HOT NEW DRAMA YOUR HONOR
SKY ATLANTIC/NOW TV, TUESDAY 2 MARCH, 9PM
The self-contained mini-series format (or “limited series” as it’s known in America) is making a comeback, with the likes of The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, The Queen’s Gambit and Behind Her Eyes, which just arrived on Netflix last week. This one, which gives Bryan Cranston a juicy role in his first TV job since the classic Breaking Bad, has already been a big hit on Showtime in the US, and comes from Peter Moffat, writer/producer for one of the best examples of a mini-series ever, 2016’s The Night Of. So, does Your Honor measure up?
THE PREMISE
Like The Night Of and The Undoing, this ten-parter has an instantly intriguing premise: when Adam (Hunter Doohan), the teenage son of a top judge (Cranston), is involved in a hit-and-run accident and kills another young man, it turns out the victim is the son of a local crime boss (Michael Stuhlbarg).
So, the upstanding judge has to decide whether to break the law and cover for his son, who is obviously now a target for the mob, or force Adam to come clean. Obviously, the judge puts family first, which means they get into ever deeper, more dangerous waters, as the full implications of the incident come crashing in on them.
THE EXECUTION
Adapted by Brit Moffat from an Israeli series called Kvodo, the serious, slightly bleak tone of the drama is much closer to
The Night Of than the over-thetop slick, glossy nonsense of something like The Undoing.
But it’s still engrossing stuff, due in no small part to the entirely convincing performance of Cranston, who knows how to play a man in the middle of a potentially life-destroying moral dilemma. Young Hunter Doohan is also excellent as his son, who also happens to be having an affair with one of his teachers in a subplot reminiscent of the recent BBC2 US import A Teacher. There’s certainly more than enough going on to keep you hooked for ten whole hours. HHHH Boyd Hilton