Justified S5 — Season 5

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either, not "Justified good". This season lacked 3 things: structure, good story and a powerful antagonist. I like Michael Rapaport, and covering the story of the Crowe-family might have been important, but honestly I could have been okay without them. Unfortunately, they were nowhere near the Bennetts or Quarles, nor have they been as awesome as Drew Thompson. Boyd wasn't the same either, and the season was short of Wynn too. There were many ad hoc solutions and lazy cliffhangers on many occasions.
For most of the time, it just wasn't "The" Justified. The last 4 or 5 episodes were good though, I might even have wiped away a tear or two near the end, it was _that_ good. I can't wait to see how all of this concludes in season 6.

This season is a mixed bag. Many different story lines/characters does not work that well. Especially the Ava/prison subplot is not really interesting. Likewise when story ventures outside of Harlan. Dewey Crowe and Wynn Duffy provides some good comic relief - and we get a bit more (but not enough of) Tim Gutterson, really an underused character.
Still some good episodes. And damn, Givans parting lines to Daryl Crowe Jr are more destructive than the bullets that kill him.

Rapaport was terrible in this—blatantly miscast as a hillbilly. Brings an otherwise good season down a notch.

Definitely the weakest season so far for me. Raylan is on autopilot for most of the season, going around doing the bare minimum of smirking, squinting, tipping the hat, and putting his hand on the holster.

Too many filler plots that go nowhere, the whole foreign wife arc seems like a fever dream by the end of the season, just like Ava's stint in the prison where they try to show her getting "hard" but all of it is just one deus ex machina after another, none of it feels natural or meaningful. Once again, we hear a lot about Boyd being so good at what he does while 90% of his schemes fail for plot reasons to maintain the status quo, and his "empire" has been two loyal but mostly useless dudes in an empty bar that they don't even bother populating with extras anymore.

Also, they really did go and try to copy the best season with the same exact setup: Raylan vs. a family of criminals, a strong yet stupid "dragon", a child that needs to be saved from the family's bad influence, a smarter female figure, etc. It could have worked again if only they'd trimmed the fat and focused on fewer plotlines. It does work much better in the back half of the season when most of the useless plots are over and the focus is clear, I really enjoyed Raylan going into berserk mode that involved his wits instead of his gun/fists.

On a more general note, binge-watching shows gives you a pretty clear perspective of what's just good and what's great. I've been mostly enjoying Justified, it's decent for all its faults but it almost feels like a remnant of those 2000s shows that spent 24 episodes per season doing very-very little and mostly stumbling about the same "comfort zone" maintaining the status quo.