TV Tuesday: The Lincoln Lawyer

One of the shows my husband and I have been enjoying this fall is The Lincoln Lawyer, the latest adaptation of mega-best-seller Michael Connelly's books. We love the TV adaptation Bosch, featuring one of our favorite fictional detectives. The Lincoln Lawyer aka Mickey Haller was featured in a book I read this summer, The Night Fire, which included all three of Connelly's most famous characters: Harry Bosch, Rene Ballard, and Mickey Haller. Mickey was previously featured in a movie adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer, played by Matthew McConaughey. In this new (2022) TV adaptation, there is a different twist, as the famous Lincoln Lawyer is given a Hispanic background.

As in the books, Mickey Haller aka the Lincoln Lawyer, played here by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, is so-named because he runs his law practice out of his Lincoln Town Car, and he is a fervent idealist, fully believing in every person's right to a strong defense. He's also very, very good at his job. Two of the contacts in his phone are labelled Wife #1 and Wife #2. He's still in love with wife #1, Maggie, played by Neve Campbell, and they both adore their teen daughter, Hayley (played by Krista Warner). Wife #2, Lorna, played by Becki Newton, works as his office manager and legal assistant. She is dating Mickey's long-time investigator, Cisco, played by Angus Sampson. At the start of the first episode, Mickey finds out that a big-time lawyer who recently died left his entire practice and all his clients to Mickey, so the team moves into the fancy law office left to him, though Mickey still does his best thinking in the car. Also in that first episode, he successfully defends a young woman named Izzy, played by Jazz Raycole, and hires her to be his driver. The biggest and most infamous client he has inherited from the other lawyer is a tech billionaire named Trevor Elliot, played by Christopher Gorham, who's been accused of killing his wife and her lover. That big case is the focus of much of season 1, while Mickey and Lorna sort through the practice and clients left to him. As season 2 begins, Mickey is focused on clearing the name of a man who was unjustly accused of murder, serving time in prison after Mickey lost his case. That loss and imprisonment of an innocent man weighs heavily on Mickey. He also ends up defending a woman accused of murder, whom he recently slept with.

My husband and I are halfway through season 2 and are both really enjoying this show. The casting works perfectly, and Garcia-Rulfo is excellent as Mickey. The mysteries/cases he's working on are twisty and surprising, with lots of suspense. Alongside the tension, there is plenty of humor, which we always appreciate in a TV show or movie, and even a bit of romance as Mickey tries to move on while still caring so much for Maggie, and Lorna and Cisco grow closer. We usually juggle a dozen or so shows at a time, and when I recently asked my husband which one he's enjoying the most, without hesitation he answered, The Lincoln Lawyer. It's a great adaptation of the novels of one of our all-time favorite mystery/suspense authors. Now, I'm waiting for an adaptation of the Rene Ballard books!

The Lincoln Lawyer is currently available with subscription on Netflix and Apple TV, as well as for a fee on various other services, including Amazon Prime ($1.99 an episode; first episode free).