Goliat

Goliath is a pretty solid legal thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout every season. As always, Billy Bob Thornton was terrific. He has proven time and time again to be a very good actor and this actually might be his best role of his career. Well, at least one of them anyways. Each episode ends leaving you wanting more. There are plenty of twists and turns during each season and they all pay off in the end. This series isn't anything that's not been done before, this show just does it little better. If you're into legal dramas and haven't seen this yet then I definitely would recommend giving this a chance. You won't be disappointed.

First let me say that billy bob was built for this role. Picking him was the obvious choice because there is almost no one that can play a washed up brilliant drunk the way he can.

Now as for the actual series. We have Billy, who's a retired defense attorney thrown back in law after he gets tossed a case about a guy on a boat that blew up. At first it just sounds like a regular case, and then it quickly becomes apparent that there's a lot wrong with it. The long and short of it is that this series is layered perfectly, you never see what's coming because they scripted it in a way in which you don't get to see around the bends.

10/10 great acting, great directing, and an amazing script.

I'm not into courtroom dramas, & I don't have a particular interest in procedurals of any stripe. I did find "Goliath" to be very involving and entertaining. There are some clichéd tropes, as there are to some extent in ALL narrative fiction: the wastrel who has squandered his position of privilege and is handed the means to his own retribution, the big bad corporation pitted against the little guy, the 11th hour testimony to save the day for the plucky litigants...these contrivances in no way detract from what is at heart a good story with vivid, lifelike characters who suffer real consequences. There are a few "types", characters who fulfill a narrative function, but if you're THAT hung up on purity, screw it; you shouldn't be watching television, you should be writing stories and making your own truthful narratives. This is quality entertainment, and easily the best thing I've watched recently. Billy Bob Thornton is perfect, the supporting cast is top- notch, and while it does follow some genre formulae...it's artfully rendered GENRE, people. I suspect that the person complaining that it wasn't up to the standards of Chandler or Connelly (WTF?) suffers from ODC and likes having the last word in any discussion, whether it's regarding crime fiction or upholstery. I found it very entertaining.

Random Thought Review

This show, hopefully a limited run extended mini-series is a gritty, dirty, nasty "Good Wife" with a bad attitude.

Where "The Good Wife" was upscale and cast with beautiful actors and filmed in bright colors and light, "Goliath" is the opposite. Billy Bob Thornton would not have been cast at an attorney on "The Good Wife." Billy Bob Thornton is beat up looking in real life and plays a beat up burned out attorney living in a low rent apartment on the beach near Los Angeles.

Billy McBride's allies are fatally flawed and compared to "The Good Wife" unattractive. His associates look like ordinary people you'd meet in the supermarket. Great casting in other words.

The attorneys at "Cooperman-McBride" are simply over-the-top in their nastiness. William Hurt gave me nightmares. That man is a genius in getting into character - in this case, I hope he was able to shake Cooperman after wrapping on Goliath. I'd hate to have that character haunt me after the show wrapped.

Over all this gritty take on a legal drama is great simply because it is so different from the long running "Good Wife."

Just my random thoughts.

Goliath was such a good show. I'm actually mad at myself for putting it off for so long and just now watching it. I just finished season one and can't wait for the next three. If they're half as good as this first season I'll be satisfied. Billy Bob Thornton was perfect for this role. It's about a once powerful lawyer named Billy McBride (Thornton) who's now an ambulance chaser and a drunk. He takes a wrongful death lawsuit against his old firm which he helped create. He's then in a life or death trial against his old firm who he wants revenge against and the conspiracy behind it. I couldn't get enough of this and binged it as quickly as I could.