I'm conflicted writing this review and giving it a 7/10 because I initially didn't watch it based on the dreadful acting in the trailer!! I thought that if this was the best material they had to attract an audience then it really had to be a loser series.
I hadn't seen the movie nor read the books so, when I finally decided to give it a chance, I had nothing to compare it to.
The overall acting & dialog in general, the lead's accent that kept changing from Mexican American to American on a whim, Cisco's horrible look and husky voice, and the distracting cinematograpy & editing were my biggest complaints at first but I have to admit they settled into a better groove (except for some of the cinematograpy and editing choices) as the series progressed. I even got used to Halley's accent being all over the map especially after he'd explained his heritage and upbringing to Izzy and his more frequent lapses into affectionate Spanish with his daughter.
There also seemed to be too many convenient coincidences to make the storylines believable and it had good scenes followed by really bad ones. It's very disjointed (poor editing choices) and I found most of the secondary plots to be unnecessary and sometimes confusing and distracting.
The casting and character depictions were odd too. No one had much chemistry with each other, especially his ex-second wife Lorna and her fiancé Cisco. She was so fashion conscious (Prada heels on sale) and he was a stereotypical biker type with long, unkempt hair, sloppy t-shirts and a dreadfully irritating fake (?) husky voice. I'm sure she would have smartened him up way before dating him and, hopefully, does before their predictable wedding in Season 2.
It was difficult to get a fix on the lead character, Micky Haller, throughout. Highly unlikely he'd be a surfer and his erratic accent, his charm, vulnerability, genuine caring, and insecurities didn't add up to his masterful reputation as LA's best defense lawyer before his accident & subsequent rehab taking him out of the game for a year. His lightbulb moments seemed too unbelievable especially when no one else could put the pieces together and we never really got a deeper insight into his character. Presumably none of the prosecution lawyers had done their homework. It was all very superficial except the rekindling relationship with his first wife, Maggie, and his daughter. They grew on me. And, along with Izzy, were the most authentic in the series I thought. I was rather surprised that he got Izzy off on such a weird pretext as the cost of the jewelry. After all, she had viciously snatched the necklace from the victim's neck. Even if it had been an earlier version of herself before rehab, she had still committed a violent criminal act. And then to go with his gut and hire her as his driver and confident seemed a little irresponsible to me. The fact that she suddenly was so wise, intelligent and helpful to him (especially from the rehab angle) was a bit too contrived and unlikely. But I did enjoy her role.
The main storyline was ok but pretty predictable with key investigative evidence seriously lacking on both sides. Some episodes were even a bit boring. Certain elements came out in the summation of the case against Trevor Elliot that definitely ought to have come up sooner and been investigated and exposed during the run up to the trial if not before. I kept wondering about the victims' time of death, where were his bloody clothes and the murder weapon if the police suspected him? Why was she shot in the back if they'd been surprised by someone she knew or were they caught in the act with no time to react to the gunman? It was hardly a believable option to point to the other jealous husband as a possible suspect because why would he choose to kill him in another mistress's house and to shoot her too unless, I guess, the intention was to try to shift the blame on to Elliot. The fact that the police didn't even consider anyone else was very convenient to portray them as incompetent in court. Many of the situations throughout were convenient. Haller's expert witness stating why the excessive GPR was the "only option" annoyed me because it could have easily just added more to his own.
It was also highly improbable that Haller could have come up with such bizarre defenses for the secondary cases at short notice and in the middle of his hectic rush to defend Elliot. How lucky there were weird extenuating circumstances each time and the cases were dismissed within minutes because of them.
Another blatant flaw was the fact that he seemed totally "at home" in Jerry's office and, based on the Lincoln premise, had to keep reminding us (in flashbacks chatting with Izzy) about his previous reputation of working out of his car and that he did his best thinking in the car "moving forward". Shame we got no evidence of this in the actual series.
Having addressed some of the negatives, I give it a 7/10 because, as it wore on, I became engaged enough with the storylines and characters to want to know how it all panned out. Without a doubt, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is pleasing on the eye and often certain glances reminded me of a younger, softer, Russell Crow. I cared about his relationship with Maggie and his daughter and was rooting for a reconciliation. Too predictably, the writers had to jeopardize it with a professional "lack of trust" issue at the end of season one that appeared to send them right back to square one. I'm still not sure if I missed what caused their initial break-up nor why he rebounded with Lorna and married her when he still had such deep feelings for Maggie. The timeline of all that? Perhaps that was explained while I was getting distracted.
