tends to focus more on the criminals than on our main character, Raylan Givens. This has painted a colorful world, but disconnected us from getting more involved with Givens, which is what will keep us coming back. I am encouraged that episode 5 will feature Raymond Barry as Givens' father, and have faith that we're not done with Walton Goggins' character from the pilot. Check here for new episodes every Friday.

Episode 1: Fire in the Hole - Raylan is exiled back to his hometown because of a "justified" shooting.


Episode 2: Riverbrook - Raylan tracks down a convict bluegrass band.


Episode 3: Fixer - Raylan is forced to meet with a troublesome informant, which leads to double- and triple-crossing.

My Name is Julia Ross (1944)

The next week was a Joseph H. Lewis double feature: MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS and GUN CRAZY. I provided intros for both. Here's JULIA ROSS:

Kiss of Death (1947)

The second week of our program was Richard Widmark's Oscar-nominated film debut as Tommy Udo. Scary and fun. Take a look:

Success! Finally!

Well, I've finally managed to get some of the introductions for the film noir series uploaded to YouTube. (Thanks, Hungry Detective!) So now I can share them with you. I'll roll them out over the next few weeks, in the order they happened. Tell me how you like them. Or if you don't. It's okay. There's not much I can do about them now.

We started off the series with WHITE HEAT (1949). Here's how it looked:

Human Target 1.7

Chance is hired by a former flame to rescue a man with the key to $40 million in boullion.