Review: Heart-Stopping Twists and Turns Make 'Your Honor' a Winning Series

It makes sense when you think about it, after you sit enraptured before for your TV screen and wonder, "What is it that makes the Showtime legal thriller 'Your Honor,' so good?" The production team is stellar. It was executive produced by some masters of television, the people that brought us works like "The Night Of," "The Good Fight" and the exceptional "The Good Wife." Add to this one of the finest actors working today in the starring role, Brian Cranston, and you have a perfect combination for a winning series.

Additionally, though we don't pay much attention to foreign language television in this country, "Your Honor" was also based on amazing source material, the Israeli series "Kvodo" created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach. So it's not surprising that "Your Honor" had the biggest debut season in Showtime history, consistently gaining viewership since it first aired in December 2020.

Cranston plays a prominent New Orleans judge Michael Desiato, a man whom we see from his first appearance on the bench is sharp, no-nonsense and strikingly ethical. Serving the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood that has become famous in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he knows the struggles of his constituency and listens to their testimony with compassion--but he also sees through their lies and is willing to confront and cut-down anyone he suspects of mendacity.

His life changes radically when his only child Adam (Hunter Doohan) is involved in a hit-and-run accident. Adam mows down a teenager on a motorcycle, tries hopelessly to save him, even attempts to call 9-1-1, and then changed his mind, flees the scene and futilely attempts to destroy evidence.

Without hesitation, Desiato tells his teenage son to confess and accompanies him to the police station, even though he knows that the boy will not be granted bail and will be sent to a pretty scary jail.

The judge's convictions change completely when he learns that the motorcyclist Adam killed was the son of Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg, "Call Me By Your Name"), the head of the most viscous crime family in the city.

Now the judge must lie and destroy evidence himself, as he navigates his way through a deadly maze of deceit and impossible choices--always thinking of the announcement Baxter made to the city, "Whoever you are, wherever you are, you will be found." Though ultimately, it may be the boss's wife and the victims mother (Hope Davis, "The Special Relationship") that is the greater terror.

Is it surprising that the script it chilling? Is it surprising that Cranston is great? No. The only thing surprising are the heart-stopping twists and turns on the way to this series' harrowing conclusion.

This DVD includes:

- All 10 episodes of this limited series
- Exclusive, never-before-seen deleted scenes

"Your Honor" – now on DVD, as of June 15.