"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Your Honor 1.2: "Today Is Yesterday"

Just saw the second episode of Your Honor, courtesy of Showtime On Demand.  It's about as powerful a chess game with life and death consequences as ever I've seen on television.

As part of his opening move, Judge Desiato tells his son Adam that they have to work to reset the pieces so that "today is yesterday".  No, there's no time travel involved,  but a well-thought out plan to set up a series of plausible alibis today for what happened yesterday, when Adam killed Jimmy Baxter's son in a hit-and-run.  This involves getting someone to steal the car Adam was driving.   And make it appear that the car was stolen yesterday.   The result, if all worked well, would be that Adam would look like he was nowhere near the scene of the hit-and-run, and there would be another plausible candidate to take the rap if that was needed.

A very clever plan. But maybe not that well thought out, because real life has a mind of its own, and before the hour is over Desiato's plan leads to the guy who "stole" the car pleading guilty to the hit-and-run.  This is not quite what Deiasto had foreseen. Certainly not so quickly.  Kofi, who takes the fall, could be snuffed out in a minute by Baxter, with all those cops and who knows how many prison guards on his payroll.  The best that Desiato can do is convince his lawyer to take Kofi's case.  Not all that hard to do, since they have a romantic chemistry and an impending date, but dangerous insofar as she seems to be a pretty sharp cookie, and could well figure out at some point that Desiato is far more involved in this hit-and-run that just someone stole his car.

So what we have here is an edgy, on the edge of unraveling, story of the best laid plans.  Stirred by top-notch acting and surprises popping out of the woodwork.  My only regret at this point is that I can't binge-watch all the remaining episodes.

See also Your Honor 1.1: Taut Set-Up

 

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