Netflix's car-based legal drama is utter nonsense from axle to axle … but it's worth it to watch the stars heroically deliver ludicrous lines with a ...
He has charmed Trevor Elliott (Christopher Gorham) into sticking with him rather than changing to a lawyer who – oh, I don’t know – sits at a desk and concentrates for 12 hours a day on saving him from the death penalty, rather than sitting in the back of a car and taking time out to liberate jaywalkers and litterers. He needs to fight the systemic racial and other biases of the American judicial system and navigate relationships with his two ex-wives, one of whom is his office assistant – and is engaged to the private eye hired by Haller’s firm – and the other of whom is the prosecuting attorney on the Elliott case. Micky Haller is the Lincoln Lawyer. Why? Because he likes to work while being driven round in his Lincoln town car rather than at a desk.
Entertaining, uncomplicated and easy to watch, Netflix's latest legal drama is a page out of broadcast TV's book that works well.
Netflix is in the midst of a crisis after reporting its first subscriber loss (200,000) this year, and will soon be changing up its so far tried-and-true strategy for new shows. But still, "Lincoln" is very entertaining, and that's all we can ask of it. He's also trying to win back the trust and love of his daughter Hayley (Krista Warner) and first wife Maggie (Neve Campbell), a prosecutor. Lorna seems less like Mickey's ex-wife and more like a sister. He's forced back into practicing when another defense attorney is murdered and wills Mickey his entire practice, including the murder trial of a tech CEO (Christopher Gorham) that might just be the biggest case of Mickey's career. "Lincoln" is so pleasing in its unpretentiousness.
The Lincoln Lawyer is a solid example of why legal procedurals remain one of the most popular genres of show on both network and cable television.
Clever enough and compulsively watchable, The Lincoln Lawyer is competent entertainment from one of the kings of the procedural. There’s a reason why legal procedurals tend to draw ratings; The Lincoln Lawyer is an example as to why that model works. While Netflix’s version of The Lincoln Lawyer doesn’t have the star power of the big screen version, it has the advantage of time and breathing room, which allows these side characters ample opportunity to grow and develop along the titular Lincoln-loving defense attorney. The title character of a show needs to be a strong, compelling argument for why it should be watched, and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo overrules any objections. The Lincoln Lawyer has all the ingredients to be a success behind the camera, and with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the most important character in the show, Mickey Haller, is in safe hands. The opening episode of The Lincoln Lawyer sets the tone for the series right away.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo opens up to The Times about childhood summers in Jalisco, quitting acting and bringing cultural specificity to his character.
Emotionally, I really dug deep for my character in “Sicario 2.” I don’t know if I did a good job or not, but that was emotional for me because it was very close to what we live in Mexico, with the violence. I was in Mexico, and it was over Zoom, which was the worst. Definitely this one, for the amount of work that it was to learn legal terms and huge monologues in the courtroom — long hours of work. I started shooting a short film, and then the pandemic happened. I actually quit in Mexico. In one of the films I made there, I was too young and I was miscast. I had to audition, and it was during the height of the pandemic. I went back to Mexico, and the agent was like, “You have to be here.” I decided to move here. You fall in love with a character in a project that you really like, and you’re there for however many auditions, for however many months, just pouring your soul into the thing, and you get three or four callbacks, and then they might decide it’s not you. I went to the ranch in Mexico and started a lime plantation. The funny thing is that the first film I shot in Mexico, called “La última y nos vamos” (“One for the Road”), was selected for a film festival in Denver, and they invited me to come. It was with [Darren] Aronofsky for “Mother!” It was for the part that Javier Bardem eventually played. We talked after, and he said, “Manuel, if you ever want to come to work in Hollywood, I can introduce you to my agent.” The next time I came to L.A. to visit, I met with this agent, and the next day she sent me to an audition, and I got it, which was “Bless Me, Ultima.” I did that film.
Find out how to watch this new series adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, what it's about, and more.
