The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 18, 2023

The evolution of television series featuring either policeman or attorneys (and sometimes, as in the case of shows like Law & Order, both) provides some interesting insight into how various creative types have attempted to keep things "fresh" within the general confines of a genre. Early police shows in particular were pretty formulaic, with noble, upstanding cops tracking down bad guys and bringing them to justice. The same general sensibility informed some of the best remembered relatively early shows featuring attorneys, like the long running Perry Mason, where the emphasis was typically on the "mystery" of that week's case, rather than any background quirks of the lawyer character. Somewhere along the line, though, arguably starting in the mid-sixties, writers and producers had to start getting more (ostensibly) innovative, and broadcast television started offering shows like Burke's Law (with a millionaire policeman tooling around in his chauffered Rolls Royce) or perhaps more saliently Raymond Burr's follow up to Perry Mason, Ironside, which famously offered a paralyzed policeman. All sorts of other "afflicted" characters have shown up in police or private detective outings, but for whatever reason, attorneys are often if not always offered having a relative lack of baggage. Interestingly, and with regard to two of the series already cited above, the reboot of Perry Mason did in fact attempt to infuse the character with more of a backstory, to perhaps some decent effect, though on the opposite end of the spectrum, when Elisabeth Röhm's tenure on Law and Order came to close, it ended with her character asking if she was being fired for being a lesbian, a "character beat" that seemed to emerge from thin air and which probably left a lot of people baffled.

As fans of the many Mickey Haller books by Michael Connelly know, the franchise has spanned decades and several novels, though not quite as long and varied as Connelly's other notable creation, Bosch, whom fans will also know has more than a passing relationship with Haller (portrayed by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in this series), one that is left unaddressed and in fact totally unmentioned in this adaptation. The feature film The Lincoln Lawyer was based on Connelly's first novel featuring Haller, and perhaps unsurprisingly this first season of The Lincoln Lawyer in it small(er) screen version is based on Connelly's sophomore effort with Haller entitled The Brass Verdict in its original literary form. While Bosch was a rather major part of the original novel, he's missing, as mentioned above, and at least a couple of other relatively major changes have been made to characters, but the good news is under the experienced hand of David E. Kelley, who has more than one lawyer and/or law related series to his credit, the television adaptation is often very smartly written and at least interstitially rather funny.

In terms of lawyers with afflictions, Mickey is recovering from a near drowning which resulted in injuries serious enough that he was prescribed opioid painkillers, to which he became addicted. The series begins in the aftermath of his "recovery", with him once again sober but still traumatized by an accident that has left him unable to return to one of his favorite pastimes, surfing, and without having worked as an attorney for quite some time. That surfing element may seem just a little on the silly side, but the addictive behavior element actually propels at least some of the ensuing plot mechanics, including a kind of "meet cute" with Izzy Letts (Jazz Raycole), a young woman who is initially a client but who soon becomes Mickey's driver (the conceit of Mickey tooling around in a Lincoln towncar has been updated here to Mickey tooling around in a chaufered Navigator). The fact that Mickey even has a client comes courtesy of the this season's underlying plot point that Mickey's attorney friend Jerry Vincent has been murdered and has more or less willed his, um, Practice (sorry, David E. Kelley pun unavoidable) to Mickey.

As with Kelley's limited run series Big Little Lies, there's a kind of combo platter of episodes having "standalone" elements while there is an overarching "case" that lasts the entire season. The standalone vignettes are often filled with humorous asides, as Mickey's expertise gets a number of clients out of sometimes pretty significant jams, with the season long arc involving a tech wizard named Trevor Elliott (Christopher Gorham), who has been accused of viciously murdering his wife and her lover. On the personal side of things, Mickey also has to conted with not one but two ex-wives, Maggie McPherson (Neve Campbell), a prosecutor with whom he shared precocious daughter Hayley (Krista Warner), and Lorna Crane (Becki Newton), who is also Mickey's legal assistant. Adding to the general chaos is the fact that Mickey's preferred private investigator Cisco (Angus Simpson), is Lorna's new main squeeze, and as is revealed rather early in the proceedings, her soon to be new husband.

There are a number of fun twists and turns the "main" case takes, and the interplay between Garcia-Rulfo, Campbell, Newton and Simpson keeps the series energized. The denouement as to who is behind the "vast right wing (?) conspiracy" that ends up having a rather Hamlet sized body count strains credulity to the breaking point, especially since it seems like good old Jerry Vincent had enough else figured out before he was summarily executed that he should have been on to the chief culprit, as well, but aside from a few niggling qualms like that, while hardly as "innovative" as, say, a cop in a wheelchair, The Lincoln Lawyer makes a rather satisfying debut in a series format.

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Netflix and Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. I haven't been able to track down any authoritative technical data on the shoot, but this is a nicely detailed digital capture that I wouldn't be surprised to find out had a 4K DI. The best moments here in terms of some of the visual pop offered are no doubt the nicely done shots in and around Los Angeles, which are typically sun dappled and bursting with a nicely vivid palette. Some stylistic choices have been made that in a way reminded me of the television reboot of Perry Mason, with an emphasis on dingy yellow tones in a lot of the interior scenes which I assume are perhaps meant to evoke a kind of quasi-noir appearance, though obviously in color. If you binge watch the entire first season, you'll probably become aware that some establishing shots are reused repeatedly.

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 has a decently detailed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one that derives intermittent immersion with both outdoor material and/or the many scenes with Mickey and Izzy scooting around Los Angeles (which seems suspiciously devoid of any traffic jams, just sayin') or even some of the more crowded courtroom antics that play out. That said, a lot of the series tends to be in much more intimate, dialogue driven scenes, where engagement of the surround channels tends to be limited to occasional ambient environmental effects and/or score. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Blooper Reel (HD; 4:46)

This sole on disc supplement can be found on Disc Three of this three disc set.

The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Whatever the flaws of any given television series, if it's populated by likable, relatable characters, chances are it has at least a passing shot at succeeding. The Lincoln Lawyer has a few stumbles in its first season, but a quartet of often compelling lead characters allows the series to elide any significant issues. Technical merits are solid, and The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1 comes Recommended.