The Legendary Neo-Western Series Every American Needs To Watch

It's time to take a walk down memory lane with the legendary series "Justified."

I've found myself in a bit of a nostalgic mood lately, and it's led to me taking a look at some old shows and series that I love and watched regularly.

None is higher on the list of great shows than "Justified."

"Justified" is the greatest show ever made.

The original six seasons of the hit FX series ran from March 2010 through April 2015. I'll never forget when I saw the premiere episode - "Fire in the Hole" - based on the writings of Elmore Leonard.

I loved it so much that I downloaded it from the iTunes store and played it during lunch at school on a tiny little iPod. Little did I know it was the beginning of a legendary saga that pitted Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) against a group of different criminals and the granddaddy of them all:

Boyd Crowder.

The relationship between Raylan and Boyd (played by the great Walton Goggins) is, in large part, why "Justified" is the greatest TV show ever made.

On the surface, the neo-Western series is about a U.S. Marshal exiled from Miami to rural Kentucky to hunt bad guys. At its core, "Justified" is about how our choices in life put people on different paths. The narrowest of margins in life have the most extreme outcomes.

Raylan and Boyd are always bonded by the fact they dug coal together. It's a bond that hangs over their relationship all six seasons. One became responsible for catching criminals. The other became the last great outlaw TV ever saw.

At their core, Boyd and his old friend turned U.S. Marshal aren't that different. Neither can truly outrun their pasts. Their roots run way too deep. As Boyd so eloquently said at one point in the series, all that really separates them is a badge.

"Justified" is arguably the best TV show ever made. (Photo by Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

When push came to shove, viewers' favorite U.S. Marshal is more than willing to turn a blind eye to violence and criminal activity when it meant keeping his family safe.

While Raylan is without question a hero, he isn't an angel or close to it. If a few decisions had gone differently, the character played by Olyphant would have found himself in the same trouble Boyd lived in.

In many ways, he probably deserved a much more negative outcome than he received at the end of its original run.

The other thing that made "Justified" so unbelievably great is the show's writing and dialogue. Boyd and Raylan would be threatening to kill each other, but the way the lines were delivered made you think they were just two old friends catching up.

I truly believe you'd be hard-pressed to find any series in TV history with better dialogue than "Justified." The only that is really comparable is season one of "True Detective."

However, that's one season measured against six.

At the end of the day, "Justified" represents an era of TV that doesn't really exist anymore. Yes, it returned for a limited run and I believe it will again, but you simply don't see anything like "Justified" in its prime.

It truly is TV at its best, and it's worth watching the entire series more than once. In closing, they dug coal together!

Make sure to hit me with your thoughts on "Justified" at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.