12 returning favorites: 'Justified'

Premieres: January 8, 10 PM, FX

We’ve come to expect Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) to chase one formidable bad guy a season — which is exactly why exec producer Graham Yost made season 4 revolve around one formidable mystery instead. Thirty years ago, a man went splat on the pavement with a parachute and a bag of cocaine. The story behind that is something Raylan’s incarcerated father, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry), could help unravel, which makes him a pivotal character this season, Yost says. Another change: ”Raylan and Boyd [Walton Goggins] don’t see each other until the fifth episode,” he adds. Raylan will be busy moonlighting as a bounty hunter to bank extra cash in anticipation of his child’s birth, while Boyd challenges a snake-handling preacher (Joe Mazzello) whose church affects his Oxy revenue. ”Once their stories cross,” Yost says of Raylan and Boyd, ”then they are at cross-purposes for the rest of the season. Our goal is to really heat that up by the end.”

• By Mandi Bierly