Raylan Givens left Kentucky for Miami, where he continues working as a U.S. Marshal while helping to raise his daughter. He soon finds himself in Detroit, pursuing The Oklahoma Wildman, Clement Mansell, who has been eluding the Detroit police force.
The production team behind Justified announced that it was working together to develop a new series based on City Primeval by Elmore Leonard in March 2021. At the time, it was rumored to possibly be a Justifiedspin-off series.[8]FX confirmed the Justified revival speculation in January 2022 by announcing that a new Justified miniseries was in development, taking inspiration from City Primeval. Dave Andron and Michael Dinner were set as the showrunners, and Dinner would direct as well.[9]City Primeval follows a different character, so the story is being adjusted to use Raylan Givens as the protagonist instead. In February 2022, reports surfaced that Quentin Tarantino was in talks to possibly direct an episode or two as well since he is a fan of Leonard's work, having adapted Leonard's novel Rum Punch into the film Jackie Brown, along with taking inspiration from Leonard in Tarantino's other works.[10] In April 2022, Tarantino was confirmed to not be directing the series.[11]
The production was temporarily halted while filming in Chicago when four cars broke through set barricades while engaged in a gunfight.[15] Sony Pictures Television increased security to the production, but three weeks later, filming was interrupted again when an incendiary device was thrown towards the set. The device did not explode, and no one was injured.[16]
Release
Justified: City Primeval had its world premiere on the opening night of the 12th ATX Television Festival on June 1, 2023.[17] It debuted FX on July 18, 2023, with the first two episodes.[18] The series began streaming on Star on Disney+ in Australia and New Zealand beginning July 19.[19]
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the series holds a score of 92% based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critics consensus is, "Timothy Olyphant's quickdraw charm shows no signs of dulling in City Primeval, an introspective and very welcome return for Raylan Givens."[20] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[21]
Chris Vognar of TheWrap wrote, "Its eight episodes don’t drag or sag, and the skin graft procedure of attaching Raylan to a story that was just fine without him goes off without a hitch."[22] Marcus Shorter of Consequence said, "[The creative team] did the impossible — they continued their hit show without betraying its legacy and, more importantly, told a compelling story that felt necessary for the characters and the audience."[23]
Streaming viewership
According to the streaming aggregator Reelgood, Justified: City Primeval was the most watched program across all platforms during the week of July 17–23, 2023,[24][25] and the sixth during the week of July 27, 2023.[26]
