Justified (TV Series) Fire in the Hole (2010) User Reviews

Very promising start

[Resi-Novak · 8/10 · 23 March 2010]

A very promising start to a show that could become an instant hit, or at very least, garner a huge cult following. Ever since The Shield, FX has been on a roll, and easily the station where true quality drama is at.

I really like the cowboy/old west type feel, mixed into the modern day. Walton Goggin's character has a line that explains the environment best as he says, "There was a day when 2 crackers driving down the street in a pick up would send them running" (them being the African American presence) His character, Boyd, along with Timothy Olymphant's character are fleshed out really well in a short amount of time, and are both very intriguing and well delivered through each actors performance.

The story writing is great and has a very nice flow. I never felt that i was watching a scene that wasn't necessary. And the dialouge also had the same flow. Along with some witty back and forths and clever retorts.

The pilot leaves me quite optimistic for the series as a whole. Im excited to see the next few episodes. If you were curious at all, i would suggest giving Justified a chance.

Wow

[zmos99 · 9/10 · 2 May 2020]

Never before have I found myself cheering for a protagonist like this. And I've never seen a protagonist that I could relate with as well as Rayan.

This is not your typical Hollywood "southerners are racist morons" fare. Any racists in this series are shown for the losers that they are. The get dealt with by the protagonist with the harsh justice that they richly deserve and people of the south are shown for who they really are: good people who want to see justice.

Welcome to Harlan County

[Mr-Fusion · 9/10 · 22 November 2016]

"He pulled first, and I shot him." These are the words that effectively introduce Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, a principled lawman completely removed from his time. He espouses a straightforward philosophy while hiding a complicated upbringing. And 'Fire in the Hole' does a great job peeling back some of those layers by having him reassigned to his birthplace; Harlan's full of Southern ways and neo-Nazis, but these are characters worth exploring, and the dialogue flows like whiskey.

One thing that's interesting is how formulaic this is as a pilot. Some of the dialogue and even the characters are cop show clichés. It really doesn't offer a clear view of how this show will play out.

That said, it's a fine pilot, and succeeds entirely in bringing Givens to the screen. Timothy Olyphant is pitch-perfect for this character.

9/10

One of the best pilot episodes I've seen.

[rhi-rhi-733-762637 · 10/10 · 4 December 2020]

This episode was a little crazy, unique and filled with great music to perfectly set the tone of the show. The immediate introduction of Raylan as an old school, extreme "lawman" with a succinct and riveting first scene.

The unbalanced rambling of Ava and Boyd in their first conversations with Raylan immediately showed how different these characters were and the stark, depressing setting depicts a tragically isolated and backwards little corner of the US that we don't usually see on tv and in movies.

The music is incredible, awesome indie artists that Encapsulate the white trash, backwards country vibes, while still being great enough that I want every song on my playlist. Music truly sets the mood of this show as well as the stark wide angle shots that show the depressing countryside.

The first time I watched this premiere it was nothing like I was expecting. It had none of the slick style that you come to expect on tv, and made me feel just a little off kilter. That's the kind of thing I love in a tv show. Watching this pilot again in 2020, I appreciate this show even more. It was truly a show that could only live in the time between The Sopranos and Game of a Thrones.

The right level of intensity a show needs to start

[gplusr · 10/10 · 27 May 2015]

I've re-watched Fire in the Hole for the fifth time last week, it's amazing how this pilot is basically a short movie compared to the rest of the episodes.

It has a different dynamic, different feel to it, Raylan was at his best, Boyd is like a whole other person ( I mean, Walton Goggins does that all the time, here for example he doesn't seem like the Boyd Crowder we used to know and he wasn't anything like Shane Vendrell for example) and Ava shows a very different and actually funny behavior.

But the potential for extensive story lines was always there, and I'm thankful they chose not to keep the case of the week format and went with a story per season.

It had the right amount of funny, tense and complex moments, the chemistry between Raylan, Boyd and Ava is present on every scene where at least two of them are sharing the screen and the pilot was a great introduction for an awesome show.

I think everything went pretty well, but only imagine if Boyd has been a regular since the start and the main story for season 1 had more time to be played out, that's probably the only flaw Justified has ever committed, but it's nobody's fault and the show is one of the best in the history of television, and this episode shows why, but only with a different view, because it got much better after Season 1.

A pilot that got me hooked immediately

[midas-jacobs · 9/10 · 29 November 2015]

Minor spoilers.

The pilot episode of "Justified" is about Raylan Givens. He is a marshal. Givens gets involved in a case in connection with an old friend of his. They both worked together in coal mines. But his old friend has blown up a church, and now Givens has to find him and stop him.

