Another Government TV Show Well Worth Watching

Tonight, at 10pm, FX is premiering Justified, a new show about U.S. Marshals in Kentucky. I got an advance look at the first couple of episodes for a review I wrote for The Atlantic, and I really recommend the show. Purely from an entertainment standpoint, the show crackles:

But when Justified surprises, something it does more and more frequently as the episodes go on, the show is marvelous. Raylan's the source of many of those surprises, a man who jokes about putting out an all points bulletin on Cab Calloway, charms the pastor of an alternative black church by telling him a story about escorting a fugitive to a Peter Tosh show, or considers himself loyal to a man who ducked out of his offer of witness protection. And his colleagues emerge from the background, at one point with a trunkful of guns and the skills for a major-league shootout, at another moment with sniper's advice on how to handle a stakeout.

And from a federal employee standpoint, while Raylan, the show's main character, is kind of a loose canon, he's also an extremely smart and empathetic investigator. His coworkers are principled, deftly sketched, and extremely competent. It's one of the richer portrayals of federal law enforcement I've seen in a long time.