A Show To Go: Review of the miniseries "Your Honor" The world in grayscale

"How far are you willing to go to protect your loved ones?" - the outgoing TV season in 2020 is seriously asking this question. A few months ago, Defending Jacob brought up this topic for the first time. How can you accept the thought that your child might be a criminal? The viewer was made to doubt whether a teenager was capable of killing a peer in cold blood and whether his parents could live with it. An expensive show from Apple TV evasively evaded answering, keeping intrigued, and each of us, in the end, made his own conclusions.

Now cable channel Showtime has released a similar story. “Your Honor” is an Americanized adaptation of the Israeli miniseries of the same name. Everything is honest and straightforward: one teenager killed another. What will an honest and respectable man do in an attempt to save his son from prison and certain death?

There is probably no correct answer to this question. There are facts and there are circumstances in which Brian Cranston's hero found himself - federal judge Michael Desiato. The life of a man has never been serene. He worked hard, became a widower and the death of his wife remained a mystery - the culprit was not found. The anniversary of his wife's death was another fateful day, his son Adam killed a man. In fact, all this is nothing more than a tragic accident: the guy was driving along a remote suburban road, dropped the inhaler, and tried to get it without turning to the side of the road. A moped was driving at the crossroads and they collided. The poor fellow had no chance. The show's creators could rightfully qualify for the Most Heartbreaking Scene award if one existed. For 10 minutes, in all the cruelest details, the screen shows how a teenager suffers and dies, how his involuntary killer suffocates over his body, stained with blood, how he makes an attempt to call the police and from shock cannot say a word. Alarming music plays in the background, the female voice of the 9-1-1 operator sounds in the receiver, who asks for an address or at least somehow inform about what happened. A wrecked car, a crumpled moped, a pool of blood, a deserted street. I don’t remember the last time I felt so uncomfortable watching TV shows. I had a kind of immense palette of emotions, and I could not decide for myself whether to empathize with Adam or despise him. Awesome debut episode. the female voice of the 9-1-1 operator sounds in the receiver, who asks for the address or at least somehow inform about what happened. A wrecked car, a crumpled moped, a pool of blood, a deserted street. I don’t remember the last time I felt so uncomfortable watching TV shows. I had a kind of immense palette of emotions, and I could not decide for myself whether to empathize with Adam or despise him. Awesome debut episode. the female voice of the 9-1-1 operator sounds in the receiver, who asks for the address or at least somehow inform about what happened. A wrecked car, a crumpled moped, a pool of blood, a deserted street. I don’t remember the last time I felt so uncomfortable watching TV shows. I had a kind of immense palette of emotions, and I could not decide for myself whether to empathize with Adam or despise him. Awesome debut episode.

Unfortunately, the deceased child turned out to be the son of a local crime boss. Adam reported the incident to his father and Judge Desiato found himself in a stalemate - any decision made threatens the man with big trouble. What to do in such a situation? I don't think there is a correct answer.

Michael decides to help his son hide the traces of the crime. The next two episodes are devoted to how a knowledgeable and experienced person does everything necessary so that there are no traces anywhere that indicate the involvement and guilt of Adam. Get rid of evidence: from clothes, from a car, from surveillance cameras in a parking lot. It turned out to be a real rescue operation, but something, of course, is not going to plan.

“Your Honor” keeps the intrigue through a constant sense of anxiety. Over the heroes of Brian Cranston hangs the sword of Damocles and an uneven part will fall on him with all its might. Sounds like the perfect circuit for a great show? Quite. However, in reality, the scriptwriters' plan works with caveats.

In Breaking Bad, we saw an ordinary chemistry teacher transform into the king of the underworld, the most dangerous and cruel person in the area. In the beginning, he did terrible things to protect himself and his loved ones, then just because he wanted to. “Your Honor” breaks the logic a little and during the first hour I saw first a respected lawyer with an impeccable reputation, and then an organized and intelligent swindler who voluntarily becomes an accomplice in a murder, even though he has lofty motives. Instead of the correct transformation of the hero, a limping legend turns out, which you seem to believe in (he is his father, who would have done otherwise in his place?), But the sediment remains. I would like to know more about Michael Desiato's past life in order to better understand him, but in the first three episodes I was denied this. Although there are several key scenes there, revealing the judge as a person: here he goes to morning jogging, here he has mercy with his colleagues, but he incriminates a witness in a lie and saves an innocent person from injustice and prison. Everything was filmed very effectively, but too quickly.

“Your Honor” breaks the usual structure of a detective series, where the good guys hunt the bad guys. Modern drama is moving further and further from the division of the world into black and white. Stories like this more and more often go in the direction of shades, show that none of us is perfect, often comes from inner victories contrary to common sense, and in certain circumstances is capable of doing a bad deed. In this paradigm, screenwriters rely on the concept of lesser evil - whoever is closer to general ideas about good is a positive hero.

I would venture to suggest that gray morality is some kind of new trend that may become more widespread in the very near future. Potentially, the hero of Cranston is the most controversial character of the outgoing year - an intelligent and well-mannered man who is deeply worried about the loss of his wife, he breaks the law in the name of a higher goal.

On the other side of the barricades, Your Honor shows the family life of the local “Godfather” Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stoolbarg). After the death of his son Rocco at the hands of unknown persons, he thirsts for revenge and is ready to do anything to find the culprit. An unspoken confrontation between two families is brewing? Maybe. However, given the situation and the dramatic basis of the series, this conflict is insoluble and most definitely cannot end with anything good for both sides. Baxter's people will sooner or later go on the trail of the killer, especially since the police are actively investigating. What will Michael Desiato do when suspicion falls on his son, or worse, on himself?

As always, there are no correct answers.

But there is intrigue. Right now "Your Honor" is the best provider of anxiety and discomfort on modern TV. The creators of the show deliberately relish the most uncomfortable moments like the death or lies of the heroes, which harm third parties, in addition to the general picture on the wall, they amused the classic Chekhov's gun - Adam will not be able to go to the police for an hour and take his father away with him. I discussed with several people the possible scenarios and opinions are very different, but on some things my interlocutors were unanimous.

Brian Cranston's first major role after Breaking Bad turned out to be very successful - at least in the first episodes. “Your Honor” is open to discussion. For example, my wife was imbued with disgust for the hero Desiato, although she does not completely deny that anyone in his place would try to protect their child. My friend sympathized with the character, but I'm not sure if he could do the same.

The dualism of opinions already suggests that the project at least deserves the attention of the public - even if not everything in it is perfect. The show may seem monotonous and a little drawn out, sometimes even boring, but I'm sure this story will resonate in the hearts of many viewers.

There can be no right or wrong opinions in the case of the TV series "Your Honor", each of us will draw conclusions himself.