Timothy Olyphant in Elmore Leonard's "Justified" on FX Andrzej Liguz for The New York Times Timothy Olyphant's FX series "Justified" starts its third season on Jan. 17. IN the premiere of the new season of "Justified," beginning Jan. 17, a dashing psychopath makes a casual reference to this Kentucky crime drama's signature prop, the Stetson worn by the protagonist, United States Marshal Raylan Givens. "Not much call for cowboys these days," the thug says in a syrupy, menacing drawl. The lawman responds, "You would be surprised." The line is an in-joke, a reference to the baroque backwoods adventures that Raylan, a sort of 21st-century Gary Cooper with a dry wit, has endured during two acclaimed seasons of this FX drama. But the exchange also functions as a career appraisal for the man who plays him. Timothy Olyphant, 43, has worked steadily since the 1990s, but in this easygoing, volatile marshal he has found his defining role. Not that he's willing to admit it. "The bottom line is, someone gave me a television show and I figured I'd make the most of it," he said during a recent visit to New York. The words do all the work for you. Based on stories by Elmore Leonard, "Justified" captures his darkly funny, morally murky tone and spikes the traditional crime procedural with hooch and Oxycontin, tracking its hero's attempts to thwart colorful drug dealers and gunrunners and negotiate his own fractured relationships. The series unspools in an oddly captivating alternate South peopled by whimsically twisted archetypes and marked by sudden shifts between folksy black comedy and graphic violence. The thug in the premiere is known as the Ice Pick. Last year the series won a Peabody Award, and its second season was among the most lauded of 2011, netting four Emmy nominations, including a first for Mr. Olyphant and a supporting actress win for Margo Martindale, who played a crime matriarch. Ratings for Season 2 increased 15 percent in total viewers, and an average of just under 2.2 million watch each new episode on Tuesday nights, an audience that grows to nearly 4 million each week when it includes DVR viewers, though they still lag behind those of FX dramas like "Sons of Anarchy" and "American Horror Story." The challenge for the show's producers is to build on the series's momentum from last season and transform from critical favorite into critically acclaimed hit. "It's coming off one of the best seasons any series put forth last year, and that's a really tough act to follow," said John Landgraf, the president of FX. But when you have a virtually ideal central character and central performance, audiences are going to find it. As the face of the series Mr. Olyphant has perhaps the most impact on whether the show will continue to succeed. By all accounts it's a job he takes most seriously, playing an active role behind the scenes as well. Mr. Leonard himself calls the actor's performance the best screen adaptation ever of a Leonard hero, a category that includes names like George Clooney and John Travolta. "He played Raylan exactly like I heard him when I was writing him," said Mr. Leonard, an executive producer of the series. "Raylan," a new novel by Mr. Leonard about the character, comes out on Jan. 17 as well. Mr. Olyphant expressed appreciation for that appraisal but inserted a note of pragmatism. "If George Clooney was starring right now in a big Elmore Leonard thing, I bet Elmore would be very complimentary of George as well," he said, laughing. An actor of rangy grace and wolfish good looks - his easy grin seems designed to induce swoons and suspicion in equal measure - Mr. Olyphant has carved out the career of a man Hollywood isn't quite sure how to use. He has seesawed between charismatic criminals in films like "Go" and "Live Free or Die Hard," and checkered heroes in projects like the FX legal thriller "Damages" and HBO's Shakespearean western "Deadwood." Another hat role, it was Mr. Olyphant's most notable performance before "Justified." "People just like him, and yet there is something a little dangerous there," said Graham Yost, the creator of "Justified." So he gets the combination of the good-guy, bad-guy thing. Walton Goggins, who plays Boyd Crowder, Raylan's longtime friend and nemesis, added, "Tim's hat is never entirely white."