Based on Michael Connelly’s novel The Brass Verdict, the ten-part series is a solid addition to a long list of gripping courtroom dramas
Based on Michael Connelly’s novel The Brass Verdict, the ten-part series is a solid addition to a long list of gripping courtroom dramas
Legal dramas never go out of style. There’s something fascinating about the courtroom drama, the fancy lives of hotshot lawyers, and the cat-and-mouse chase for truth that makes this genre a fan favorite. Lincoln Lawyer A solid addition to a long list of well-executed projects in style.
In Netflix’s latest, we meet Mickey Haller, a defense attorney who’s been out of the sport for a year because of a surfing accident that left him addicted to bullets. A strange turn of events gives him a second chance at the profession he is best at, a comment he and others make over and over again over the course of the show.
Haller, played by Manuel García-Rulfo, is assigned the business of another lawyer who has just been shot. These cases, especially the high-profile murder trial of a tech CEO’s wife and her boyfriend, are Haller’s last chance to get his life and practice back on track.
And thus, with his second ex-wife cum legal accomplice, Lorna Taylor, and her boyfriend Sisco – who is also Haller’s personal investigator – a Lincoln lawyer undertakes one of the most important cases of his career.
Lincoln Lawyer
Producer: David E. Kelly
Cast: Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becky Newton, Jazz Recol, Angus Sampson, Christopher Gorham, and others
Number of Episodes: 10
STORY: Sidelined after an accident, Los Angeles attorney Mickey Haller resumes his career – and his trademark Lincoln – when he takes on a murder case
Haller has a penchant for leaving his office environment on the road, circling around in his Lincoln cars, where he says he is able to think better.
The ten-part series is based on the book Brass Verdict Written by Michael Connelly; Incidentally, one of her earlier novels based on Haller’s character has already been adapted into the 2011 film of the same name, starring Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Bryan Cranston and others.
In recreating Connelly’s story for TV audiences, producers Ted Humphrey and David E. Kelly rely heavily on fast-paced action, suspenseful storytelling, and of course the inevitable cliff-hangers at the end of every episode.
The show has all the classic tropes of a good legal drama; A mysterious death, a high-profile murder trial, and engaging courtroom speeches. Yet somehow the show manages to both rise and fall under its expectations.
The courtroom scenes don’t show anything you haven’t seen before. And Haller, like other fictional lawyers before him, has a knack for seeing things that others overlook. In one of his many conversations with his client-turned-driver Easy Lets, he explains that the joy of solving a case is like the satisfaction of a bank safecracker hearing the lock turn after trying different combinations.
For those familiar with the jargon of the law, these conversations between Izzy and her are also used to explain the various procedures in courtroom trials. But their relationship goes deeper than that.
Izzy and Haller are both ex-addicts, struggling to accept the later stage of addiction. In these honest and open conversations with Izzy, viewers are able to delve deep into the psyche of the witty, sometimes over-confident lawyer. The scenes that heal broken relationships with his first wife Maggie MacPherson and their daughter Hayley also help break down his outlandish exterior.
The series doesn’t feature Mickey Haller as just another defense attorney; He is a lawyer with a sense of guilt and a conscience, and this is where the show begins. He is a man who truly believes in the idea that, “It is better to let an innocent man rot in prison than let a thousand guilty go free.” This belief, passed on by his father—who was himself a defense attorney—later became his pride, leading him to make tough decisions that would jeopardize not only his career, but his relationships as well.
While the show prepares you for an exciting courtroom fight and even delivers the same, it struggles to overcome the secondary sub-plots. One wishes the show had stayed a second longer on the characters of MacPherson, a public prosecutor trying to uncover the human-trafficking mafia, or Lorna’s desire to be a lawyer.
But the cliffhanger in the final episode teases you to prepare yourself for a second season, where we can hope to get a better taste of this concoction.
One tip: Look for Lincoln’s number plates owned by Haller. They tell a lot about his character and what is going to happen next.
The Lincoln Lawyer is currently streaming on Netflix