Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Lawrence Trilling, Alik Sakharov, Bill D’Elia, Anthony Hemingway, Dennie Gordon, Amazon Prime.
Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade, A Simple Plan, One False Move) is a disgraced lawyer, who agrees to take on a wrongful death lawsuit in the hope of getting revenge on the firm he helped create.
Goliath follows the down-and-out lawyer as he seeks redemption. His one shot depends on getting justice in a legal system where truth has become a commodity, and the scales of justice have never been more heavily weighed toward the rich and powerful.
Believe it or not, he was formerly a brilliant and a personable lawyer who founded the law firm Cooperman McBride with Donald Cooperman (William Hurt, Children of a Lesser God, Broadcast News, Kiss of the Spider Woman). It’s a successful legal firm, but Cooperman holds a grudge against McBride.
Functioning as a recluse, Cooperman is disfigured with facial burns and rarely leaves his office. He monitors meetings and depositions remotely by cameras. Without the staff’s knowledge, he has the entire office bugged, giving him access to everything that happens.
McBride walked out of the firm and became an alcoholic after a murder suspect he got acquitted on a technicality went on to kill an entire family. He lives in an extended-stay hotel (the Ocean Lodge Hotel) by the Santa Monica Pier.
Separate stories are featured in the three seasons. A fourth is in the making.
Season One sees the alarming image of a woman being run down by a van; the disturbing visual of a limbless Mark Duplass is under the knife in Season 2; and Season 3 centres on McBride’s latest case, investigating the death of an old friend in the drought-stricken Central Valley of California. He comes face-to-face with a new Goliath: a billionaire rancher (Dennis Quaid) and his sister (Amy Brenneman).
The riveting legal drama, created by David E. Kelley and Jonathan Shapiro, sees McBride and his team pursue the truth and old enemies and personal demons resurface, forcing him to confront his own mortality.
McBride gets his moment in court; he stands up and delivers a convincing summation that ultimately wins the case against his former law firm.
Truth goes a long way in keeping Goliath on the straight and narrow. That’s what keeps this hard-edged lawful drama from becoming tedious, predictable and placid.
