Bryan Cranston is Breaking Bad Again
I hadn’t heard of this series when I saw it pop up on Now TV, and was surprised to see that the whole series was available to binge watch Netflix style. Upon investigation I learned that Your Honour is an event series that debuted on Showtime in the US earlier this year.
Figuring that I’d give it a go because I’m usually impressed with a lot of Bryan Cranston’s work I didn’t know a whole lot going in. After watching the first episode and seeing the premise of the show I was fairly hooked. I would have reviewed this episode by episode, but having watched many of them back to back, I thought it would be better to give a spoiler free series review of the whole thing just as I thought this is a show that needed highlighted for others who may not have stumbled across it like me.
In this review I’ll endeavour to stay away from the major plot points and twists and turns and only talk about things you learn of in the first episode so not to spoil your enjoyment.
I’ll start by saying that this is definitely a show that I think fans of Breaking Bad would enjoy. I think Breaking Bad is one of the best series in recent memory, and whilst I don’t want to over hype Your Honour as it would be unfair to set the expectation that it can live up to Breaking Bad, it certainly does give you a similar vibe in terms of it’s characters, relationships and style of plot being told here.
Without giving specifics about the series away about Your Honour I would say it would be fair to describe both Breaking Bad and Your Honour with the following description: Intelligent professional played by Bryan Cranston suddenly finds himself in questionable territory where crime and criminals are involved whilst he only has a much younger male to rely on and team with.
If I were to say more it would be too spoilerrific, but if you trust me that all of the above is true of both shows you’ll understand why I draw such a comparison between the two.
In this show Bryan Cranston plays Michael Desiato, a judge who suddenly finds that he is having to make choices on the wrong side of the law to protect his son Adam who during the first episode is involved in a hit and run accident. It soon transpires that the other person involved in the accident is the son of Jimmy Baxter, who is a mob boss played by Michael Stuhlbarg.
This revelation of upsetting the mob is enough for Michael to make a quick and desperate decision to do anything necessary to protect his son from becoming a target of the mob. This includes ‘breaking’ laws and being ‘bad’ (sorry couldn’t resist).
Of course when you get involved in cover ups, lies and crime it can only lead to more problems and it’s no spoiler to say that complications come thick and fast in this series.
The performances across the board in the show are all great, with Cranston leading the way with a characterisation that is familiar enough to his Walter White that you’ll feel déjà vu, but with enough differences that you won’t feel it’s a complete retread…even if the comparisons are such that I have based this whole review around the idea of ‘hey if you liked Breaking Bad you should watch this.’
The downside of the series is that it is an event series meaning that there is no guarantee that there’ll be any more to follow it up, and that it is only 10 episodes long. It’s positive in a sense that by the end I did feel like I would have been happy for it to go on longer, and I can’t say that I’m fully satisfied that everything I want explored and answered was done so enough for me.
It’s also of note to raise that with a little surprise, the show suddenly had little choice but to incorporate the pandemic as it was clearly mid way through shooting when the pandemic hit. As Cranston’s character is a judge we get scenes set in the court room and where as early episodes showed busy galleries of people watching trials, they out of nowhere announce they have to have minimum people present due to social distancing and you do get the odd character wearing a face mask to also play into this.
I’ve not read up on the making the show to know if this had any great effect on their plans for the series, but it’s very possible that certain ideas had to be adjusted to reflect restrictions on filming.
I’ll give the series a solid 4 out of 5, and it’s my hope that they do find ways to continue the world that was started here. It would seem that the show is a remake of an Israeli series that has seen a second run, but that doesn’t mean we’ll get a second series of Your Honour. Either way you would do well to check this show out for 10 solid episodes of drama, twists and intrigue!
The full series of Your Honour is currently available to watch on demand on Now TV in the UK and on Showtime in the US.
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