More often than not in 2022, we've been writing about Netflix's rather over-active red pen and their array of cancelations, but there have been some real success stories. One of them is The Lincoln Lawyer.
The show is an adaptation of a series of novels from author Michael Connelly, the same man who is also behind Prime Video's hit series Bosch. It follows Mickey Haller, a defense attorney in Los Angeles who works out of a chauffeur-driven Lincoln Navigator rather than an office.
It's the character's second time on screen, after a movie was made in 2011 with Matthew McConaughey playing Haller. Though a modest hit at the box office, a sequel was never made, with the character shifting to TV instead with Netflix.
In Netflix's take on the character, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Haller, with Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson and Christopher Gorham in supporting roles.
The show, which adapts Connelly's 2008 novel The Brass Verdict, the sequel to The Lincoln Lawyer, has been a big hit with Netflix subscribers. It racked up over 230 million viewing hours with four weeks in the streamer's global Top 10 and a second season was swiftly greenlit.
Its second season will focus on Connelly's novel The Fifth Witness, which is the fourth in Connelly's series of novels focusing on Haller. Why is Netflix skipping the third book in the series, we hear you ask? Well, in the novels, Haller is the half-brother of Harry Bosch, Connelly's other key creation, and often acts as his lawyer, as he does in the third Lincoln Lawyer book, The Reversal.
Production on that will begin later this year with Netflix no doubt hoping to get the second run onto its platform in 2023.
But, if you're blitzed the first season and can't wait for the second, we've rounded up seven other complex legal dramas to tide you over until we see Mickey Haller again.
The Split
As we wrote a few weeks ago, The Split is the most underrated drama on TV right now, and is well worth investing in, especially if you love a televisual legal wrangle.
The Split first aired in the spring of 2018 and chronicled the lives of the Defoe family, who all work in divorce law for the family firm, with the exception of their youngest member. It stars Nicola Walker, who might be best known for her role in gutsy police drama Unforgotten, and Stephen Mangan, Fiona Button, Annabel Scholey and Barry Atsma.
Walker plays Hannah Stern, one of London’s top divorce lawyers; she is married to Mangan’s Nathan Stern, a barrister who acts in many of her cases. Her sister Nina is also a family lawyer, as is their mother, only Rose, the youngest of the three isn’t in the family business, she’s struggling to get life together. Hannah has just left the family firm, to join a big rival, something that has ruffled many feathers.
Three seasons of the show play out, each with a high-profile divorce case, one not involving any of the key characters, unwinding through six episodes, all while the characters' own lives continue to unravel.
It's spiky, emotional, and, most importantly, a fantastic drama.
Where can I stream it?
BBC iPlayer (UK), Hulu (Seasons 1 and 2, US), Sundance Now and AMC+ (All seasons), Stan (AU)
The Good Fight
A spin-off from another long-running legal drama, The Good Wife, The Good Fight has established itself as a must-see show in its own right.
The show is built around Christine Baranski's Diane Lockhart, who was eyeing up a comfortable retirement until a financial scam took away her life savings.
Forced back to work, Diane joins her former employee, Cush Jumbo’s Lucca Quinn at Reddick, Boseman, & Kolstad, a prestigious African American-owned firm with a growing reputation.
The show, which stars Rose Leslie, Erica Tazel, Michael Sheen, Delroy Lindo and Sarah Steele alongside Jumbo and Baranski, keeps The Good Wife's case of the week arc but feels lighter than its predecessor, with episodes freer to take flights of fancy and strange tangents.
It is still, at its heart, a legal drama, with plenty of twists and turns along the way.
Where can I stream it?
Prime Video (UK), Paramount Plus (US), Stan (AU)
How To Get Away With Murder
Viola Davis commands this ever-so-slick and frenetically paced drama, which ran for six pulse-racing seasons.
Davis stars as Annalise Keating, a law professor at a prestigious Philadelphia university who, with five of her students, becomes entwined in a murder plot that somehow involves her husband, his lover and her lover. What a tangled web indeed.
It's slightly soapy, but very watchable, with Bridgerton/Inventing Anna creator Shonda Rhimes' at the helm, you know you're getting good drama.
Where can I stream it?
Netflix (US, UK, AU)
Your Honor
Bryan Cranston stars in this much-acclaimed remake of Israeli TV series Kvodo, which is now been commissioned for a second season.
Cranston plays Michael Desiato, a prominent, dilligent and highly respected judge working in New Orleans. Then, overnight, he's forced to throw out all his principles when his son Adam kills another teenager in an accidental hit-and-run collision.
Initially, Michael wants him to do the right thing and confess, but when he discovers that the boy whom Adam killed was the son of a mafia kingpin, he quickly switches plan and tries to make everything go away. As you might imagine, that's a rather complicated procedure.
Cranston delivers a great performance here in a super gripping drama.
Where can I stream it?
Paramount Plus/NOW (UK), Prime Video (US), Stan (AU)
Damages
Glenn Close led this five-season legal saga, which also saw the big break of Rose Byrne.
Close played Patty Hewes, a ruthless lawyer, who has just taken on Byrne's Ellen Parsons, a highly sought after new graduate, who Hewes eyes as a new protégé.
As the show plays out, the pair's relationship becomes increasingly complex, especially during the show's first season, which focuses on Parsons after she is accused of murdering her fiancé.
Damages employed a different structure from most dramas, every case lasted for a full season, and the story was told from the point of view of both the law firm and an opponent.
With standout performances from Close and Byrne as well as great supporting turns from Ted Danson, Tate Donovan, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Timothy Olyphant, Martin Short, Lily Tomlin, John Goodman and Ryan Phillippe during the show's run.
Where can I stream it?
Hulu (US), Amazon Freevee (UK), 7+ (AU)
Better Call Saul
An obvious pick, but if you've not seen the show, you should correct that.
A spin-off from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul follows Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill as he goes from diligent lawyer to morally-corrupt defense attorney Saul Goodman, the man who would one day act as Walter White's ever-so-slippery lawyer.
There are six seasons for you to enjoy, which you will breeze through in no time.
Where can I stream it?
Netflix (UK, US (Seasons 1-5), AMC+(Season 6, US), Stan (AU)
Anatomy Of A Scandal
The reviews for this weren't great, but Netflix's glossy take on Sarah Vaughan's bestselling novel is a heightened slice of legal drama and has been a hit with audiences.
The show stars Rupert Friend, Sienna Miller and Downton Abbey mainstay Michelle Dockery, with Big Little Lies' creator David E. Kelley overseeing things.
Set in the heart of the UK's corridors of power, Friend plays James Whitehouse, a Home Office minister and close friend to the Prime Minister, who has been having an affair with a junior member of his staff.
After confessing the affair to his wife, Miller's Sophie, things quickly get worse when James is accused of rape. The rest of the show plays out in the courtroom, with Dockery's Kate Woodcroft playing the lawyer trying to put him behind bars.
A quick six-episode run, this is light, frothy, but very watchable.
Where can I stream it?
Netflix (Worldwide)
