You gotta hand it to Netflix. The streaming service committed to a series about author Michael Connelly’s maverick criminal defense attorney (portrayed by Matthew McConaughey for a single film), and that appeal has stretched for many more miles of Lincoln Town Car wheeling and dealing. Now, a fourth season of The Lincoln Lawyer is on the way, and the show will further improve on their previous decision to bring back Neve Campbell as Mickey Haller’s first wife, Maggie McPherson. She will be more involved in this fourth season, so let’s not waste any more time on what to expect.
Plot
Mickey Haller will need to recover from that god-awful (for him) season finale, in which he was busted for (unknowingly) driving around with Sam Scales’ (Christopher Thornton) body in his trunk. That episode, “The Gods Of Guilt,” took its title directly from Connelly’s novel that was adapted for the season. Now, Mickey must defend himself on murder charges if co-showrunners Ted Humphrey and Dailyn Rodriguez stick with that detail from the next book, The Law Of Innocence. It’s safe to say that they will do so because the series has stayed pretty close to Connelly’s writings in previous seasons.
Humphrey, for his part has confirmed to Netflix that Mickey has found himself in “the biggest cliffhanger of all,” which can only be resolved through a season-long trial. Also, Mickey will need to learn how to take his own advice:
“All the advice he’s given clients over the years, now he has to give himself — and he realizes how hollow some of it sounds when you’re the one it’s bouncing off of,” says the co-showrunner who is directing the first two episodes of Season 4. ‘He’s got to deal with how this impacts not just him but also his family and loved ones, not to mention his business! But don’t worry — he’s going to have help from some of the people our audience loves the most, as well as some familiar faces who will be cropping up along the way — some helpfully… some perhaps not so helpfully, and a few new ones as well.’”
Netflix hasn’t provided a fourth season synopsis yet, but we can guess a key difference from the Law Of Innocence book synopsis on Connelly’s website:
Mickey elects to defend himself and must strategize and build his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles, all the while looking over his shoulder–as an officer of the court he is an instant target.
Mickey knows he’s been framed. Now, with the help of his trusted team, including Harry Bosch, he has to figure out who has plotted to destroy his life and why. Then he has to go before a judge and jury and prove his innocence.
Perhaps for rights reasons, the Netflix series has declined to include Mickey’s half-brother, Harry Bosch (whose streaming home remains within Prime Video/Amazon’s Bosch shows), so Mickey will have no choice but to look elsewhere for help. Conveniently, Netflix already revealed that Maggie will appear in all ten episodes, and one of her tasks will surely be to help go head-to-head with a prosecutor (a former DA colleague of Maggie’s) known as “Death Row Dana,” who is known for bending the rules to win cases. Furthermore, Mickey will be facing a hostile judge, and maybe the show can bring back Detective Raymond Griggs (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine) because Mickey needs all the help that he can get.
Griggs is not yet confirmed as a character for the fourth season, but that leads us into the next section.
Cast
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is now and forever Mickey Haller (sorry, McConaughey). As already noted, Neve Campbell will return as Maggie, and they will be joined by Jazz Raycole (Izzy), Becki Newton (Lorna), and Angus Sampson (Cisco).
New faces will include “Death Row Dana” Berg, portrayed by Constance Zimmer. Deadline recently reported other new characters, including Yannick Bamba (Marcus Henderson), “a former gang member and the man in the cell next to Mickey’s,” who will help Mickey stay alive behind bars. Grace (Gigi Zumbado) will surface as a paralegal classmate of Izzy’s that joins the defense team. And KTLA Reporter Kacey Montoya will appear as herself.
Release Date
Netflix usually doesn’t hold back on releasing this show when it’s ready to roll. With May 2022, July/August 2023, and October 2024 being the previous release windows, The Lincoln Lawyer is sure to return by late 2025.
Trailer
With no trailer to speak of yet, it’s worth taking a trip back to the first season when Mickey caught Ken Schwartz (Mark Bloom) flat-out lying in open court, which led to Mr. Schwartz’s entire life falling apart before his eyes.
Content shared from uproxx.com.