Rue Detective Drama’s Demise

As one top cop show starts, another ends.

FX has announced season six of Justified will be its last.

Season three went to air here only last night, on the second half of a SoHo double-bill with True Detective and a week after season five’s US premiere.

If SoHo continues to air the remaining seasons consecutively, NZ fans of Deputy US Marshall Raylan Givens should have caught up with is exploits in time to watch the final season around the same time as its FX telecast ths time next year.

Initially the news was even worse for Justified junkies, as The Hollywood Reporter erroneously reported the show would end after season five.

The decision to quit was made not by the cable channel but showrunner Graham Yost and star Timothy Olyphant.

“I would have liked to have had more Justified, it’s one of my favourite shows,” FX Networks boss John Landgraf told TV critics on their winter press tour.

“We talked about it a year ago; they felt that the arc of the show and what they had to say would be best served by six seasons instead of seven.

“Regretfully, I accepted their decision.”

FX also is poised to lose another mainstay, Sons of Anarchy, which starts its sixth and penultimate season here next week (TV3, 8.55 Wednesday).

But it is continuing with American Horror Story, The Americans and The Bridge (which hasn’t been picked up for a NZ broadcast), and this year will air an anthology version of the movie Fargo starring Sherlock’s Martin Freeman and two drama series: The Strain, producer Guillermo del Toro’s take on a virus that infects victims with vampirism; and Tyrant, about an American family caught up the political turmoil of the Middle East from the producers of Homeland.

Meanwhile, the first published NZ review of True Detective was NZ Herald blogger Chris Philpott’s, who dubbed it “a classic in the making”.

“This is a well written show – with the exception of a few serial killer clichés – that benefits from a superb showing from [star Matthew] McConaughey and a wonderfully unique visual style.”

Another (less heralded) detective drama with a serial killer angle that Sky unveiled this week was Ripper Street.

“UKTV’s new Monday drama Ripper Street is as harrowing a watch as you’ll find outside the Underbelly series,” The Dominion Post’s Jane Clifton wrote this morning.

“Yes, it’s overwrought and corny, and the disreputably fetching American has blatantly been plonked into the plot to ensure wider global sales rather than for narrative authenticity.

“But it’s gorgeously-directed between gloss and grime, and romps along with a clever mix of dash and unease – and it’s way better telly than we usually get in the Silly Season.”

Indeed, which is why it should have gone to air much earlier and in HD on TV One (the second and final series aired six months ago in the UK).

The good news is it should be released here shortly on Blu-ray and if not, both series can be ordered from Amazon.co.uk in a box set for only £25.