YOU BE THE JUDGE
Bryan Cranston is on familiar ground in a miniseries that’s entertaining enough if you’re not bothered by predictable coincidences and clichés
HERE’S a crime drama where Bryan Cranston plays a fundamentally good man caught up in a bad decision, forced to plumb depths he didn’t even know he could reach, all to save his family. Sound familiar? Yup, we’re in Breaking Bad territory here, folks.
The set-up is intriguing, if familiar. Cranston plays Michael Desiato, a well-respected New Orleans judge whose principles are challenged when his son, Adam, (Hunter Doohan) is involved in a hit-and-run that takes the life of the eldest child of the vicious local crime boss Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg). Turning him in to the police would mean certain death for Adam and so they cover it up. But truth can’t stay buried. Consequences of your actions. Yada yada yada. You know where this is going.
It wouldn’t be so bad if Your Honor wasn’t full to the brim with clichés. Did that dog just hide incriminating evidence under the sofa? Golly, I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt them. Hmm, looks like that mob henchman just pocketed some evidence without alerting his boss. Gee whizz, I hope nobody ends up blackmailed over that. The whole crime happens just a block away from the site of his mother’s murder and on the anniversary of her death. What a coinkydink!
None of this is bad, per se. Those who have somehow missed the endless stream of crime dramas that have populated the TV landscape for over a decade now will find something to enjoy here, even if the unrelentingly bleak tone is somewhat ill-suited to the even bleaker times we’re living through.
Look, Cranston is as expressive as ever, Stuhlbarg plays a convincing mobster (no surprise to anyone who saw his turn in Boardwalk Empire) and as a limited series it’ll be done and dusted in ten episodes. It’s not quite guilty, then – but it’s definitely on bail.
Yada yada yada. You know where this is going