Season 3 Of Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Is A Reckoning Of Past Sins

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s Mickey Haller cannot catch a break, or take one! Fans have come to love and root for the guy who fights for the underdog. He’s a defense attorney who runs his Los Angeles-based law practice from the back seat of his Lincoln and his main goal is to take down the bad guys and save the good ones. Justice for all!

The Lincoln Lawyer has some real Hollywood heavyweights behind it. The show is based on the bestselling novels by Michael Connelly, who also serves as an executive producer and writer on the series. It was created for television by David E. Kelley and Ted Humphrey, who serves as co-showrunner alongside Dailyn Rodriguez.

The third season is based on the fifth book in the series, “The Gods of Guilt” and in an interview, Humphrey and Rodriguez explained why they skipped a book to get to this one for the new, ten-episode season.

“It’s the most emotional book and most well-plotted out of all the books and I think it has one of the most surprising turns,” said Rodriguez, referring to the dramatic suicide-on-the-stand by Neil Bishop (Holt McCallany).

Per Humphrey, McCallany’s stellar performance was a highlight for him this season. “We knew that to bring this character to life we needed someone with some real gravitas and some real weight. He just knocked it out of the park, particularly in that final episode in that court scene. That was the longest court scene we’ve ever shot. It took three days to shoot that scene and Holt was incredibly focused.”

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As for skipping to the fourth book in Connelly’s series, Humphrey explained that they choose books based on what they feel tells the best story. “In the case of this book, we felt this is one of the best and most emotional books in the series. When I first started reading the series back when we were doing season one, I was looking forward to doing this book. Some things had to be laid into place before we could do this book. We had to set up Glory Days (aka Gloria Dayton, portrayed by Fiona Rene), and so forth. So, in a way, the show has been building up to this book since the first season.”

Humphrey and Rodriguez were excited about the emotional journey of the characters this season, especially Mickey, but also that this book ties together the themes of the overall story for several of the characters.

Humphrey detailed the evolution of Mickey Haller over the first three seasons. “The first season was a redemption story about a guy returning from the dead, fighting addiction, to get his life and career back. The second season we internally called the Icarus season. Here was a guy who had won it all back and was on top of his game and then realized that he flew a little too close to the sun and got burned and he was just sort of recalibrating himself when he walked into that morgue and saw Glory Days’ body.”

As for Mickey this season, Humphrey added that this storyline serves as a reckoning with the sins of the past. “The title of the book that season three is based on is “The Gods of Guilt” and that’s what the last episode is called, as well. This title refers to what Mickey and other defense attorneys call the jury. At the end of the book, there’s this eloquent passage about how The Gods of Guilt can also be your gods, the people in your life that you make your case to every day. For Mickey, that’s Maggie, his father, Hayley, and Glory Days. This season is about Mickey coming to terms with things he may have done in the past that may have led to some of this and where he may have made a wrong turn.”

Since the new season’s October 17 premiere, this homage to Los Angeles has been binge-watched en masse debuting at No. 2 with 7 million views on the English TV List with a perfect 100% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The series has also made strides in moving the needle on gender-balanced hiring, earning a ReFrame Stamp for its second season.

Rodriguez said her favorite thing about the show is its nod to the city of L.A. “We try really hard to have our show feel and look like Los Angeles and we hope people feel it the way we do.”

Mickey’s home with its spectacular view is in Baldwin Hills but they say they film all over the city, including Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Echo Park, Silverlake, Beverly Hills, and the west side beaches.

The Netflix fan favorite rides as much on its mysterious and serious storylines as its humor and lovable cast of characters, including Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, and Yaya DaCosta. “The humor is important to us and it’s what makes the show tick and how we can get away with the dark things,” Humphrey pointed out.

Will there be a fourth season? Humphrey and Rodriguez said at the time of this interview they didn’t know. With a dead Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton) in the trunk of Mickey’s baby blue convertible Lincoln and Mickey in handcuffs, you can bet the fans will tune in if given the chance to see what happens next to our favorite lawyer.

“There’s a dead body in his trunk and obviously, that’s a problem,” said Humphrey. “If you want to know what that cop was doing pulling him over you’ll have to watch season four should we be fortunate enough to get renewed.”