The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 part 2 review: A much-improved offering this time around

Part 2 of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 covers Lisa Trammel’s trial and Mickey’s attempts to prove that she is innocent in front of the jury. The episodes are streaming on Netflix.

Story

Lisa’s trial is underway and Mickey and Andy go head to head with everything they have within their repertoire in terms of the case. New evidence is constantly springing up and Mickey has to be on his toes to counter everything that Andy comes up with.

Meanwhile, there are things about Lisa that still trouble him and it is only after the case that he realizes what he has been missing. Mickey also makes a new enemy in Alex Grant after offering him up as an alternate suspect in the Bondurant case.

Pushing Grant into the spotlight makes Mickey an enemy of not just the Armenian mob, but also puts him in the crosshairs of the FBI who had hoped Mickey would do their job during Grant’s testimony.

Mickey has to work his magic in yet another case, only to be thrown into the deep end and do it all over again.

Performances

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo has truly made the role of Mickey Haller his own. He is suave and comfortable as the slick lawyer and it almost seems effortless at this point.

Lana Parilla plays the victimised Lisa well. She is vulnerable and earnest in her portrayal and lends just enough of mystery to keep people guessing about her true nature.

Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, and Angus Sampson have slightly more to do in this set of episodes and they all appear to be having tons of fun with their characters.

Yaya DaCosta provides Garcia-Rulfo with the perfect foil as the adversarial Andy and she holds her own in her job, and in her performance.

Positives

Part 2 of this season is a marked improvement on the first part and while that makes for an uneven season, it can still be enjoyed in isolation. There is much more energy in these episodes when compared to the earlier ones.

That is observed in the pacing of the episodes. The action mostly takes place within the courtroom and it is consistently engaging thanks to the efforts of the cast.

The directors moved back to a format that worked out so well in the first season, with them laying out their tactics step by step without treating the audience like literal children. It just makes things more interesting and keeps the viewers invested.

Negatives

Once again, the directors have chosen to throw in a half-baked arc involving Mickey’s addiction history. It is referenced, made to look like it might be a problem, and then brushed away uneventfully. Either they should have just ignored it, or crafted it better.

Mickey has a wonderful assortment of characters around him and while they do play their parts, it would be appreciated if they had more attention on their own arcs.

Verdict

Part 2 of The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 ends the season on a much better note than the way it began and there are some truly exciting moments this time. The directors stuck with what works and ended up close to the highs of the first season which is certainly a good sign.

If this obsession with splitting up seasons for release didn’t exist, audiences would encounter an uneven season and that will be the case for viewers who chose to binge it all at once, but the strong finish makes up for many of the transgressions of the start.

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Also Read: The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 part 2 summary and ending explained