Showrunner/Series Director Ted Humphrey talks to The Inside Reel about concept and story development in regards to the 3rd season of his series: "The Lincoln Lawyer" on Netflix.
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00:00I'm going to find who did this, I'm going to find him and I'm going to bury him.
00:24Doing something where you're adapting work, making it your own, but also capturing the
00:29tone of what it needs to be is tricky in any medium.
00:35With this one in terms of, because obviously the first season was on a specific book, second
00:40season same, how do you have to sort of look at the progression from where you were at
00:45the beginning to where you are now?
00:48Because obviously Mickey is a different person because of these three seasons.
00:54So thank you for saying that first of all, it is tricky, I mean it's a challenge but
00:58it's a really fun challenge and we have a great collaborator in Michael Connelly, the
01:06author of the books obviously, who is incredibly collaborative and always kind of, I mean he's
01:12really appreciative I think of what we've done with the show, which is to take books
01:16that in some cases are 15 years old and update them to the present day without, specifically
01:23without losing the character relationships and the kind of emotional resonance that you're
01:28talking about.
01:29You know, we update certain plot elements of the books to make them relevant to today
01:34without losing those threads that combine them.
01:38That said, there is a difference between the books and the series in terms of exactly what
01:43you're talking about, which is the character progression of Mickey.
01:46Season one, you know, we very much envisioned as a redemption story, that this is a guy
01:53and to some extent that book was that as well, right, that this is a guy who has been knocked
01:58completely off his pedestal by an addiction that has, you know, caused him to in essence
02:05lose his career, lose his, you know, lose his way in life in a very big way.
02:10And season one is all about him sort of conquering those demons and getting back on top in the
02:16world of this character in our show, getting back on top always comes with a cost at the
02:19end of season one.
02:21Yes, he's back on top, but only because he realizes he's in essence represented the monster
02:28who then sort of gets what he has coming to him at the end of the season in some way,
02:32right?
02:33Season two, we sort of internally refer to as our Icarus season, the fame and financial
02:39success and everything else that came with that victory in season one has propelled Mickey
02:43back to the top of his game and maybe he's gotten, he's flying a little too close to
02:46the sun and the events of season two, knock him down again and he finds himself at the
02:53end of season two having to pick up the pieces and kind of try and find some sense of equilibrium
02:57and in the course of that, that's when he's thrown the curveball of discovering that his
03:02longtime client and friend, really somebody who cares about glory days has been murdered.
03:08And so season three is in many ways, the most personal and emotional of the seasons
03:14that we've done so far, which is why I love it so much.
03:17And that comes directly from the book that we adapted, the gods of good, which is I think
03:21among the most emotional of the Lincoln lawyer books, it's one of my personal favorite books.
03:26It's a very personal case for Mickey.
03:30He's representing a guy, Julian Lacoste, but in a very real way, his real client is glory
03:34days.
03:35His, you know, this person that he cared about and he feels very personally responsible for
03:38what has happened to her.
03:41He feels that in some way, situations that he may have put her in have led to this.
03:44And so he's really got to get to the bottom of it.
03:46And the ripples that extend from that cause problems with his team, his family, and really
03:52every aspect of his life.
03:54Really, Helen, again, it is always something with you.
03:59What, this?
04:00It's nothing.
04:01Character building.
04:03Why do so many people want to take a swing at that face?
04:07What can I say?
04:08I inspire strong emotion.
04:09Oh, that's one way to put it, I guess.
04:12Come on, counselor.
04:13Cut me some slack.
04:14I had a bad day.
04:15Okay?
04:16A couple of bad days in a row, actually.
04:19When I have a bad day, you want to know my secret?
04:22Comfort food.
04:23Okay.
04:24Now you're speaking my language.
04:26What's your favorite?
04:29Probably Cole's.
04:30There's almost nothing a strong Negroni and a good friendship can't fix.
04:34Cole's, huh?
04:35Is that where you went after I beat you in the Lisa Trammell case?
04:39Goodbye, Helen.
04:46Which is interesting because it makes me think of the aspect of, like, because you were comparing
04:51it to Icarus, as to this, like, almost the odyssey of almost Odysseus coming home.
04:57How do you look at the sins that you've had before and you're maybe, I mean, Mickey's
05:03very good at the powers of perception, but sometimes he will lose perspective because
05:08he's too close.
05:09Can you talk about finding that sort of balance between, I talked to Manuel about this this
05:13morning, about the aspect of strategy versus vulnerability and how sometimes he can't tell
05:18the line.
05:20Well, I think that's a really astute comparison to the odyssey, not to I mean, it's lovely
05:27to be compared to the odyssey, certainly.
05:30But I think, you know, the book is called The Gods of Guilt.
05:33And and the final episode of the season, which I have the opportunity to direct, is called
05:38The Gods of Guilt.
05:39And in our in the world of our show, the gods of guilt is a phrase that Mickey has used
05:44before and other defense attorneys have used to refer to the jury.
05:47But in specifically in the context of this story, he makes it clear that it doesn't just
05:51refer to the jury.
05:52It really refers to all the people that are important in your life who make you who you
05:56are and and that Mickey has to, you know, in a lovely line from that book, make his
06:02case before them every day.
06:04Right.
06:05So it really is about the sins of the past and guilt.
06:08And what are the things that you've done in the past or been part of in the past that
06:13make you who you are?
06:14And I want to get into that right.
06:15Literally, in the first scene of the of the season, which is a flashback to, you know,
06:19things that happened to Mickey in the past that got him where he is today, both with
06:22his family, with the character of Neil Bishop, who's played wonderfully by Holt McCown in
06:27this season and who, you know, becomes one of the main sort of antagonists of the season,
06:32even with his car.
06:35And the car and the car.
06:36I mean, it really is.
06:37It's like the the objective correlative of the whole season, to use more fancy literary
06:42terms.
06:43I mean, the first sequence of the show highlights how did he get this car?
06:47By the way, it's a car that doesn't even exist in the books.
06:50We created the convertible for the show, but we love it.
06:54And then in the last scene of the season, the car plays a very big part in what's going
06:58to hopefully be a season for, you know, the week that we set up at the end of the season.
07:04I think that in you've hit on Mickey's strength and his chief vulnerability, which are kind
07:11of the same thing.
07:13It's that he gets too close.
07:14He likes to talk big game about being this cynical, objective defense attorney who doesn't
07:18really care about guilt or innocence.
07:21He just has a job to do and he gets paid to represent clients.
07:24And yet we've seen throughout the season, throughout the series, that's not true, right?
07:29That he, you know, he represented Trevor Elliott to the best of his ability in season one.
07:33He got him off, but he was devastated at the end when he realized what he had done, basically,
07:38you know.
07:39And we saw that again in season two.
07:41Even now we see in season three, somebody asked me the question, does that make him
07:46a better lawyer?
07:47I don't know that it makes him a better lawyer.
07:48I think it might make him a worse lawyer, but it makes him a more committed lawyer,
07:51right?
07:52It makes him a lawyer who's bound and determined to get to the bottom of whatever is going
07:54on.
07:55And that's really the essence of the character.
07:57You're dealing with people that play a very dangerous game.
08:02We're not backing down without a fight.
08:08This is a war, Holland.
08:09And you have to choose which side you're on.
08:11Well, the job is to find out information one way or another.
08:16If you vote for him, you better not miss.