There’s a centerpiece scene in the series premiere of Showtime’s “Your Honor” that’s among the best of the year. A New Orleans judge named Michael Desiato (Bryan Cranston) has returned home to find his son Adam (Hunter Doohan), rattled and apparently injured. The boy can barely speak, quietly muttering what happened that morning to his powerful father through tears. Adam was in the Ninth Ward, visiting the spot of his mother’s murder, which happened a year ago. As he was driving away, Adam had an asthma attack, and crashed his car into another young man on a motorcycle. He went to help but watched the life drain from his eyes. And then the scared kid drove away. Doohan is strong here, but it’s Cranston who captivates, finding the balance between a father’s emotional response and someone who knows every aspect of the legal process. While comforting his only child, he starts using words like “shock” and “trauma,” already building a reasonably plausible story to protect his boy. It’s a great scene as written and it’s elevated by Cranston’s smart choices.
Over the first four episodes sent to press, “Your Honor” has several powerful scenes, usually the ones in which Cranston is allowed the most nuanced character work. Sadly, it also suffers a bit from the plague of the modern television era in that this feels like this story is probably six episodes of television that’s been stretched to ten. However, the ensemble finds a way to make that stretch bearable and often entertaining. At least for now.
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Adapting an Israeli series named “Kvodo,” writer Peter Moffat (“The Night Of”) sets the stage for the season with a tense premiere. Adam is a student photographer who happens to be sleeping with his teacher Frannie (Sofia Black-D’Elia), whom he leaves before heading to the Ninth Ward. At the same time, a powerful crime lord named Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg) is gifting his son Rocco with a gorgeous antique motorcycle. Rocco takes off as Adam leaves a photo of his mother at the convenience store, where she was shot exactly a year ago in a botched robbery. As he drives away, he draws attention from locals—Adam doesn’t belong here. He starts to panic a bit, can’t reach his inhaler, and plows into a speeding Rocco.
Michael Desiato’s shock at his son’s decision to run shifts over the first episode in ways that won’t be spoiled, but the fact that the victim was the son of a powerful villain in the city matters a great deal. If Adam goes to jail, he wouldn’t last more than minutes given Baxter’s connections. And so Michael is faced with more intense and immediate decisions than is typical for the “protective father” subgenre of crime fiction. It’s the story of the son of a good man killing the son of a bad man, which adds a layer of subtext that only grows when Michael’s attempts to protect Adam draw in another young man, a resident of the Ninth Ward named Kofi Jones (Lamar Johnson). Privilege and race become factors in the story of “Your Honor” in a way that recalls Moffat’s work on “Night Of” without as much emphasis on the social dynamics or inequity.
“Your Honor” also becomes a bit of a thriller as Michael juggles evidence against Adam along with his son’s increasing spiral into guilt and trauma. Cranston turns on that Walter White switch at times, portraying an average guy willing to go to extremes to accomplish his goals and protect his family. In many ways, this is the closest character to White that he’s played since the end of “Breaking Bad,” and he’s quite simply very good at this kind of thing. He captures the manner in which Michael is unafraid of anything that is required of him to save his son, while also knowing the legal minefield better than most people.
Cranston is far from alone in this ace cast, although Stuhlbarg and Hope Davis as his wife Gina are given disappointingly little to do in the first four. Davis in particular is a good actress directed to go to 11 here in terms of grief and vengeance—she’s the Lady Macbeth pushing Jimmy to defend his son’s honor—and she sometimes feels like she’s on a cheesier show than anybody else. Stuhlbarg glowers and scowls, but one hopes there’s more to this villain in the back half of the season than the thin character he’s been given so far.
The extended ensemble is also excellent, including Isiah Whitlock Jr. as a power player in the city who’s planning a run for Mayor, Carmen Ejogo as a defender who Michael draws into the case, and Amy Landecker as a cop who worked the case of the death of Michael’s wife and gets drawn into this one too. Margo Martindale pops up in the fourth episode just in time to give the season a much-needed jolt of adrenalin. Her appearance follows a frustrating third episode that feels like it would have been about 5-10 minutes of the feature-length film version of this story. The modern problem with Prestige TV is length as every producer seems to think longer is better. “Your Honor” has enough characters and plot that it’s hard to say it would have worked as a single feature film, but the four episodes sent to press don’t convince that it needed ten hours either. There is a happy medium.
Some of the contrivances in “Your Honor” start to pile up in episode four, especially during a dinner scene that really stretches credulity, but honestly, that’s the kind of thing this show is going to need to maintain momentum for six more hours. It’s at its best when it’s throwing new problems at Michael Desiato and forcing him to “Walter White” his way through them. Some of its themes of race and injustice feel like window dressing, but one hopes those become denser as the season progresses.
Four hours into “Your Honor,” there’s a lot of potential for greatness to come balanced with reasonable concern given how much time is left on the clock. The ensemble could get richer and the story could get more thrilling, or it could spin its wheels until an action-packed finale. The four episodes sent have shown signs of both tendencies. In the end, the jury is still out. [B-]
“Your Honor” will premiere on Showtime on December 6.
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