I'll give season two a watch as it's an easy show to watch and there's no sex or violence which is a definite plus for me.
I hadn't seen the movie nor read the books so, when I finally decided to give it a chance, I had nothing to compare it to.
The overall acting & dialog in general, the lead's accent that kept changing from Mexican American to American on a whim, Cisco's horrible look and husky voice, and the distracting cinematograpy & editing were my biggest complaints at first but I have to admit they settled into a better groove (except for some of the cinematograpy and editing choices) as the series progressed. I even got used to Halley's accent being all over the map especially after he'd explained his heritage and upbringing to Izzy and his more frequent lapses into affectionate Spanish with his daughter.
There also seemed to be too many convenient coincidences to make the storylines believable and it had good scenes followed by really bad ones. It's very disjointed (poor editing choices) and I found most of the secondary plots to be unnecessary and sometimes confusing and distracting.
The casting and character depictions were odd too. No one had much chemistry with each other, especially his ex-second wife Lorna and her fiancé Cisco. She was so fashion conscious (Prada heels on sale) and he was a stereotypical biker type with long, unkempt hair, sloppy t-shirts and a dreadfully irritating fake (?) husky voice. I'm sure she would have smartened him up way before dating him and, hopefully, does before their predictable wedding in Season 2.
It was difficult to get a fix on the lead character, Micky Haller, throughout. Highly unlikely he'd be a surfer and his erratic accent, his charm, vulnerability, genuine caring, and insecurities didn't add up to his masterful reputation as LA's best defense lawyer before his accident & subsequent rehab taking him out of the game for a year. His lightbulb moments seemed too unbelievable especially when no one else could put the pieces together and we never really got a deeper insight into his character. Presumably none of the prosecution lawyers had done their homework. It was all very superficial except the rekindling relationship with his first wife, Maggie, and his daughter. They grew on me. And, along with Izzy, were the most authentic in the series I thought. I was rather surprised that he got Izzy off on such a weird pretext as the cost of the jewelry. After all, she had viciously snatched the necklace from the victim's neck. Even if it had been an earlier version of herself before rehab, she had still committed a violent criminal act. And then to go with his gut and hire her as his driver and confident seemed a little irresponsible to me. The fact that she suddenly was so wise, intelligent and helpful to him (especially from the rehab angle) was a bit too contrived and unlikely. But I did enjoy her role.
The main storyline was ok but pretty predictable with key investigative evidence seriously lacking on both sides. Some episodes were even a bit boring. Certain elements came out in the summation of the case against Trevor Elliot that definitely ought to have come up sooner and been investigated and exposed during the run up to the trial if not before. I kept wondering about the victims' time of death, where were his bloody clothes and the murder weapon if the police suspected him? Why was she shot in the back if they'd been surprised by someone she knew or were they caught in the act with no time to react to the gunman? It was hardly a believable option to point to the other jealous husband as a possible suspect because why would he choose to kill him in another mistress's house and to shoot her too unless, I guess, the intention was to try to shift the blame on to Elliot. The fact that the police didn't even consider anyone else was very convenient to portray them as incompetent in court. Many of the situations throughout were convenient. Haller's expert witness stating why the excessive GPR was the "only option" annoyed me because it could have easily just added more to his own.
It was also highly improbable that Haller could have come up with such bizarre defenses for the secondary cases at short notice and in the middle of his hectic rush to defend Elliot. How lucky there were weird extenuating circumstances each time and the cases were dismissed within minutes because of them.
Another blatant flaw was the fact that he seemed totally "at home" in Jerry's office and, based on the Lincoln premise, had to keep reminding us (in flashbacks chatting with Izzy) about his previous reputation of working out of his car and that he did his best thinking in the car "moving forward". Shame we got no evidence of this in the actual series.
Having addressed some of the negatives, I give it a 7/10 because, as it wore on, I became engaged enough with the storylines and characters to want to know how it all panned out. Without a doubt, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is pleasing on the eye and often certain glances reminded me of a younger, softer, Russell Crow. I cared about his relationship with Maggie and his daughter and was rooting for a reconciliation. Too predictably, the writers had to jeopardize it with a professional "lack of trust" issue at the end of season one that appeared to send them right back to square one. I'm still not sure if I missed what caused their initial break-up nor why he rebounded with Lorna and married her when he still had such deep feelings for Maggie. The timeline of all that? Perhaps that was explained while I was getting distracted.
I'll give season two a watch as it's an easy show to watch and there's no sex or violence which is a definite plus for me.