Way back in January of this year, I wrote about the beginning of the fifth season of one of my favorite TV series, Justified, and my fears regarding it becoming long in the tooth, so to speak. (Read about it here)

To elaborate a little, I was worried the show might be reaching a point where the creative staff before and behind the camera might start “going through the motions” and the show may be, like others I’ve enjoyed before, wearing out its welcome.

Now that the season is done, were my worries…justified?

It really pains me to say it, but the answer is “yes”.

Now, before saying anything else, let me note the following: Despite some of the complaints I’ll mention below, season five of the show was still a pretty good ride and featured some very dramatic events and great tension.  Unfortunately, when all is said and done, I got the feeling this season was nothing more than a windup for season 6, which I suspect will focus on the final confrontation between Marshal Raylon Givens and criminal Boyd Crowder.

Looking back at season 5, the “big bad”, Daryl Crowe, was an imposing yet ultimately rather pathetic character whose greatest attribute appeared to be to get himself out of trouble with the law…usually by forcing others to fall on his sword.  Two of his original sidekicks, presented as a pair of very lethal characters, were dispatched in an almost offhanded way.  One of them never even got a chance to confront Marshal Givens (though I wanted to see it!) and the other -quite literally now that I think about it- actually fell on his sword!

For that matter, by the very end Daryl Crowe was taken out without Marshal Givens firing a single bullet, either.

As for Boyd Crowder, the long running nemesis of Marshal Givens, his season long story involved a) his struggles to make it in the heroin trade and b) his girlfriend Ava going from one jail to another and his being powerless to get her out.  Boyd’s struggles with getting into the drug business were at times darkly humorous and tense while his inability to help his girl get out of jail added pressure to his attempts to create a life for himself.

Ava’s incarceration and her struggles behind bars were never all that original, at least to me, nor as fascinating as it might have been.  In the closing minutes of the season this matter was abruptly -and conveniently- resolved but amounted to a big “to be continued” plot line for season six.

So, all in all, season 5 of Justified, despite some really good stuff here and there, was easily the weakest of the show’s five seasons so far, though given how good the show is, even sub-par Justified is far better than 90 plus percent of shows out there.

My big hope is that the creative staff have a terrific conclusion to the saga in mind, given that season six has already been announced as the series’ last.

Despite everything, I’ll most certainly be there for season six.