Me, I wish Justified (SuperChannel, 10 p.m.) could go on forever.
It's a world I enjoy visiting. The core characters are magnificently rich in complexity while essentially engaging in the same battles over and over again. The laconic pace of the series, the dry, wry tone and the spiky dialogue add up to something that I never grow weary of – a deep well of pleasure that never goes dry.
But end it must, and the final episode, tonight – it aired in the United States last week and if you surf for info about it you'll get the entire plot – is a fine example of a satisfying closure.
Endings are hard. Right now, there is a lot of anticipation about how Mad Men will end. And there is no doubt there will be fierce debate about it. After such a long, complex journey with the main players, a portion of the audience is bound to be unsatisfied.
In the matter of endings, everyone cites the finale of The Sopranos as the ultimate in unsatisfying closure. It was just so enigmatic. But it was, in truth, the show's creator, David Chase, declining to pander to the audience. And pandering is what most viewers want. Other series have concluded with something gratifying. Six Feet Under, a drama largely about death, concluded with a magnificent, life-affirming soar into the future. Dexter, which shared star Michael C. Hall of Six Feet Under, ended all askew and, annoyingly, with a hackneyed inscrutability.
In the case of Justified, the ending feels just right. In fairness, it was time to wrap up the story. Based on a slim novella by Elmore Leonard, it managed to extrapolate a rich vein of story from a small resource, while staying true to Leonard's style and method.
It ends, as it began, with two guys and a woman. In the beginning, deputy U.S. marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), sent back home to Kentucky, found that his old nemesis Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) was still a dangerous, incorrigible criminal. Boyd has many enemies and some cronies but his sure, steady partner has been Ava (Joelle Carter), his hard-bitten girlfriend. Ava has always looked on, a little amused, as Raylan and Boyd argued, fought and tried to outsmart one another.
Through the six seasons, the central dynamic was permanent. Each season was delicately wrought (Canadian Graham Yost is the executive producer in charge), with one sprawling storyline and the central focus being that trio of Raylan, Boyd and Ava. This final season hinged on a climactic showdown between the cop and the criminal, with Ava acting as the hinge between them. The story engine suggested that, perhaps, both men would die at the end and Ava would finally walk away, free. But that isn't it at all. It's bittersweet, but entirely satisfying.
That's the best kind of ending – neither enigmatic nor obscure, but with enough respect for the characters as to feel true in an emotional way, not a mechanical way.
Also airing Tuesday
Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy, 10:30 p.m.) is back for a third season and, as noted here yesterday, up for a Peabody Award. Schumer's comedy is irresistible. There's a toughness of mind to it, and one of her constant themes is the innumerable ways in which women are made to feel insecure about everything, and how women enable that curse by undermining one another. There's a bite to her jokes that feels reassuringly authentic. She's no crusader but it is telling that a speech she made last year for the Ms. Foundation for Women went viral. What people loved was this: "I am not who I sleep with. I am not my weight. I am not my mother. I am myself. And I am all of you."
All times ET. Check local listings.