The standout quality of The Lincoln Lawyer’s Mickey Haller is breezy, exasperating confidence in the face of really bad odds. In the winning new Netflix show – which shares its name with the Michael Connelly books it’s based on and the Matthew McConaughey legal thriller they spawned in 2011 – the defence attorney walks into his first trial in more than a year. Here, he boldly asserts his client can’t be guilty of “grand theft”, because the diamond necklace she snatched off a rich lady’s neck is actually a string of fake rocks. Is Mickey a former jeweller? No. Does he have any experience whatsoever in the gem trade? Of course not. Is he right? Damn straight, he is.
Mickey Haller, played by Mexican actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, is equal parts stubborn and scrupulous. He prefers to do things the hard way, which almost always works out. It drives the people who love him nuts, but it’s also – if six novels, a big-budget Hollywood movie, and the No 1 global series on Netflix are to be believed – what makes the character so enduringly appealing, and his stories so pleasurably low-stakes. Julianna Margulies gave us seven terrific seasons as The Good Wife’s Alicia Florrick, a woman returning to the law after 13 years as a stay-at-home mother. Now, we get The Bad Husband trying to jumpstart a fizzled career.
