In lower gear, but still humming
Mickey Haller, novelist Michael Connelly’s savvy defense attorney known on the streets of Los Angeles for working out of the back of his car, has gotten a tuneup.
Gone is the turbocharged charisma of Matthew Mcconaughey, who confidently guided a 2011 film adaptation of Connelly’s first Haller novel, “The Lincoln Lawyer,” to box office success. Now, Haller is played with six-cylinder determination by Mexican-born actor Manuel Garcia-rulfo in the engaging new Netflix series “The Lincoln Lawyer,” a 10-part adaptation of Connelly’s second Haller novel, “The Brass Verdict,” spearheaded by David E. Kelley (“Ally Mcbeal,” “Boston Public,” “Big Little Lies”), showrunner Ted Humphrey and Connelly himself, who serves as executive producer and co-writer.
Even the Lincolns are different, with new Mickey preferring the luxurious Lincoln Navigator SUV (MSRP $76,710) over old Mickey’s classic ’80s Lincoln Town Car.
But one thing remains the same.
“The only thing he likes more than a fight is a fight with one hand tied behind his back,” observes Lorna (Becki Newton), Mickey’s second ex-wife, who runs his law office.
But he has also shifted down a gear. While Mcconaughey’s Mickey wasn’t shy about having a drink, Garcia-rulfo’s version is in recovery. The series opens with Mickey on an L.A. beach; it’s been a year
and a half since he’s worked, after treatment for injuries sustained in a surfing accident got him hooked on painkillers.
A judge (Lisagay Hamilton, star of Kelley’s 19972004 series “The Practice”) gives him a second chance. After an old colleague of Mickey’s is murdered, the judge discovers his entire legal practice was left to Mickey. She signs off on the deal, provided the lawyer can stay clean.
It’s a big caseload, but Mickey’s road-tested street smarts are up to the challenge. While some cases are relatively minor (indecent exposure by a
topless beachgoer), one is an international headliner that provides the series’ main thrust: A video game CEO, Trevor Elliott
(Christopher Gorham, “Insatiable”), is accused of murdering his wife and her lover, and the evidence is overwhelming.
Mickey needs a continuance to build his case, but Trevor wants to get the trial over with as soon as possible and prove his innocence so a big acquisition deal doesn’t fall through.
But is there more to it than that? And did his case have any connection with the murder of Mickey’s old colleague?
Mickey’s got a lot of catching up to do, and he reteams with Lorna and P.I. Cisco (Angus Sampson), his best friend and now Lorna’s lover, to get up to speed.
Some 10-episode shows seem stretched out, but “The Lincoln Lawyer” is fast-moving and packed with incident. Yet Mickey’s personal life is also well developed. As prosecutor Maggie Mcpherson, Mickey’s first ex-wife, Neve Campbell ably assumes Marisa Tomei’s role from the film; their professional and personal lives intertwine as they raise their 13-year-old daughter, Hayley (Krista Warner).
Mickey’s driver this time is Izzy (Jazz Raycole), who was facing a grand theft charge until Mickey got her case dismissed. She is in recovery, too, and helps him stay in his lane in more ways than one.
While Garcia-rulfo (“The Magnificent Seven,” “Murder on the Orient Express”) doesn’t match Mcconaughey’s magnetism in the role, his casting is key to the series’ success. In the novels, Haller is half Mexican, and the series enhances his Mexican heritage in a way that the film does not. Garcia-rulfo plays Mickey as if he never gets more than three hours’ sleep a night, yet confidently explores the character’s flaws, shrewdness and feeling to build a finetuned performance.
Garcia-rulfo may not be starring in Lincoln commercials anytime soon, as Mcconaughey famously did (“Sometimes you got to go back to actually move forward”), but he has given Mickey a deeper soul.