The show was nicely filmed and directed, the effects were great too. (when the church exploded). But the best part of this episode was by far the characters and the script overall. So let's start with the script. The dialogue was amazing. Just was the pacing of the show. The conversation between Givens and the person he is going to shoot is so good, and slow paced, which makes you sit on the edge of your seat. The dialogue is so interesting that you want to know what they are going to say next. Now something more about the well written characters. givens was my favorite character. He was played by Timothy Olyphant. He was amazing. He was convincing, and just overall a pure badass. You could also see that he had some history with Boyd Crowder, his old friend, who is played by Walton Goggins. He was brilliant as well. He was a solid villain for this episode, and I loved when he and Givens talked to each other in the end of the episode. Joelle Carter played Ava. She was in love with Givens since she was 12. I liked her character, she was also very good. The scene that I loved the most was the beginning scene. This scene defined Givens personality. This shows that he isn't your average cop, but someone who doesn't really follows the rules. The humor was spot on. The story overall was fun and inventive.

What I also liked was the western feel to it, and the Texan accents. And of course Timothy Olyphant as Givens I liked. I am absolutely hooked to this TV-show and will watch further. I could only start watching this show recently, because it isn't on Netflix, and because I have just discovered it. I hope the show stays this way.

If Only Hollywood Could Make Contemporary Westerns For Cinema Like This!

[Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel-2187 · 9/10 · 8 May 2017]

Raylan Boyd is like a super-cowboy determined to fix up the mess he's become part of: being sent to Kentucky and all. The racist scum he's up against is disturbing yet absolutely captivating for such a modern take on the American Western. Raylan is one badass with presence in this show. He kills only when he needs to.

This pilot is fast, a bit dialogue-heavy but the action speaks for the story and its dilemmas. It's very watchable: a series that's basically a good-old Western condensed to a TV-format. What's not to like about that? Raylan is a captivating character, and I'm eager to watch the rest of the series thanks to this pilot.

Elmore Leonard's Hero Hits the Small Screen

[zardoz-13 · 9/10 · 13 August 2012]

Anybody who craves the fiction of author Elmore Leonard will enjoy this straightforward pilot episode of "Justified" that casts Timothy Olyphant of HBO's "Deadwood" as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in modern-day America. Series creator Graham Yost has captured the atmosphere of the Leonard hero, and a slightly unshaven Olyphant makes a convincing 17-year lawman enforcement veteran. Apparently, the FX series draws its title from the sense of justification that our protagonist Raylan Givens derives from gunning down reprehensible characters who pull their firearms on him. This episode opens in Miami, Florida, as Givens gives a dastardly bad man, Thomas Buckley (Peter Greene of "Pulp Fiction")24 hours to clear out of town. Raylan and Buckley have a history. They were in Central America when Buckley tied a man to a tree and stuffed a stick of dynamite into his mouth and touched it off. Raylan didn't like this but he gives Buckley a chance to leave. When Buckley refuses to take Raylan up on his generous offer, he dies in a shoot-out at the table where they are sitting across from each other. This shooting prompts Raylan's supervisor, Dan Grant (Matt Craven of " Disturbia"), to arrange to transfer him back to his native stomping ground in Eastern Kentucky. Of course, Raylan isn't enthusiastic about this deal. No sooner does he show up in Kentucky than he is tracking down an old friend, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins of "The Bourne Identity"), who fires a LAWS rocket at a Lexington church. Just before Boyd blasts the church, he shouts, "Fire in the hole." Boyd is a redneck fiend with tattoos of Nazi tattoos who fought in the Middle East. It seems that Boyd and Raylan mined coal when they were nineteen and then went their separate ways. Raylan finds Boyd at Boyd's brother's house. They are sitting around the dinner table when Boyd tries to shoot him and Raylan wounds him.

"Heaven Help Us" director Michael Dinner's "Justified" is an easy-going, off-beat law and order thriller with memorable characters and situation.

promising pilot episode

[mm-39 · 8/10 · 17 October 2019]

Promising pilot episode: Here's why: We see the Rawling Gibens character give a gun runner till sundown to leave town at a Miami restaurant. Well it ends badly. A great lose cannon great lead character development for Rawling is done in Fire in the Hole episode. The there is the Boyd Crowder character development of an off balance character who blows up a church. The friends/now enemies Rawling vs Crowder pitted against each other story line is created. Rawling gets pushed out of Florida and back home is with Crowder creating a great story line. The viewers experience Crowder and Rawlings families. The town politics and Rawling get into a relationship with Eva who is in a murder trial with Boyd's brother. A stew of a story is bubbling. Well written, directed with A list actors on a movie set budget creates a interesting cable T V series. 8 stars.

10 March 2020

[mdshifat · 8/10 · 9 March 2020]

Old School Story In Contemporary 21st Century, Enjoyable Let's See What Happens

So predictable and frankly, just plain boring.

[catalinaaperez · 4/10 · 4 November 2013]

I promised myself I would finish watching it. So I did. So OK, maybe towards the end it got a little better, but still, I did not like it at all. Correct me if i'm wrong, (becasue i've only seen this chapter) its about the typical man, in this case police, cop, whatever that try to outsmart the "bad guys" with words and what not to entertain the audience, but frankly, i'm just not buying it.

I like a good Action,Crime,Drama,Thriller; but when they show you already who committed the crime, doesn't it looking for the criminal loose the point already?

Summing it up, you know who did it. You know who is going to catch them (the cop with the funny hat and cowboy boots), and whatever happens in between is kinda sort of predictable too.