Netflix released the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer based on the books by Michael Connelly. In the series/movie/books, Mick Haller is an unconventional lawyer working in Los Angeles. He’s the half-brother of another Connelly character: LAPD detective Harry Bosch.
When Connelly first published his Bosch books, they were quite good: good plots, realistic, good characters. Over time, they became formulaic and boring, especially as Connelly began to inject more of his leftist politics into his stories and the plots became more unbelievable. The Bosch movies and Amazon series…also not good and the same is true of Netfilx’s Season 2 of Lincoln Lawyer.
Deviating from his books, gentrification is the new evil to be explored. The characters are all uniformly boring, but they all look good. My biggest complaint is that the Los Angeles they show -- beautiful weather, clean city streets, no traffic, vibrant, beaches, country clubs, glamorous, etc. -- is all bullshit to the reality of what LA really is now. It’s like a colorized version of a 1950’s LA movie -- a Hollywood version that denies reality.
Sven -- thanks for the review of The Lincoln Lawyer. A leftist writer has his works interpreted by leftist Hollywood? Sounds like a hard pass.
Speaking of hard passes, I can’t think of a single summer tentpole movie that I’ll see in theaters this year. I can wait until they come out on a streaming service, and will still pass on most of them.
Locally, it’s a PITA to go to the movies and pay cash to get in. I refuse to buy tickets beforehand online and the local Regal really discourages cash for anything. And you have to pick seats. That said, it’s good to see that Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom is doing quite well this week.
I did watch last month another series -- The Guardian. It ran for three seasons on CBS beginning in 2001(?) and starred Simon Baker as a corporate attorney who gets busted for drugs and to stay out of jail, he has to do 1500 hours of community service at a legal clinic representing mostly children. His character seemed to me to be his audition for his role in The Mentalist. The characters in both series share a lot of similarities. For the most part, it’s not very likeable. I didn’t care for any of the major characters and their unlikeability stays constant over 60+ episodes -- no real growth in their personalities -- and less major characters pop in and out with little to no resolution to their story lines. The other thing is that there’s zero humor in it.
What it does do is show the legal system and its mostly failure at handling children that end up in the system mostly through no fault of their own. It’s unflinching in that regard.
I downloaded the first season of The Guardian but only watched the first episode. I don’t know if I will bother with more, thank you. I was interested because of Baker. I liked him in The Mentalist, which I downloaded and watched complete. I did like it and I liked him in that and the movie, Margin Call, which I liked. Even Elena enjoyed it, though probably not as much as I did. We talked a lot about the related subjects so she got more out of it.
Did you watch all of The Mentalist? I have been meaning to thank you for that.
You’re very welcome, Mac. There’s a few episodes in The Guardian that are worth it, but overall it’s mostly meh. I think I kept watching it because I kept waiting for the characters to evolve.
There were some weak episodes but binge watching probably made it easier to get past those. There were some very interesting performances and characters in it. Two episodes I flagged and have watched a number of times, at least parts. The one where they show his beginning with the CBI and the one where the Medical Examiner wants to end his life and asks Patrick to witness it. That hooked me, maybe because it has been so much a part of my life and shaped so much of it and what I am. It was a different approach than I usually see on TV.
Cute thread pic.
Good morning, GN.
Netflix released the second season of The Lincoln Lawyer based on the books by Michael Connelly. In the series/movie/books, Mick Haller is an unconventional lawyer working in Los Angeles. He’s the half-brother of another Connelly character: LAPD detective Harry Bosch.
When Connelly first published his Bosch books, they were quite good: good plots, realistic, good characters. Over time, they became formulaic and boring, especially as Connelly began to inject more of his leftist politics into his stories and the plots became more unbelievable. The Bosch movies and Amazon series…also not good and the same is true of Netfilx’s Season 2 of Lincoln Lawyer.
Deviating from his books, gentrification is the new evil to be explored. The characters are all uniformly boring, but they all look good. My biggest complaint is that the Los Angeles they show -- beautiful weather, clean city streets, no traffic, vibrant, beaches, country clubs, glamorous, etc. -- is all bullshit to the reality of what LA really is now. It’s like a colorized version of a 1950’s LA movie -- a Hollywood version that denies reality.
Anyhow, it sucks.
Happy Friday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Sven!
Sven -- thanks for the review of The Lincoln Lawyer. A leftist writer has his works interpreted by leftist Hollywood? Sounds like a hard pass.
Speaking of hard passes, I can’t think of a single summer tentpole movie that I’ll see in theaters this year. I can wait until they come out on a streaming service, and will still pass on most of them.
Locally, it’s a PITA to go to the movies and pay cash to get in. I refuse to buy tickets beforehand online and the local Regal really discourages cash for anything. And you have to pick seats. That said, it’s good to see that Angel Studios’ Sound of Freedom is doing quite well this week.
I did watch last month another series -- The Guardian. It ran for three seasons on CBS beginning in 2001(?) and starred Simon Baker as a corporate attorney who gets busted for drugs and to stay out of jail, he has to do 1500 hours of community service at a legal clinic representing mostly children. His character seemed to me to be his audition for his role in The Mentalist. The characters in both series share a lot of similarities. For the most part, it’s not very likeable. I didn’t care for any of the major characters and their unlikeability stays constant over 60+ episodes -- no real growth in their personalities -- and less major characters pop in and out with little to no resolution to their story lines. The other thing is that there’s zero humor in it.
What it does do is show the legal system and its mostly failure at handling children that end up in the system mostly through no fault of their own. It’s unflinching in that regard.
I downloaded the first season of The Guardian but only watched the first episode. I don’t know if I will bother with more, thank you. I was interested because of Baker. I liked him in The Mentalist, which I downloaded and watched complete. I did like it and I liked him in that and the movie, Margin Call, which I liked. Even Elena enjoyed it, though probably not as much as I did. We talked a lot about the related subjects so she got more out of it.
Did you watch all of The Mentalist? I have been meaning to thank you for that.
You’re very welcome, Mac. There’s a few episodes in The Guardian that are worth it, but overall it’s mostly meh. I think I kept watching it because I kept waiting for the characters to evolve.
It sounds like it is not worth following up.
There were some weak episodes but binge watching probably made it easier to get past those. There were some very interesting performances and characters in it. Two episodes I flagged and have watched a number of times, at least parts. The one where they show his beginning with the CBI and the one where the Medical Examiner wants to end his life and asks Patrick to witness it. That hooked me, maybe because it has been so much a part of my life and shaped so much of it and what I am. It was a different approach than I usually see on TV.
One of my favorites is where Jane accidentally ingests some hallucinogenic and sees his daughter.
I remember that. There is a white rabbit, isn’t there? Not a racoon certainly, perfectly good or otherwise.