I watched the entire first season of Justified today, and over all, I really enjoyed it. It was well made, compelling, structurally sound television with great acting. This conclusion is in no way radical. Neither is my main quibble, that it is so focused on it's hero to a point that all other characters are neglected.
Spoliers to follow.
Raylan is really awesome. I completely buy into the belief of his general awesomeness, which is the main hook for the show. Every member of the audience wants to be him or screw him or both. He's a nuanced anti-hero and obviously the leading man.
The problem is that in his shadows smaller characters don't grow so well.
Raylan's love interests Ava and Winona are both a little flat, and are only ever shown in relationship to their involvement with Raylan and other men.
His colleagues Tim and Rachel are intriguing, but unexplored. His boss, Art, has more screen time and development than the other too, but could still use fleshing out.
It's a rare breed of show where one off characters have chances to become more nuanced than returning supporting players. I appreciate the depth in the weekly stories, but it's puzzling, and I'd expect that character who reappar would get their time first.
The one character who really compares to Raylan's presence is Boyd, who is a wonderful balance of psychotic, confused, idealistic, and nuts. Boyd is awesome.
I hope that season two does more with the existing characters.
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