The Lincoln Lawyer is a legal drama-cum-thriller about an LA defence attorney who prefers to be driven around in his Lincoln town car instead of working from a desk. Here’s a new adaptation of Michael Connelly’s novel created by David E. Kelley and Ted Humphrey in a 10-part series. The series stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Neve Campbell.
– The Lincoln Lawyer review doesn’t contain any spoilers –
The Lincoln Lawyer Has a Stellar Ensemble To Catapult the Thriller Forward
The Lincoln Lawyer is technically based on a novel by Michael Connelly, but you can tell the story was mainly developed in a car park before someone ran out of change. This is not a TV series that thinks it’s better than hundreds of others like it, which is never a problem if you are any good.
It certainly has some good points: the script is pretty solid throughout; there are at least two well-made shows that use the device of following Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) on an LA trip as a running structure for his day job and off-duty cases, and he does have some witty lines.
The Lincoln Lawyer is a show that succumbs to its desire to be told as though it were a novel. I say this not because it’s a 10-part series runtime that concerns itself with the contrivances of an extended court case, but because it consistently and frustratingly prods at the audience’s interest with its needlessly literary world-building.
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Netflix’s Original Crime Drama – The Lincoln Lawyer is Worth the Watch
It is a complicated series to describe because it is not good, but there are some redeeming qualities to be found that might make it an enjoyable watch for the right person. This will be addressed in detail further down, and if you aren’t interested in my analysis, you can go ahead and skip past here.
The real guilt of this adaptation is what went missing during its gestation period. In the transition from the page to the screen, Michael Connelly’s wonderful character Mickey Haller came alive during his writing process and grew into Connelly’s most developed creation. What came out when someone else got their hands on him was something far less fun, instead portraying him as an untrustworthy airhead.
This series is as silly as it comes, but who says you can’t enjoy that? An exciting story mixed with suspense and intense moments. It is a thriller about a defence attorney that loves being in the spotlight and puts everything into his profession. The story is not all too bad and provides some incredible moments, but the storytelling techniques make this series go on for quite a while longer than what would be necessary.
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Michael Connelly’s Adaptation -The Lincoln Lawyer is a Law Office on Wheels
Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer is more of a crime drama than anything. They call it a legal thriller, but honestly, the story isn’t that thrilling. Does it have its twists and turns? It sure does, but that’s about it. I liked parts of it, but anybody else to say it was an exceptional drama would stretch the truth.
It’s a slick, well-paced legal drama with good writing and acting, and it’ll hold your attention. Ted Humphrey and David E Kelley have done a decent job bringing Michael Connelly’s characters to life. The plot is relatively complex, but there is never any confusion about what is going on. The Lincoln Lawyer is a mediocre legal drama that’s more concerned with hooking an audience than serving it.
The Lincoln Lawyer has a unique plotline, and it’s used brilliantly for this kind of adaption. The series isn’t reinventing the medium, but that’s not what it’s trying to do — it just wants to tell an exciting story, and it does so expertly.
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Stream it or Skip It?
What I can promise you, however, is that I had never seen a legal drama before this one that was simultaneously so smooth, cool and stylish, nor one that was so obviously motivated by money as this one.
The Lincoln Lawyer is streaming on Netflix.