Raising the Bar

Lawyer Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is facing his most difficult and personal case yet in  The Lincoln Lawyer‘s third season because “he can’t shake this nagging feeling that he may in some way be responsible,” says co-showrunner Ted Humphrey. That’s a tough pill to swallow. His client, Julian La Cosse (Devon Graye), is accused of killing Mickey’s friend, sex worker Gloria Dayton, a.k.a. Glory Days (Fiona Rene). “How he dealt with her and her situation in the past may have led to this,” Humphrey explains. He’ll be questioning “who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?” adds co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez.

The series is based on Michael Connelly’s novels, with this season a “quite close” adaptation of The Gods of Guilt, says Rodriguez. There are some changes: characters like Mickey’s (former) driver Izzy (Jazz Raycole) and lawyer Andrea Freeman (Yaya DaCosta), with whom Mickey faced off in court in Season 2, are new additions. “Keep watching,” is all the showrunners will say about a Season 3 photo of Mickey and Andrea looking … friendly. (That’s also the answer to who was driving that car that almost ran over Mickey at the end of Season 2 and what getting into danger this season looks like for him.) Both Mickey and Andrea value their sparring, and outside of court, that “is more of a flirtation, a friendship, and a mutual respect,” says Rodriguez. “That relationship grows.” We’ll also see Andrea challenged by a domestic violence case. “She doesn’t lose cases and doesn’t screw up. What happens to somebody that’s so sure of themselves and strives for perfection when something disrupts that? How do they deal with it?” asks Rodriguez.

As for Mickey, his own case pits him against the entire system and has him questioning if its foundations “are rotted at the core,” according to Humphrey. Like the first two seasons, he once again finds himself off-kilter but “on steroids, facing an exponentially greater series of challenges,” previews Humphrey. Mickey, who can be emotional and lose himself in work, fortunately, has people around him — like ex-wife Maggie (Neve Campbell), ex-wife and office manager Lorna (Becki Newton), investigator Cisco (Angus Sampson), Izzy and daughter Hayley (Krista Warner) — to keep him grounded. “He thrives because he surrounds himself with strong women,” says Rodriguez.

Changes are coming for other characters. Lorna takes the bar exam. She’ll handle that challenge and stress “in her own inimitable way” while balancing her usual workload, says Humphrey. If she passes — which could be something tracked over multiple seasons — the show will explore “the evolution of somebody working for somebody to somebody working with somebody.” On the personal front, newlyweds Lorna and Cisco “struggle with the responsibilities of work overwhelming their domestic life,” he says.

Izzy now has her own dance studio but remains part of the firm, a relief for her financially. Being a business owner is “economically more difficult than she expected,” explains Rodriguez. “She’s juggling the practicality of having to make money and following her dream. She’s at a crossroads.” With her new responsibilities, Mickey has a new driver after he gets Eddie (Allyn Moriyon), Hayley’s former babysitter, out of some legal trouble. “Hijinks ensue” since Eddie’s “in great shape, a black belt in Taekwondo and a health nut, which is very much not who Mickey is,” laughs Humphrey, adding that because Mickey’s almost like an uncle to him, “it’s underpinned by a great deal of love and respect.”

In Season 1, we watched Mickey rebuild his life. In the second, which the showrunners call “the Icarus season,” he “won this big case, was flying a little too close to the sun, got knocked down a peg, and had to find his way again.” Now, in Season 3, he is questioning, “Who am I? How did I get here? Who do I really want to be?” That makes it the ideal time to show flashbacks to the early days of his career — and the origins of perhaps his most important relationship: with his vehicle. “The blue car in particular is not in the books,” Humphrey notes. “It really is kind of the love affair of a man with his car, as well as with the various people in his life.”

The end of the season will set up the next book they plan to adapt “in a very exciting and personal way,” Humphrey teases. “We hope to adapt all the books,” says Rodriguez.

Unfortunately, what they cannot bring to the screen from the books is the dynamic with Mickey’s half-brother Harry Bosch, who is played by Titus Welliver in a franchise on Prime Video. Because the two shows are on different streamers, “we really can’t use [the Bosch] character,” explains Rodriguez. However, “I just saw Deadpool & Wolverine and those were two characters that couldn’t cross,” adds Humphrey. “I guess you never say never.”

The Lincoln Lawyer, Season 3 Premiere, Thursday, October 17, Netflix