The Lincoln Lawyer Return to the courtroom and your titular mobile office in this Netflix series based on the second installment of Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller legal thrillers. The very good 2009 film starring Matthew McConaughey as Haller is not in play here. Instead, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is Los Angeles’s expert criminal defense attorney. And don’t you dare say anything about him being Harry Bosch’s half brother. Netflix and Amazon don’t like each other.
Opening shot: Downton Los Angeles at night. The camera pans to a parking structure, where a man in a suit is hurrying toward his BMW with his laptop bag in tow. Hear a noise. look over his shoulder…
The essence: Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) grew up standing up for anyone The Man turned to, and being anywhere his depressed, downtrodden, or even downright despicable clients needed him, which in a gridlocked city like Los Angeles always it was easier doing his legal work from the back seat of a Lincoln. But then a surfing accident sidelined him and his career, and saddled Mickey with a painkiller addiction. Now, 18 months later, redemption appears. That guy in the parking structure? He was killed at close range. But mysteriously, he had already arranged to leave his law practice to Mickey, his friend and colleague, whose own career faltered as he struggled to leave the oxy. And that practice includes the high-profile case of game designer whiz kid Travis Elliott (reliable TV mainstay Christoper Gorham), who is accused of killing her wife and her yoga instructor boyfriend. Mickey and Lorna (Becki Newton), his ex-wife and his case manager, work to catch up on Elliott’s case. Mickey also recruits Cisco (Angus Sampson), an independent investigator and Lorna’s main ally.
Putting his friend’s unsolved murder aside for now, Mickey works a few angles to solve another pending case on his new file, an assault dispute against a young woman named Izzy Letts (Jazz Raycole). She now she is free, but she can’t pay. No problem. This Lincoln attorney needs a driver he can trust. And as Izzy takes Mickey to Malibu and to the crime scene inside Travis’s lavish oceanfront mansion, he promises Maggie (Neve Campbell), his first ex-wife and high-profile prosecutor, that he’ll be there in time to pick up to his daughter Hayley. (KristaWarner).
Later, while Mickey and Hayley are having dinner at their house, Detective Griggs (Ntare Mwine) from the Los Angeles Police Department shows up. He wants to look at the files at Mickey’s new law office; maybe there is a clue as to why his colleague was killed. “You’re in danger, counselor,” Griggs warns Haller. And you’re probably right. But Elliott’s case is more important, and after a hesitant monologue involving the uncanny valley hypothesis and the claim of his innocence, Travis officially hires Mickey as his attorney. Lincoln’s lawyer is back. But is he still as good as before? And he is also a target?
What shows will it remind you of? With David E. Kelley on board as creator, The Lincoln Lawyer joins the prolific TV writer in his favorite courtroom setting alongside The practice, boston legal, Ally McBealand of course, Los Angeles Law. (Kelley’s most recent hits are the Nicole Kidman-adjacent HBO dramas big lies Y the ruin.) But with its standard issue procedural format and standard characters, lincoln it also lines up with any typical TV drama that plays in the 9 o’clock slot.
our take: Proprietary rights and clearances policy will almost certainly prevent a Netflix crossover Lincoln Lawyer in the Prime Video universe Bosch: Legacy. But even if legal jargon prevents them from being half-siblings, the streets the two characters share remain the same. From the surfing accident that nearly killed him and plunged him into the downward spiral of oxygen addiction, to Mickey crossing the 6th Street Viaduct in his 1966 Lincoln Continental convertible, a beautiful cobalt blue four-door yacht complete with suicide doors. , to his comfortable mid-century house in the Hollywood Hills, The Lincoln Lawyer it definitely plays into the City of Angels as a character. (His neighborhood grid is even listed in the title graphic.) And Mickey himself knows where he fits in. “When I’m right, there is no better criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles,” he tells the presiding judge that he gives up the murder lawyer’s practice. to the. Mickey also tells Travis that Tinsel Town’s famous lawyers aren’t worth it. “You have never heard of me because I make this a practice that has never been heard of.” All of this does well to establish a sense of place. But what about Lincoln’s own lawyer?
If Mickey makes a practice of never being heard from, Manuel García-Rulfo seems to be doing his thing never to be seen. It’s a curious blank space in The Lincoln Lawyer, a main character who spends his days responding to prompts from every other character in his life, whether it’s Lorna at her new law practice or Travis summoning him to the sleek, ultra-modern offices of his gaming empire. The Continental convertible is gone, too, replaced by the sleek but nondescript box of a Navigator SUV. Even Lorna’s relationship with Cisco is more interesting than Mickey’s relationship with his pair of exes. Maybe he’s saving the fireworks for the courtroom. After all, the Travis Elliott case will play out for the full ten episodes of the season. And Mickey handles that slick, braggart-busting defense that clears Izzy and gets her the new driver from him. But The Lincoln Lawyer and Garcia-Rulfo need to figure out how to amp up their main guy before he disappears into a host of more interesting supporting characters and the streets he travels.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting shot: Mickey is back in the Navigator with Izzy. Travis Elliott has just accepted his portrayal, and his face is a mixture of relief and euphoria. He catches Izzy’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “There is something wrong?”
“Yes,” she says. They are following us.
sleeping star: Ugly Betty Y how i met your mother Veterinarian Becki Newton is the brightest spot in The Lincoln Lawyer as Lorna, Mickey’s second ex-wife and the plucky case manager at his law practice. Lorna is sharp, sarcastic, and more than happy to tell off the LAPD foot soldiers. “You know, you don’t help yourself by being a jerk.”
Most of the Pilot-y line: “Drive one of the Lincolns,” Lorna urges Mickey. “Take one out of storage. The Lincoln becomes you. You become you.” Conveniently for any viewer new to his world, driving a Lincoln also defines the character.
Our call: STREAM IT, especially if you’re missing something strong and nutritious in your TV diet, something like TNT the closer. The Lincoln Lawyer it’s easily consumable episodic fare with a Los Angeles look and some flash that could use more.
Reference-decider.com