4 out of 5

Created by: David E. Kelley

covers season 1

Lawyer Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) has a nickname in his profession: The Lincoln Lawyer, due to his preference for working “on the go,” driving around (or being driven), as opposed to in an office. His once-successful practice has been put on the backburner due to a problem – since overcome – with pills, aka TV’s haunted backstory. Within the first minutes of the series, Haller gets two phone calls from two ex-wives: #1, Maggie (Neve Campbell), who’s an assistant DA whereas Mickey is a defense attorney, and #2, Lorna (Becki Newton), who’s his legal aide and lets him know there’s some big news: a lawyer friend of Mickey’s has passed away, and has… left his practice, and all of his clients to Haller, providing him an in to get back in business. Especially considering one of those clients is a high profile case concerning a video game developer, Trevor (Christopher Gorham), who’s accused of killing his wife.

Okay, take a breath. This swirling of quirk and melodrama and promise of procedural aspects is undoubtedly a David E. Kelley creation (based on a character and book by author Michael Connelly), and it’s a guess whether or not the show’s writers will abuse those quirks and give us some standard distraction TV or something more.

It’s the latter.

A key part of this is Garcia-Rulfo, Campbell, and Newton. The interactions between this trio could’ve easily turned in to tropey ex bickerings, but each actor humanizes their role immensely, with Garcia-Rulfo an especially enigmatic lead, and treating all of these character “extras” – like the addiction – as legitimate aspects that are part of a whole person, and not just script details. Similarly, while Campbell could’ve been cast as the terse wife and Newton as the supportive one, the former capably shows how her character’s dedication to work and family parallel Mickey’s own, and the latter fleshes out Lorna’s mother hen nature almost immediately, as someone clearly capable of and aiming for something more. Also important in this mix is Izzy (Jazz Raycole), Haller’s driver who he recruits after getting theft charges against her dropped. Raycole acts somewhat as an audience surrogate for understanding how Haller works, but equally manages to infuse that role with weight.

The other thing the show nails is pacing: the Trevor case has a ticking clock which runs down over the course of the season, while giving us episodic courtroom stuff due to the remaining caseload Mickey must handle, often being thrown onto a case literally last minute. Balancing over-arching and one-off storylines breaks things up and allows the show to keep its momentum, and it feels believably in-universe – Haller’s style isn’t to be superhumanly clever, rather to just notice some details and find a reasonable outcome. The show doesn’t try to go for big swings; it relies on little victories, and builds up our faith in Haller as a result, while juxtaposing that with every roadblock possible being thrown on the main case – a smart balance of progress and raising the stakes.

That said, the show does indulge in some binge-watching nonsense: some details are tossed in without any immediate payoff, and they do come back around, but moreso on the assumption that you’re watching most of this in one go. Similarly, some episodes have no real conclusion, and just end on a random beat. If this was truly a weekly experience, it might rank lower: not understanding the significance of a scene and not having a good punch or cliffhanger at episode’s end could build up frustration or indifference if you’re waiting seven days to figure out if you want to keep watching. I am of the belief that, even if you have the ability to binge something, it should still be written as episodes if you’re presenting it that way, and The Lincoln Lawyer doesn’t meet that standard. But… you likely will be binging it, because the Did He Do It? core story and the question marks surrounding it are, indeed, incredibly compelling, and definitely because we get so invested in our lead, and the lives of those surrounding him.

The Lincoln Lawyer tosses a lot of quirk at us upfront, but then wins not by shoving those quirks in our faces, but by peeling back and letting the writers and actors take the time to justify those quirks. It becomes more acceptable for everyone to be a human being. As with most mass-appealing law / cop procedurals, there’s some over-glorifying of justice, and it’s be nice to see the series dive into that more, but at the same time, there’s a lot more balance in the writing and story here than the majority of TV shows offer. Considered alongside its lack of relative glitz, the show’s success encourages a more patient and elevated version of the genre I hope we see more of.