'Justified' first look at Patton Oswalt in recurring role

If you are a fan of FX's "Justified" like me, you are chomping at the bit waiting for the upcoming season. Alas, television's best crime series is still months off, with season four set to debut in early January. However, Entertainment Weekly released a teaser for the upcoming season featuring a first look at guest star Patton Oswalt's recurring character Constable Bob.

Oswalt's character is said to be a former high school classmate of Timothy Olyphant's tall, dark, and handsome character. “It’s a guy that basically sorta wants to be Raylan Givens, but is not, which I think most men can relate to,” Oswalt said.

The two reconnect when Raylan asks Bob to housesit while Arlo is serving his prison sentence for fear that it might be trashed or, worse yet, taken over by the latest villain in Harlan. Oswalt is mum about revealing too many details, save for one: “[Bob] thinks he has a dark, mysterious, messed-up past, but there’s hints that everybody already knows about it and doesn’t care,” he said.

In addition to the stellar writing, Oswalt credits series star Olyphant for much of the quality of the show. “He’s really, really good at not only knowing how story is driven by character, but also, he is so not afraid of awkwardness and silence and he’s really good at having comedy come from reality rather than, okay, well, here’s comic relief,” Oswalt explained. “There’s just a lot of collaboration scene-to-scene. We’d talk in between scenes and go, ‘Well, let’s go try that.’ Or we’d run a scene, and we’d go, ‘something’s missing’ or ‘this isn’t necessary.’ He’s just very, very present and aware of what he’s doing in a scene. It’s kind of amazing.”

Look out for the new season of "Justified" on FX, starting in January!