Goliath 3: Literally Streaming Excellence

Goliath 3, steaming on Amazon Prime video, could have been written and directed by David Lynch, and I mean that as a compliment.  It has a singer in a nightclub characterizing the action or moving it along with a fine assortment of songs including "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "The Rose".  Believe it or not, she even gives a pretty good rendition of "In Dreams," twice no less.  Drug states easily and uneasily intermingle with the reality, a state of perception easily adduced to Billy Bob Thornton as attorney Billy McBride, and he's abetted by a great cast including all kinds of memorably seedy people, including even a Dennis in a big role, not Hopper but Quaid.

And the general plot couldn't be more pressingly relevant: a rapacious almond company literally sucking the water out of southern California.  As Patty Solis-Papagian (very well played by Nina Arianda), Billy's associate attorney in fighting the monsters, aptly puts it, they're working in "Satan's dusty ass crack".  This dry, druggy, alcohol-washed ambience is the most trenchant we've seen so far on Goliath.  (But I'd be happy to see Billy unknowingly drugged by his adversaries a little less often.)

Though this season stars a combination of water and the struggling lack of it, there's not a placid scene in the eight episodes.  Instead, we get a cascade of surprises, including plot twists, old enemies, comeuppances, and unexpected deaths and survivals.   It's a bracing, drenching, refreshing, and addictive season, which makes it an especially good thing that it's streaming (ok, that's it for the water references).  Kudos to the memorable heroes (Billy and Patty with the hard-to-pronounce last name) and memorable villains (Dennis Quaid as Wade, and Amy Brenneman as his sister Diana).  Highest recommendation.

See also Goliath 1 on Amazon: Law Drama as Its Meant to Be Seen ... Goliath 2: Truly Surprise Ending

Goliath 2: Truly Surprising Ending

Goliath 2, which I just finished binging on Amazon Prime, is even rougher, tougher, and more no-holds-barred than the first season, and [spoilers follow]

[I'm not kidding, serious spoilers follow, read no further if you don't want to know what happened.]

[Last warning ...]

The bad guys win!  I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this in a TV series of any kind, anywhere.  But at the end of the concluding episode, Marisol (not really her name) is on her way to become Mayor of Los Angeles, and her brother Gabriel is doing just fine a ruthless, megalomaniacal cartel jefe.  Not only that - Marisol was responsible for the murder of a kid whom Billy was giving his all to protect, and she's all but gotten Billy to fall in love with her.   And just in case we didn't get the depth of her evil, she tells Billy she was lying when she told him a little earlier that she loved him, after sweetly asking him to tell her he felt the same about her.

And her brother Gabriel (not her biological brother, but they we raised together) is even worse, taking the crown as one of the most despicable villains we've seen on a screen in a long time.  His avocation is surgery, and he metes out punishment by cutting off parts of his victim's limbs (not their sex organs, because, as he tells someone who has lost both feet and hands to Gabriel's punitive knife, he's not "a monster").   Meanwhile, his henchman, a character right out of James Bond with a pincer for one of his hands (I assume courtesy of Gabriel), kills at least half a dozen semi-major and major characters, including the wife and two kids of one of his targets, a slightly crooked cop.

The cruel success of the villains is so complete that's it's not clear who the Goliath or the David is in this story.  Certainly not Billy, who, although he's pretty close to the top of his game, is no match for the forces arrayed against him.  I was glad to see, at least, that he was alive at the end.

The acting was outstanding - Billy Bob Thornton was again just right as Billy McBride - and even the slightly secondary roles were unforgettable.  I especially liked Matthew Del Negro and Dominic Fumusa as two cops going through self-inflicted hell, caught up in the evil.  It was great to see Paul Williams as a attorney even more burnt out than Billy but, like Billy, still wanting to do some good. Ana de la Reguera was superb as Marisol (a leading role), Nina Arianda was again always welcome with her blend of humor and tough assedness, and Steven Bauer, whose total appearance were a few scenes in one episode, was in prime semi-comedic form (this episode felt like an homage to Pulp Fiction).  The acting was so good throughout this season by everyone,  I'd say it was best acted series I've seen in a while, and that's high praise indeed.

The cinematography was beautiful and striking, and the narrative brilliantly told, with my favorite hour being the one in which Billy with the help of a Chinese American woman escape from sure death against all odds (that's the one with Steven Bauer).  By all means see this - but gird yourself for more than one kick to the stomach.

See also Goliath 1 on Amazon: Law Drama as Its Meant to Be Seen

Goliath on Amazon: Law Drama as it's Meant to be Seen

David Kelley - who created L. A.  Law, The Practice, and so many excellent law shows over the years - has checked in with a powerhouse on Amazon, eight episodes of bruising, exquisite law stripped to the bone or the soul or whatever your deepest buttons in a streaming series that pulls out stops you've never quite seen on any kind of law show on television.

Goliath flatly could not have been done on network television.  It might have been done on a cable, but watching it all at once or at least three or four episodes at a time added to the effect, and likely was even essential to this story.   Indeed, the closest cinematic narrative to Goliath was literally in cinema, The Verdict in 1982, staring Paul Newman as a down-and-out attorney who takes on a huge corporation represented by a mega law firm.   I saw that movie in one sitting, too, and loved it.

Indeed, The Verdict and Goliath also have the similarity of high-wattage star power.  Billy Bob Thornton as the David-like attorney in Goliath is not Paul Newman - who is? - but Thornton is one superb actor, having last distinguished himself on television in Fargo.  And the bad Goliath attorney is played by William Hurt, in of the best performances of his life, even more memorable than James Mason as the big corporate attorney in The Verdict.

But enough with comparisons.   Goliath has a pressingly relevant story about a big U.S. arms manufacturer, and outstanding characters including the judge and supporting lawyers all over the place.

If you like law drama realistically portrayed - and given that my father was a lawyer, I especially do - give yourself a treat and see Goliath.   But don't drink too much coffee or tea beforehand, you'll get all the stimulation you'll need on the screen.