FX renewed its Elmore Leonard-based crime drama Justified for a fourth season yesterday, but, really, what they should have done was write blank checks to showrunner Graham Yost and star/producer Tim Olyphant so they can keep making the series for as long as they damn well please. After all, the current batch of episodes has accomplished what most thought they could not by keeping pace with Justified's brilliant second season. With U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens having disposed of the Bennett clan last year (excepting Dickie, who's still out there, twisting and limping in the wind), Yost was wise to throw a bunch of new villainy types at the screen to see who would stick.
Turns out, everyone stuck. Neal McDonough's calmly deranged carpetbagger Robert Quarles? He's as entertaining as he is unsettling. Mykelti Williamson's slimy double-crosser Ellstin Limehouse? Possibly Quarles's equal. And an extended role for longtime Justified fringe baddie Wynn Duffie? Yes, please. (Duffy, by the way, is played by Jere Burns, who also recurs on Breaking Bad. How blessed can a working actor be?) It's tough to predict who of that group will survive the current season, but Justified's writers have already demonstrated there may no end to the amount of colorful bad guys they can put in front of Raylan's gun. So bring on season four … and five and six and seven …
