Don't listen to anyone who tells you Justified is just a cop show. First of all, Raylan Givens is a not a cop. As he likes to point out, he's a Deputy US Marshal, which means he doesn't have to care about piddling little crimes like drugs or theft. He's here for the big stuff, the murder and the mayhem. Oh, and also, when he says he's going to shoot you, he can, and he will. But Justified isn't just a show about US Marshals chasing fugitives, either.

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DeadwoodJustified is a duel, a duel between two men who are each others' only equals in this world: Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and his old friend Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). It's a duel fought with bullets and fists, but mostly with words—beautiful, archaic, unceasing words that trill from so many monologues you'd think this was a play if it wasn't for all the car chases. And the show that unfolds is a game between the two of them, wherein one plays a devil and the other an angel—sometimes swapping roles back and forth.

The basic premise of the show is that handsome, charming, reckless Raylan gets into too much trouble in Miami (shooting bad guys point-blank) and is sent back home to work in the Lexington, Kentucky US Marshal's office. Trouble is, back in Kentucky he knows everybody. His ex-wife is the court reporter, his old shooting instructor is the boss, his former classmates are the drug dealers and crime bosses, and even his father is one of the criminals he's now set to chasing. Raylan's daddy issues manifest in every part of his life, from who he loves to who he shoots to how he sees himself in the mirror of the motel he lives in for far too long. And they're especially evident in how he handles Boyd, whose criminal tendencies make him a better fit to be his father's son. When Boyd and Raylan were just two boys with outlaw fathers, they worked the mines together. But after Raylan rejected the lifestyle of his family and went in with the law, Boyd embraced the dark side, learning how to blow stuff up and hate his fellow man.

When Raylan says he'll shoot Boyd in the very first episode of the show—[Spoiler Alert]—he does it. But the two men also save each other's lives time and time again. If the writers of this show have any mercy—and they do—they'll end the series with these two going after each other in a shootout. It's the only option. And, as Boyd says in Season 4, "May the best man win."

courtesy FX

Justified

Number of Seasons: 5 (67 episodes)

Time Requirements: With 67 episodes over five seasons, each running approximately 45 minutes, you've got 3,015 minutes of Justified to binge. But you've also got until January before you need to be caught up for the sixth and final season, so pace yourself. Justified is told in season arcs, with a new primary antagonist each year. Many episodes have episodic mini-arcs, but you can't really skip around and watch out of order. It's best to do two episodes each weeknight and three each weekend day. Even if you give yourself some breaks in between—because the shooting can be a little much in high doses and the accent is infectious—this regimen should still get you through in about two months.

Where to Get Your Fix: Amazon Prime

Best Character to Follow: Boyd Crowder. Because he changes. He is constantly unpredictable. Unlike Raylan, who is slaying dragons we easily identify in the first episode, Boyd goes from an evil man to a preacher to a good friend and maybe back again. You never know whether to trust him or root for his death, but by the end, you've fallen in love with him.

courtesy FX

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip: Season 3 has some bad guest stars (the third episode, in particular, features some poor acting and an unfortunate porn vibe), and the finale is just kind of dull, but you need to watch it. And Season 4 has some Patton Oswalt-heavy moments that we recommend fast-forwarding through. But the real skippable chunk of Justified is Season 5. Not because the story's not good, or the writing is bad. No, it's because there is one very unfortunate guest star whose accent is so upsettingly bad that you can't really take it seriously. That, and Raylan has a bad haircut for some movie Olyphant was shooting in the off-season, and that shouldn't be allowed. Timothy Olyphant is a perfect specimen of human beauty and he should never have a bad haircut. But watch the last episode so you know what's about to go down when the show starts up again.

Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip: Throughout the entire run of Justified the interconnected relationships of the characters reveal themselves in surprising ways—ways we don't want to spoil here. That said, here's a spoiler-lite roundup of the show's must-watch episodes.

Season 1: Episode 1, "Fire in the Hole" Taking its title from the short story on which the entire show is based, the pilot is a nearly perfect 45 minutes of television. It sets up every dynamic, starts with a gun, and shoots it before the title sequence. The only flaw is when Raylan says at one point, "I was justified," which is cheesy. But he never says it again, so forgive him. [Update on Sept 26: Justified writer VJ Novack tweets to say this line inspired the title of the show, not vice versa. We rescind our objection.]

Season 1: Episode 9, "Hatless" This episode is essential because it serves as a full primer on Raylan's demons.

Season 1: Episode 10, "Hammer" By this point in the season, Boyd has undergone a transformation, and now we finally get to see what it was all leading to.

