Posted in: Netflix, TV | Tagged: amazon, Bosch, bosch: legacy, freevee, Michael Connelly, netflix, prime video, The Lincoln Lawyer

How The Lincoln Lawyer Series, Books Differ: Haller, Bosch & More

How Netflix's series adaptation of Michael Connelly's The Lincoln Lawyer differs even further from the books than Amazon's Bosch series does.

The Lincoln Lawyer, adapted from Harry Bosch creator Michael Connelly's related series of novels about Mickey Haller, centers on a maverick lawyer in Los Angeles who dances on the edge of legal ethics as he uses every legal trick in the book to win his cases. It's a companion series to the Bosch novels and TV series, but it makes more changes from the books that end up feeling like an even more different version than Bosch is from the Harry Bosch novels while retaining its core.

The Lincoln Lawyer Operates from an Office in the Show

The high concept quirk of The Lincoln Lawyer is that Mickey Haller operates out of his Lincoln rather than a conventional office. He's driven from one case to another, preparing his case en route. This is mostly intact if shown slightly less in season two of the Netflix series, which gives Haller a conventional swanky office as a central hub for him and his support team and cast. This is because a main office set is cheaper than filming on location in a car going up and down Los Angeles.

The Supporting Cast is Radically Different from the Books

In the books, Mickey Haller has an ensemble that includes his supportive if wary prosecutor ex-wife, teenage daughter, his driver, and an investigator, the latter role filled in the later books by Harry Bosch. The show keeps his ex-wife and daughter – because every Dad crime show has to have an ex-wife and teenage daughter – but changes his support staff. His driver is gender-swapped, his second ex-wife is a paralegal sidekick, and he has an ex-biker as his investigator. The latter at least gives Angus Sampson a good regular role to play at last. It even introduces Elliott Gould as Haller's late father's former law partner and mentor – a sounding border and "Yoda" giving him personal and strategic advice. His staff also have their own B plots in the series, which makes it feel like a network show because all supporting characters just have to have their own subplots now.

There's also a procedural TV trope of flashbacks and flash-forwards where the heroes explain the steps behind the tricks they're pulling to manipulate their antagonists and push events towards results in their favour, all to show how clever they are, which obviously panders to something audiences enjoy watching.

The Bosch series also gives Harry a regular supporting cast at Hollywood Division, while the book's Bosch is a defiant loner, but Bosch feels closer to the book version more than the TV version of Haller does.

Mickey Haller Has a Different Personality than in the Books

In the books, Mickey Haller is a sunnier and gleeful extrovert who relishes the tricks he often improvises to keep one step ahead of his case falling apart while working out how to pull a win. Manuel Garcia-Ruffo brings a different flavour to Haller, a more broody, angst-ridden version with a more obvious sense of desperation as he pulls the same tricks Haller does in the books' plots. It's a good performance but feels standard to the tropes network TV heroes tend to fit in. Titus Welliver captures the brooding, obsessive intensity of Harry Bosch so well that he feels like the Bosh of the books, even if he might not look like how you imagine him from the books. Garcia-Ruffo's Haller feels different from the book version because of his angst, while the book version is cheerfully free of angst, possibly to mitigate the grittiness of the plots, whose darkness is toned down for the show, which is what makes it feel more network TV-friendly.

Mickey Haller's Mother is Alive in the TV Show

Season Two of The Lincoln Lawyer introduces Micky's mother, Elena, not just in flashbacks but in the present. In the books, she passed away before they even began and exists in his memories. In the Netflix series, she's still very much alive, played by Angélica Maria and a network TV archetype: the slightly annoying, interfering mother who is well-meaning but self-occupied. Here she's an actress trying to hold onto her youth and career where she used to be a Mexican TV star.

Harry Bosch Does Not Appear in The Lincoln Lawyer

Harry Bosch is not in the TV series of The Lincoln Lawyer because his show is produced by Amazon Studios, so the rights to the characters are with separate studios. In the Bosch series, there's a flashback where a teenage Harry finds his way to his biological father's house and briefly meets a young unnamed boy who is his father's other son and almost certainly Micky Haller in the Prime series' nod to The Lincoln Lawyer. In the Netflix version of The Lincoln Lawyer, no mention is made of Bosch, and he might not exist in this alternate universe. The role of Bosch as Haller's LAPD frenemy ally is Detective Raymond Griggs (Ntara Guma Mbaho Mwine), who fulfills the role Bosch played in season one's adaptation of "The Brass Verdict" but lacks the emotional impact at the end where Haller and Bosch are revealed as half-brothers. After season one, Griggs appears intermittently in Season Two as the perfunctory crime genre-trope role of "cop frenemy who alternately helps or hinders the hero."

The Netflix TV Series Follows Network TV Tropes

This is really The Lincoln Lawyer: TV Edition. The show softens the darker edges of the books with a network TV-style tone that's brighter and more cheerful despite following the plots of the books quite closely. There's a more overtly sentimental tone with Micky and his family, both biological and found being nice to each other to create that cozy feeling. It's like pro-family propaganda, as all network TV pushes. Even edgier cable TV series insist on families stick to each other as part of the heart of the show when the family members do terrible things to each other. This is still mostly recognizable as a version of Michael Connelly's story but with a more user-friend and sentimental version. But then it's also a big hit on Netflix, which says something about the appeal of network TV-style sentimental tropes to audiences worldwide.

The Lincoln Lawyer is streaming on Netflix.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!