'Justified' Got Greatest After Moving Beyond Elmore Leonard's Source Novel

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Whether you consider it an actual neo-Western or just a Western-inspired crime drama, there isn't another show out there like Justified . The FX series was a fabulous take on an Old West-style lawman settled in modern times that followed Timothy Olyphant 's U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens after he's transferred from Miami back to his home state of Kentucky. While Graham Yost developed the series, he did so based on "Fire in the Hole" by novelist Elmore Leonard — and you may be surprised to learn just how close to the original material the pilot lands. That said, it was only after Justified moved beyond that initial tale that it grew into something truly spectacular .