Season 1: Episode 12, "Fathers and Sons" If Raylan has daddy issues, Boyd has daddy nightmares, and they play out in all their terrible ways in this episode.

Season 2: Episode 1, "The Moonshine War" Meet Mags (Margo Martindale). She may seem like a sweetheart who just happens to make some very strong moonshine, but she is actually someone far more powerful.

Season 2: Episode 5, "Cottonmouth" Boyd is trying to make a go at a new new life, but complications intervene. There are explosions, and Raylan just can't disentangle himself from Harlan County.

Season 2: Episode 6, "Blaze of Glory" Someone in Raylan's life is a bad, bad girl.

Season 2: Episode 7, "Save My Love" If you've been waiting to see Raylan's tender side, this is the episode for you.

Season 2: Episode 9, "Brother's Keeper" There are pivotal moments for all the main characters in this episode (Boyd sees a possible path to a real future and Raylan cements a loyal friendship with Loretta, a youngster he's been helping in Harlan). A twist at the end leads to incredible acting from Martindale.

Season 2: Episode 10, "Debts and Accounts" Boyd finally becomes a king of sorts, but of what kingdom?

Season 2: Episode 13, "Bloody Harlan" Mag's storyline comes to a head. Raylan is his badass self, and Boyd says, "My name is Boyd Crowder. You can come after me if you want but it will be the last thing you ever do, I promise you that." (Chills.)

Season 3: Episode 1, "The Gunfighter" Some bad men with Yankee accents are on the prowl.

Season 3: Episode 3, "Harlan Roulette" This episode contains the single most badass thing you can do with a bullet (hint: it's not "shoot it").

Season 3: Episode 4, "The Devil You Know" Raylan's chasing prison escapees, and Boyd's crew is growing restless.

Season 3: Episode 5, "Thick As Mud" You didn't think organ-theft could be funny? It can be.

Season 3: Episode 9, "Loose Ends" Widow Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) steps up her game.

Season 3: Episode 12, "Coalition" Foes become unlikely friends as every single character on the show hurtles toward collision over a hefty chunk of change.

Season 4: Episode 1, "Hole in the Wall" First, a warning: If you have a snake phobia, tread carefully with the first four episodes of Season 4. And skip the third altogether. That said, all you need to know about the season's first episode is a bunch of cocaine and a dead body are not what you think they are and this first installment sets the storyline for rest of the season. Upsettingly, Raylan is dressed casually the whole time, but turns out he can pull off a jean jacket as well as a suit.

Season 4: Episode 2, "Where's Waldo?" Chief Deputy Art Mullen gets excited about the 30-year-old case of the dead parachuter.

Season 4: Episode 8, "Outlaw" Oh god, don't miss this one. That's all we'll say.

Season 4: Episode 9, "The Hatchet Tour" Finally, we get an answer to the season's biggest mystery, but it raises more questions of its own.

Season 4: Episode 13, "Ghosts" Raylan crosses a line.

Season 5: Episode 4, "Good Intentions" Raylan gets a serious lifestyle upgrade.

Season 5: Episode 9, "Wrong Roads" Ava proves she may be worn down, but she's still a fighter.

Season 5: Episode 11, "The Troll" The whole US Marshal family comes together in a crisis. Boyd knows how to pack cigarettes.

Season 5: Episode 12, "Starvation" Raylan is as sick of Darryl Crowe (Michael Rapaport) as the audience is.

Season 5: Episode 13, "Restitution" It all comes, finally, back to Boyd.

Why You Should Binge:

Justified defines cool. Cool under pressure, cool in style, speech, and manner. The crime plotlines are unlike any you've watched in other season-long procedurals. The suits are the best on TV (sorry, Suits and Mad Men, but it's no contest). And Justified never shows you a gun without firing it by the end of the episode—or before the opening credits have rolled. It never overpromises or under-delivers. And the center of the show, Raylan Givens, is a character you need to know. Raylan comes to the small screen by way of master crime-writer Elmore Leonard, who was an executive producer and writer on the show until his death in 2013. Every other character is as obsessed with Raylan as we, the audience, are. He is that one special person in your life who everyone loves. You know that person. You'd hate them if only you didn't love them so damn much.

Best Scene—"Next One's Comin' Faster":

Remember that thing we said earlier about the most badass thing a person can do with a bullet. Yep, that's it.

The Takeaway:

If you say you're going to do something, do it. And looking sharp while you're at it never hurts.

If You Liked Justified You'll Love:

Deadwood, which stars many of the same actors. FX's Sons of Anarchy, too, which will show you a whole new side of Walton Goggins. In fact, you may also want to throw in FX's newest great drama, Fargo.