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The Lincoln Lawyer series is coming to Netflix. Showrunner Ted Humphrey shares some great insights into what is in store for the viewers.
Legal dramas are not new to Ted Humphrey. A former attorney himself, Ted was the Executive Producer of the popular series The Good Wife prior to overseeing The Lincoln Lawyer at Netflix. Ted graciously agreed to an interview for the inaugural episode of our podcast coverage for The Lincoln Lawyer series.
Viewers anxiously await a release date for the new series. Meanwhile, they can immerse themselves in the Michael Connelly novels from which the series is adapted. Ted shared that Michael was very present on set and in the writers room. The showrunner spoke very highly of the best-selling author, saying, “He couldn’t be more fun, just a wonderful guy, incredibly talented, and incredibly dedicated to doing the best show possible.”
The Lincoln Lawyer season one filming has wrapped. I think we have something really good. Can’t wait to share it with the world. -MC#TheMartiniShot #Netflix pic.twitter.com/Zw8CTTHKdz
— Michael Connelly (@Connellybooks) August 3, 2021
I posed several questions to Ted hoping to get a feel for the series without spoiling anything for the viewers. We have seen very few photos or details on social media about the series, which wrapped filming in August. Read on to find out some of the insights Ted shared about The Lincoln Lawyer. For the full interview, tune into the podcast episode.
How well-versed do viewers need to be in “legalese” to enjoy the show?
Ted: That’s an interesting question, and ultimately the answer is not at all or no more well-versed than you need to be to read the books. Michael does a great job. The books are really clever as well as very exacting in terms of getting it right. He consults with a lot of lawyers when he writes the books as well as legal consultants and what not. Michael also does a great job of explaining in the books in a very engrossing and storytelling way of letting you know the things you need to know to understand about what’s going on. We endeavor to do that in the show as well.
One of the great things about the books is that they are written in first person perspective from Mickey (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), which makes them different from the Bosch books. The Bosch books are written in third person, but The Lincoln Lawyer books are written in the first person and Mickey can speak directly to the reader and explain to them why he’s doing what he’s doing. And we found a way on the show to kind of mimic that in a way that isn’t just voiceover or exposition. I think that may be a unique aspect of the storytelling of the show that I think readers of the books and viewers are going to enjoy.
Are viewers going to spend more time watching from inside the Lincoln, inside the courtroom, or outside of both?
Ted: I honestly would say the answer to that is we are pretty equal in all. The show is called The Lincoln Lawyer. He is the Lincoln Lawyer because one of the unique things about him is that he drives around Los Angeles in a Lincoln going from courthouse to courthouse and we do spend a lot of time in it. It really becomes a character in the show and the relationship with the person that’s driving the Lincoln becomes a character in the show. It’s a really fun and different aspect of this character.
We spend a lot of time in court. It’s a legal show and, particularly, there’s one big case for the season. As that case kicks into high gear, of course you spend more time there in the latter half of the season. But there are other smaller cases in the first half of the season that put us in the court as well as aspects of the big case.
And then we spend a lot of time in various other places. A big location in the books is Mickey’s house. In some ways it’s similar to Bosch’s house. Mickey also lives in a house in the Hollywood Hills with a view. We have that and we have Maggie’s house (Maggie portrayed by Neve Campbell) that used to be Mickey’s house because the characters are divorced and co-parenting their daughter.
Mickey doesn’t traditionally have an office, but in the book The Brass Verdict, which we adapted, he kind of inherits one. I don’t want to give too much away. So, there are a lot of different locations we spend time in. And it was really important to us to bring books to life authentically. The books are set in Los Angeles. We shot this in LA. It really lives in the verisimilitude of the LA locations and all that, again in the same way that Bosch does.
These are just a couple of the questions we posed to our showrunner guest. We also discuss chemistry among the cast, postproduction, the commitment to authenticity and more. Ted also responds to my request for 3 words he would use to describe the series. To hear all that Ted Humphrey had to share, listen to our premiere podcast episode about The Lincoln Lawyer at SoManyShows.com.
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