How to Get Away With Murder: Created by Peter Nowalk and starring Viola Davis in the leading role, this Shonda Rhimes series remains one of the most popular legal drama thrillers on television. Apart from the legal thrill and slick scenes of crime and investigation, the trailer also hints at some personal conflicts with his estranged wife and daughter. When his former law partner is killed, Mickey Haller is left to take over the firm, including a high-profile murder trial. This says a lot about what to expect from the character arc of Mickey Haller. The all-new Netflix legal drama consists of ten, one-hour episodes, all of which will stream together on the day of the show’s release, that is, May 13, 2022. The plot follows Mickey Haller, a morally ambiguous defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Town Car rather than an office like you would see regular lawyers do.
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo stars as Mickey Haller in Netflix's The Lincoln Lawyer. But what lies ahead for the book adaptation series?
The Lincoln Lawyer is available now on Netflix. The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 plot: What will happen? The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 trailer: When can I see it? The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 cast: Who will be in it? The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 potential release date: When's it on? The Lincoln Lawyer spoilers follow.
The Lincoln Lawyer rides again in this David E. Kelley-affiliated Netflix reboot of the character who first appeared in Michael Connelly's novels before...
Sleeper Star: Ugly Betty and How I Met Your Mother vet 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. You become you.” Conveniently for any viewers new to his world, driving around in a Lincoln also defines the character. Mickey and Lorna (Becki Newton), his ex-wife and case manager, work to get up to speed on the Elliott case. The Lincoln becomes you. And as Izzy ferries Mickey to Malibu and the crime scene inside Travis’s luxe beachfront manse, he promises Maggie (Neve Campbell), his first ex-wife and a high-powered prosecutor, that he’ll be on time to pick up their daughter Hayley (Krista Warner). Lorna is sharp, sarcastic, and more than happy to tell off the LAPD’s foot soldiers. If Mickey makes it his practice to never be heard of, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo seems to be making it his to never be seen. He catches Izzy’s look in the rearview. But is he still as good as he was? The camera pans to a parking structure, where a man in a suit hurries to his BMW with his laptop bag in tow. And that practice includes the high-profile case of game designer whiz kid Travis Elliott (reliable TV mainstay Christoper Gorham), who’s accused of killing his wife and her yoga instructor boyfriend. The Gist: Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) made his bones by defending anyone who The Man came at, and being anywhere his down-and-out, downtrodden, or even downright despicable clients needed him to be, which in a gridlock-choked town like Los Angeles was always made easier by doing his lawyering from the backseat of a Lincoln. But then a surfing accident sidelined him and his career, and saddled Mickey with an addiction to painkillers.
'He's struggling through most of the season to keep a lid on a lot of [his charm],' Gorham says.
And then when Mickey forces him to show him some vulnerability, then he shows him the vulnerability that he needs to show in that moment to get what he wants. He shows the jury what the jury needs to see so that Trevor can get what he wants. This is a guy who, if you haven’t read the book, it looks like he is going to get away with at the end, not just in a court of law, but in life, and so there’s a satisfaction, I think, for the audience in that ending that you want that payoff. Because at the end of the day, Trevor’s right, that he needs this just as much as Trevor does, and so he’s gotta take it. Also, I think I was deluding myself through much of the filming — you forget that your character dies in the end, because you’re just kind of playing each episode and each scene as it comes. So it doesn’t do anybody any good at that point for the truth to come out, as far as Mickey and Trevor is concerned. I think it was the first time that I’ve had squibs, that I’ve used squibs, which are little explosives that they tape onto your body and then they blow up on cue. What that did is it gives me the ability to play the emotional stuff honestly because I think it is honest for him and what makes his story believable is that he’s not faking the emotion behind him. And like you said, the title of the whole thing doesn’t make any sense if he doesn’t get killed in the end. Maybe at some point in the past, but at this point in his life, no, because he is in denial about all that. So yeah, I think maybe when he was younger but at this point in his life, he’s kind of broken in that way, I think. Mickey talks about it: He’s an addict, and at the end of the day, he chose his drug over his love.