I've been watching that Goliath series on box-set over the last few days whilst I try to get my cycling legs working again.
I suppose the show would be classed as a legal procedural and is about a big business doing something that may not be entirely law-abiding. I suspect they used the entire effects budget in the first scene.
The neo-noir show has Billy Bob Thornton as the lead character playing a broken hotshot lawyer who now lives in a motel in Santa Monica. There's several plot points that many of these legally derived shows have in common. In Better Call Saul, (the Bob Odenkirk show) there's an ex partner lawyer who has had a breakdown and now lives in a darkened room with an annoying aversion to electricity.
Check. In this show we get Thornton as the busted ex-partner and remarkably William Hurt as the melodramatic still-in-place partner with a sooo annoying habit who, yes, lives in a darkened office at the top of his tower block.
There's the Grisham/Badalucci-esque spirited female assistants on hand to help Thornton with the case, most of whom seem to work for nothing. Then there's Thornton's broken marriage, savvy teen daughter and ex-wife with a new lover who works for the opposing council.
The thing is, formulaic as it may be, I'm enjoying the show. Thornton's switches from slightly drunk to razor-sharp in the courtroom. The stealth of the big business trying to quash investigations. The brown lighting of Thornton's world to the sterile glass cubes within glass cubes where the Goliath action plays out.
And behind it all is a very good sense of coastal Los Angeles. It was genius to give Thornton a beaten up convertible (red Mustang, of course), because when he drives around you see so much more of the neighbourhood. Even I could recognise real streets and areas from my own experience so there was that quiet 'been there' thought through some parts of it.
I've still about three episodes left to watch, but with Thornton's understated play of the dialogue and great ensemble casting, this is really quite entertaining. I'd even watch another series, if they ever made it.
2 comments:
Tomorrow I am having Wi fi extended round the house and a Fire stick fitted. Been dithering between Netflix and Prime. Any advice?
Hi Pat - I actually use both.
The Prime service comes as part of an annual subscription to Amazon Prime in any case, and I do use the delivery service, so the movies and TV shows are a useful bonus.
Netflix costs a few quid a month separately, but I suppose viewing around one series or a couple of movies a month is equivalent to the purchase of a DVD or two, so it somehow all stacks up as viable.
I do also have one of those Fire stick things. I think it provides just about all of the different services, so that as well as the original Amazon video, you can use it for Netflix, iPlayer, ITV hub, More 4 and so on.
Between them all I should think you'll have plenty to watch and don't forget that if you have an iPad or similar then that will also be able to receive most of the services.
Happy viewing.
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