There’s a new sheriff in town. Well, a new U.S. Marshal in town, in any case. Raylan Givens has left the southern climes for Detroit, where he’s found himself mixed up in a dangerous new case of intrigue, murder and family drama.

Fun fact: The new bad guy, Clement Mansell, is played by Boyd Holbrook (who you may recognize from Narcos, The Sandman and other films and TV shows). Boyd, of course, is the name of Raylan’s chief antagonist in the original Justified TV series. Boyd Crowder was played by the wonderful Walton Goggins, and he seems an affable fellow compared to the murderous Clement.

Ironically, yesterday I watched the first couple episodes of Vice Principals (HBO) with my daughter. Goggins is one of the main characters in that show. My daughter and her boyfriend also started watching Narcos yesterday, which stars Boyd Holbrook. That I should choose the same day to watch Justified: City Primeval’s first two episodes is just the strangest timing. But I digress.

With just two episodes out so far, it’s impossible to fully critique this new sequel series. The story is once again based on Elmore Leonard’s writing, though this time it’s set in Detroit, an adaptation of the author’s crime novel, City Primeval. That book featured homicide detective, Raymond Cruz, as the protagonist. Cruz is mentioned in the show, but only briefly.

This is because Leonard basically wrote the two men as the exact same character. It was his way of getting around rights issues. Sell the rights to one, just write a new character with a new name that’s basically the same exact person. It would be like if Lee Child wrote a new novel with a guy named Jim Teacher who was 6’5” and super muscular, but was a former Navy Seal instead of a former MP.

In any case, not bothering with Cruz allows us to follow Givens instead, which means more of Olyphant’s charming performance. He’s greyer now (aren’t we all) but just as dashing and charismatic as ever. Givens is still a rule-breaker, but you get a sense that maybe he’s toned it down just a bit. When a loud-mouth Detroit police officer uses an excessive amount of force in one scene, Givens responds with “Not sure that was entirely necessary but alright."

Without a full season to go by, the best I can offer is first impressions. So without further adieu . . . .

And finally, raise your hand if you miss having a really great theme song (there’s no theme song at all!) Why not just do the House Of The Dragon thing and use this gem again?

What are your thoughts so far? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook. We’ll get new episodes every week and I’ll be reviewing weekly here on this blog so be sure to subscribe here and on my YouTube channel.