How does FX's Justified follow a season where it served up one of the best season finales in TV history? By doubling down -- and tossing out weekly explosions, in the form of delightful and unexpected guest stars, while slowly setting the table for a season-long feast of continuing story lines and confrontations. What a start. What a show...

Season 3 of Justified, which premieres Tuesday night at 10 ET on FX, begins a few weeks after last year's phenomenal season finale ended. And I guess, before I proceed -- or before you do -- I ought to point out that If you haven't seen Season 2 yet, or bought the DVD set HERE, do it now, and don't read the rest of this column until you've caught up.

But you know what? If you haven't taken the time to watch and enjoy one of television's best current series, what the hell are you waiting for? And why is it my problem?

But I digress.

So last season ended with Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett -- a season-long guest role for which she deservedly won an Emmy -- cornered by Timothy Olyphant's Deputy U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, and pouring him, and herself, a Mason jar of her homemade Apple Pie moonshine. We'd seen her offer such a libation before, in the season premiere, where the glass in which her moonshine was served was laced with poison.

This time, when Mags and Raylan drank, he was unaware that one of the drinks had been laced. Mags was very aware -- but instead of taking out Raylan, who was there to arrest her, she took her own life. What a fantastic ending -- so much so, that I completely forgot, until this new season began, that somewhere in there, at the end of that same season finale, Raylan had been shot.

As this new season begins, he's healing, physically -- and still as sarcastic and feisty mentally, and verbally, as when he was strung up like a pinata by Mags' son Dickie (Jeremy Davies from Lost).

Dickie is still around, though in prison, as this new season begins. Also still around is Ava (Joelle Carter), another shooting victim from last season, who has taken a more active interest, and role, in the schemes of Boyd Crowder -- Raylan's childhood friend and more recent occasional adversary, played so well by Walton Goggins.

Almost immediately in this new season, Raylan calls Boyd into the Marshal's office (see photo at top of this column) to interrogate him about Mags' missing money.

And Ava, Boyd's very significant other, has blossomed into a full-tilt partner, riding herd over Boyd's untrustworthy associates, who include Raylan's estranged father.

Quite a crowd.

But watch what happens, and who shows up, this season.

In Tuesday's season premiere, one of the new bad guys is played by Desmond Harrington.

His name might not be familiar, but his face is -- from another current quality TV series. He plays Quinn, the party-hearty Miami detective on Dexter.

Next week, one of the guest stars is Carla Gugino, who's already starred in one series inspired by the writings of Elmore Leonard -- ABC's Karen Sisco. And the week after that, we get introduced to yet another new character, played by Pruitt Taylor Vince, fresh from The Walking Dead.

(He's great -- and you can hear a sample of his byplay with Olyphant's Raylan HERE in my review of Justified, which ran Monday on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.)

That's enough top talent to fill an entire TV season, and walk away with leftovers. But this year, Justified is using those fine actors, and wonderfully written characters, as appetizers.

The main course: Two actors brought over from NBC's Boomtown, which, not at all coincidentally, is one of the previous credits by Justified creator Graham Yost.

One of the actors Yost has plucked to enliven Season 3, and who shows up from the start, is Neal McDonough, playing Quarles, a bad guy from Detroit who dresses sharp, wields a cocky attitude and a large vocabulary, and always has something up his sleeve -- starting with a Wild Wild West-type hidden pistol.

Quarles is a fantastic character, so full of charisma and confidence that, in McDonough's hands, he dominates the screen. Except when Olyphant, as Raylan, finally meets him face to face. Then, they have a showdown worthy, in terms of underlying tension and equally matched adversaries, of Raylan and Mags -- and that occurs only a few episodes into the season, with a lot more to go.

Also occurring a few episodes into the season: Another Boomtown vet, Mykelti Williamson, playing a formidable Kentucky presence named Limehouse. He emerges as a threat from within, every bit as powerful and ruthless as Quarles' threat from without. And Limehouse, as a character, is captivating -- made even more so by two real-life observations.

One is that the character, and the whole idea of a sequestered African-American community hidden in the hollows of Kentucky, is based on fact, which makes the idea even richer.

The other is that Limehouse is played by Williamson -- and played so well, with such power and force and with such a convincing manner and accent, that it takes a long, long time to persuade yourself that yes, somehow, this indeed is the same actor who played Bubba in Forrest Gump.

Just one more surprise from Justified -- and one more reason to tune in, and stay tuned.