While there were a few epic side characters (Sweetie and his partner should have had more screen time), there were too many who were poorly cast to 'justify' this outlandish and unrealistic detour to Detroit. Raylan Givens in Kentucky, Miami, or on side trips to transfer a prisoner, makes sense. Givens in Detroit? Not so much. Carolyn and Willa were both SO BADLY MISCAST that they practically ruined the show, even had the showrunners made the correct decision to produce this Elmore Leonard book without Timothy Olyphant. That said, a good thing they left him in because Givens and Mansell had such chemistry, it did hail back to the days of Boyd Crowder and Raylan Givens. The performances of these two actors did carry the show, enough to make it watchable. However, had they not forced Givens into the storyline just because fangirls like me want to see Timothy Olyphant, and preferably naked, and had they cast Carolyn better (actress is great, but both of her love interests act like she's a 10 - and she might have been at a younger age, but in this, she's an overweight middle aged woman who looks it). Instead, they should have focused on local charm, like they did with Justified (local moonshine, apple pie, BBQs, charismatic preachers, etc) and showed the general public more of what there is to actually LOVE about Detroit, in the midst of a series showcasing its criminal underbelly. Sweetie and his man are not enough to prop this up and we're left to imagine that crime is all there is in Detroit, with no silver lining. For this reason, this series was underwhelming.
Review of Justified: City Primeval
