To be funny, smart, dark and deadly - and do all of the above, believably, in a cowboy hat - is a tall order. Yet the actor Timothy Olyphant makes it look like child's play as he engages in gunplay as the US Marshall Raylan Givens in the modern Western television series Justified.
To say Givens is unflappable is an understatement.
Here's what he had to say, gently and smiling, while staring down the barrel of a bad seed's shotgun: "I don't pull my sidearm unless I'm going to shoot to kill. That's its purpose, huh? To kill. That's how I use it. I want you to think about that before you act and it's too late."
Givens is a lawman straight out of the 19th century, whose no-guff brand of justice puts a target on his back with criminals and puts him at odds with his superiors.
The author Elmore Leonard - whose oeuvre includes Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, 3:10 to Yuma and Out of Sight - praises Justified as one of the finest adaptations of his work, and singles out Olyphant as "the kind of guy I saw when I wrote his lines".
In its first season, Givens was reassigned from Miami to his childhood home in the poor, rural coal-mining town of Harlan in eastern Kentucky - a place he'd rather not be, where too many shadows haunt him from his past.
Now, five episodes into the third season, Givens finds himself facing off against dirty politicians, secret fortunes, a mystery man called "Limehouse" (Mykelti Williamson) and the lethally enterprising Detroit crook Robert Quarles (Neal McDonough), who thinks he's smarter than the local "rednecks". It would seem everybody's making a play to rule the Harlan underworld, a flummoxing turn of events for Givens's charismatic nemesis and the local crime boss Boyd Crowder (Walter Goggins).
This week's episode, When The Guns Come Out, totally lives up to its title: it opens with a brutal shoot-out in Boyd's "oxy-clinic" for pill-poppers. This gory spark sets the Harlan underworld ablaze; all the guns are now unlocked, loaded and cocked in a season that will also delve into Givens's raw relationship with his corrupt dad, Arlo (Raymond J Barry).
Recently renewed for a fourth season, Justified is often lauded by US critics as the best series on the FX network - that's heady praise when one considers its FX stable mates: How I Met Your Mother, American Horror Story, Louie, Sons of Anarchy, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Wilfred. Best of all, Justified nicely scratches that itch we've all felt since Deadwood turned into dead air in 2006.
"Sometimes we get lost in the mystique of Raylan Givens. The hat. The gunplay. The witty words uttered from that handsomely crooked smile in the most dire of circumstances," writes Tim Surette of TV.com. "But even though he's a man who's larger than life he's still a man, same as you and me."
In 2010, Justified won a Peabody Award and, last year, was nominated for four Emmys, all for acting, including Olyphant for outstanding lead actor in a drama series. While he didn't win, Margo Martindale did get the Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for her brassy turn as the second-season crime-family matriarch Mags Bennett.
With Justified's growing viewership - up eight per cent from last season - and Olyphant's enthusiastic, active collaboration with the series' writers and executive producers on storylines, it would appear he has found his heart's desire: "Before I started getting involved in stories, I would find myself, in between takes, looking for something to be interested in doing … pretending to be reading a book, or making phone calls, when nothing was going on," he says.
"Now I have this wonderful excuse - I'm working on the show. I'm working on the next episode.
"The fun of it is not knowing and just kind of going with your gut, to see where [the story] takes you … And if it's a really funny scene, you want to know if there's a possibility for violence, the possibility for something unexpected."
Justified is broadcast on Mondays at 9pm on OSN First / OSN First HD and 11pm on OSN First +2
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
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EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
UAE’s revised Cricket World Cup League Two schedule
August, 2021: Host - United States; Teams - UAE, United States and Scotland
Between September and November, 2021 (dates TBC): Host - Namibia; Teams - Namibia, Oman, UAE
December, 2021: Host - UAE; Teams - UAE, Namibia, Oman
February, 2022: Hosts - Nepal; Teams - UAE, Nepal, PNG
June, 2022: Hosts - Scotland; Teams - UAE, United States, Scotland
September, 2022: Hosts - PNG; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
February, 2023: Hosts - UAE; Teams - UAE, PNG, Nepal
ENGLAND TEAM
Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
World record transfers
1. Kylian Mbappe - to Real Madrid in 2017/18 - €180 million (Dh770.4m - if a deal goes through)
2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
3. Gareth Bale - to Real Madrid in 2013/14 - €101m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo - to Real Madrid in 2009/10 - €94m
5. Gonzalo Higuain - to Juventus in 2016/17 - €90m
6. Neymar - to Barcelona in 2013/14 - €88.2m
7. Romelu Lukaku - to Manchester United in 2017/18 - €84.7m
8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5