Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors include: Billy Bob Thornton, Lawrence Trilling, Amazon Prime.
Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton, A Simple Plan, Sling Blade, One False Move) gets a chance to reinvent himself in the final season of the Goliath legal drama series.
McBride was a successful lawyer – once. Then he suddenly finds a passion for the law again. Now he is focused and committed, though at times, it may not seem to be the case.
The fourth season finds Billy and Patty Solis-Papagian (Nina Arianda), a lawyer and real estate agent, going up against a pharmaceutical company run by George Stax (J.K. Simmons). There’s an opioid epidemic and the story picks up after the end of Season 3.
Billy is still recovering from a gunshot wound, and Patty is working at the San Francisco law firm Margolis & True. Patty brings Billy into the firm to assist after partner Tom True goes missing in the midst of building a massive lawsuit against a group of companies responsible for contributing to the epidemic. Tom’s young daughter died after overdosing on opiods, so he had a personal interest. However, no one can understand why Tom appears to have walked away from the case.
As the storyline unravels over eight episodes, McBride gets his moment of glory, taking the stand in court and delivering a convincing rundown of events that ultimately wins the case for the law firm that hired him in front of the judge who suspended him!
The television series, created by David E. Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro, impresses and is an expressively satisfying farewell. The down-and-out attorney has his quest for redemption fulfilled through skillful acting and sharp direction. That’s what kept this hard-edged production from becoming predictable, placid and tedious.
Truth goes a long way in keeping Goliath on the straight and narrow … and it delivered a brilliant sting at the end of its tale!
