TVSquad

Damages fans, prepare to be unhappy. As many have speculated, it looks like Timothy Olyphant will not be reprising his role as Wes Krulik on the FX legal thriller (at least not in any full time capacity like last season) since FX announced today that Olyphant is getting somewhat of a legal drama of his own.

Apparently John Landgraf and Co. watched a little Deadwood and liked how the guy looked in a cowboy hat because Olyphant's new series Lawman was given a 13 episode order today with a premiere date targeted for Spring 2010. Details and possible spoilers after the jump.

Based on the popular Elmore Leonard book Fire in the Hole, Olyphant is stepping into the shoes of US Marshal Raylan Givens.

Givens is described as "an anachronism – a tough, soft spoken gentleman who finds his quarry fascinating, but never gives an inch. Dig under his placid skin and you'll find an angry man who grew up hard in rural Kentucky, with an outlaw father, who knows a lot more about who he doesn't want to be than who he really is." He'll fit right in with the current cast of outlaws, misfits, and loners on other various FX programs.

I really don't see how this could possibly be a bad show. Timothy Olyphant is pretty much great in anything I've ever seen him in and everything Elmore Leonard has ever written is essentially a master class in a suspenseful crime thriller or western. If you don't know who he is, perhaps you'll recognize a few of these titles adapted from his works: Karen Sisco, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, and 3:10 to Yuma all come to mind immediately.

Continuing that earlier description, Givens is "a modern day 19th century-style lawman, enforcing his brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and places him at odds with his bosses in the Marshal service." Sounds to me like Seth Bullock just bought a time-machine. I like it.