In
many ways FX's Justified is a television series created with uncommon respect
for the source material. In fact, Elmore Leonard, who died on Tuesday, was such
a guiding force for those who worked on the series that the very notion they
could produce something Leonard would disapprove of drove them to create -- and
sustain -- one of the very best dramas on television.
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| Elmore Leonard |
I
immediately thought of series creator Graham Yost after hearing about Leonard's
death. Yost had given the staff little blue rubber wrist bands that had WWED on
them. "What Would Elmore Do?" It was, in times of doubt, their
guiding principle. I've seen Yost at a few events long since he handed them out
and joked that he forgot something -- only have him slide up his shirt sleeve
to reveal the band.
It's
not everyday, in a medium like television that is absolutely a writer's medium,
where you find such abiding love for the person who wrote the source material.
I think that's partly what has made Justified, which was based on a Leonard
short story called "Fire In the Hole," such a fully-formed,
fully-realized depiction of character. Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens is
superb and Leonard so loved what Yost and his writers churned out that he kept
giving his unabashed stamp of approval. (And beyond that, the show spurred
Leonard to write another book -- Raylan -- based on how much Justified had
ignited the character; Olyphant's image, as Raylan, adorned the cover).
