First, ‘Bosch.’ Now ‘Justified.’ This Is How I’m Surviving.
By: John Devore
Tags: Coronavirus, Family, TV Shows, Streaming, TV Series

Photo: FX

First, ‘Bosch.’ Now ‘Justified.’ This Is How I’m Surviving.

I’m spending the pandemic watching maniac cop shows with my future mother-in-law

I’m currently watching a show called Justified on Hulu. It’s an action-drama that ran for 6 seasons on the cable channel FX about a Kentucky-born, cowboy-hat wearing US Marshall with an itchy trigger-finger played by sexy, slow-talkin’ scarecrow Timothy Olyphant.

The show is country-fried pulp fiction full of shootouts, double-crosses, and snappy dialogue inspired by Elmore Leonard, the bestselling author who created Olyphant’s character, Raylan Givens.

My future mother-in-law loves Elmore Leonard. So we’re watching it, as we do. I’m happy I discovered Justified. I was losing hope. I honestly thought I had streamed all the TV worth streaming. Or at least, I had run out of hour-long dramas about sensitive maniac cops.

A brief recap of my life for first-time readers: I live in the woods half an hour north of New York City with my fiancée’s sister and mother. We evacuated from the city in May after spending the first two months of quarantine in Harlem and since the pandemic is getting worse we are probably going to stay here a little while longer.

The past year has been notable for many reasons, the main one being America’s inability to deal with a deadly virus. That’s pretty notable if you ask me. I know people who refuse to make short-term, inconvenient, changes to their lives in order to defeat one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The plague is not invincible but in the face of mass self-absorption, it is victorious, killing thousands of Americans every day. This year has also been heartbreaking, and terrifying, and oppressive.

The other reason this year has been notable is I have watched endless hours of TV with my future mother-in-law. If grains of sand were minutes of hour-long dramas I could fill an entire silo. Reality competition shows, historical dramas, half-hour comedies. We sit on the couch and watch our shows together as the other ladies bake pies and zoom friends and study.

We’ve gotten to know each other over the past eight months, certainly better than either of us ever thought we would. She was a born-and-raised Montana ranch girl who moved to NYC to become a Broadway dancer and singer and while that’s not exactly my origin story, I’d say it’s in the parking of the ballpark. I, too, moved from a state that loves cowboys to a rude city to find my fortune.

We also love to watch TV. That’s a solid foundation for any relationship, especially one between a man and the mother of the woman he’s engaged to marry.

Since the pandemic started I’ve been on a bit of a pop culture marathon, for medicinal reasons. I’ve rewatched select seasons from classics like The West Wing, The Sopranos, and Battlestar Galactic. I’ve sleepwalked through entire new seasons of Billions, Better Call Saul, and Pen15. There have been surprises like HBOMax’s Raised by Wolves and Netflix’s The Queens Gambit and flops like Amazon Prime’s Hunters. Lovecraft Country was uneven but compelling, and Ted Lasso an improbable triumph, especially for a broad, half-hour comedy.

One day I’m going to turn the TV off and visit friends and hug family and live life again. But not yet.