Perry Mason, The Good Fight, Better Call Saul, and the new Dark Age for TV attorneys.
His wife took the kid.
The family farm’s in tax trouble.
Warrick Page/AMC/Sony Pictures Television; Patrick Harbron/CBS
We’re way past the glory days whenDavid E. Kelleyvacuumed up Emmys withThe PracticeandAlly McBeal.
The only failedChicagowasJustice.Pearsonwasn’t the newSuits.
Savvy parodiesThe GrinderandTrial &Errordied young.
Patrick Harbron/CBS
Now the default TV mode requires serialization.
And who’s feeling hopeful?
Other sacred drama species keep thriving.
Greg Lewis/AMC
Doctors give speeches about America’s broken healthcare system between glossy high-tech surgical impossibilities.
Investigators utilize military-grade technology and god’s-eye surveillance, enacting righteous killgasms unto killing killers.
Righteous deathgods of law enforcement aren’t exclusive to the populist-reactionary front.
Merrick Morton/HBO
The archetype can be prestigious, even progressive.
you’re free to’t action-up a courtroom.
People are sitting, except the lawyer pacing back and forth.
Occasionally, a limited event likeThe Night OforThe People v. O.J.
The Good FightandBetter Call Saularen’t enough for a trend, and available metrics don’t suggest a zeitgeist.
The Good Fight’s heroes are old-fashioned crusaders, typically tackling a new case every week.
Actually that’s all explored in one episode, “The Gang Offends Everyone,” which sure does.
The particulars are twisted and specific, steeped in testosterone measurements and convenient qualification delays.
The younger attorneys in Adrian’s firm protest, proclaiming his entire line of argument an act of transphobia.
“There is an epidemic of transgender violence, especially women of color getting attacked and murdered.”
Good Fightis best known to non-viewers for its anti-Trump stance, and is explicitly in favor of punching Nazis.
That reputation belies its real power as an engine for ideological bafflement.
It’s a study of racism among allies: left-on-left crime.
In season 4, the firm gets purchased by a conglomerate for purely ornamental reasons.
“They don’t value our work, our employees, our history, or our culture!”
“They want us for our black faces on their diversity reports.”
Creators Michelle and Robert King throw their characters into a gray area where no one ever walks away happy.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not outraged.”
His partner Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) is outraged, and doesn’t care if anyone knows it.
Thestunning (albeit accidental) finale of season 4spiraled through a semi-factual exploration of Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
Rich white men ignore a system that imprisons everyone else: Timely subject matter for our days of protest.
Beyond the shared courtroom setting,Better Call Saulcomes off like a whole different species of TV drama.
“Saulmight spend five wordless minutes watching Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) patiently track someone through witching-hour Albuquerque.
AndSaulis intensely micro in its depiction of the legal profession.
Part of this has to do with the nature of Jimmy’s practice.
He’s finicky about his clients' appearance.
He hires actors to play fake relatives.
In a brief season 1 sequence, he studiesMatlockfor fashion cues.
It’s more than a referential gag.
Jimmy choreographs his defenses like he’s scripting a ridiculous legal melodrama and it always, always works.
Her arc polarizes those two goals into opposing mission statements.
He leaves Kim to select cases at her leisure.
She already looks exhausted.
This bleak turn ties eerily back into Kim’s fundamental decency.
She wants the kind of hero crew of lawyers you usually only see on television.
So what if one somewhat unlikeable (but un-evil) guy takes a career hit?
I was wrong, as usual.
In season 5, Jimmy/Saul defends murder suspect Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton).
“I can do that,” Lalo says, nonchalantly.
It’s a variation on Memo 618, another rich guy swatting the law away like a mosquito.
For a con man like Jimmy, that kind of power is intoxicating.
But that’s also true for Kim, a person with generally strong moral fiber.
I hope this mood lasts; I don’t know if it will.
People love superhero movies.Ilove superhero movies, especially when they involve Hellboy fighting a Golden Army.
That mode of storytelling has trickled down to almost every kind of drama on big screens and small.
Early episodes pitch Rhys' Perry as a hard-drinking, sex-having, murder-y, shellshocked loner.
Every trial is an enforced metaphor for conversation.
The rich ignore legal codes, or elect someone to rewrite them.
Victims of a broken system want to tear it down.
Everyone thrills to the adventures of righteous super-billionaires solving problems in a world without red tape.
And the fading popularity of the lawyer show reflects a fading belief in law itself.
