More than any other streaming service, Netflix has a huge wealth of movies and TV shows to watch. It’s impossible to watch it all, partly because new content cycles in and out all the time. If you don’t act quick, there are some great shows that will be gone before you’ve gotten a chance to see them.
Case in point: Your Honor is a terrific legal drama that ran for two seasons on Showtime. Based on the Israeli show Kvodo, it stars Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and it’s leaving Netflix at the end of the month.
Your Honor is a natural follow-up to Breaking Bad
Less meth, more gavels
Most every TV fan knows that Breaking Bad starred Cranston as Walter White, a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who turned to drug-dealing to support his family, but who was so taken with the criminal lifestyle that he eventually pushed them away. Oddly enough, Your Honor sets him on a similar path.
Cranston plays Michael Desiato, a respected New Orleans judge. In the series premiere, Michael’s son Adam (Hunter Doohan) accidentally hits another teenager with his car, and then flees the scene in a panic. At first, Michael advises his son to turn himself in, but changes his mind when he learns that the boy Adam killed was the son of notorious local gangster Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg). Michael then sets out to help Adam cover up his crime, bending his morals to the breaking point. Like Walter White, Michael starts out with good intentions, but as the lies pile up and people get hurt because of it, the line between “good guy” and “bad guy” starts to blur.
Also like Breaking Bad, Your Honor is a show that will hook people right from the first episode. The premise is one of the best things about it. Michael and Adam have their work cut out for them hiding what Adam did, and the longer they do it, the worse the consequences will be if they’re ever found out. The tension ratchets up through the whole of the first season, which ends on a tragic, ironic note.
Your Honor is stacked with fantastic acting talent
I judge this show worthy of Emmy awards
But Your Honor doesn’t get by on premise alone. It’s tightly directed and lushly photographed, with excellent production values. Also, the fact that the show is set in New Orleans deserves mention. On TV, sometimes it seems like interesting things only happen in Los Angeles or New York City, but Your Honor delves into the local culture and aesthetics and gives itself a unique feel.
The acting talent is also off the charts. Bryan Cranston won four Emmys for his work on Breaking Bad, and he brings that same level of intensity and nuance to the role of Michael Desiato. You believe that Michael is willing to do anything to protect his son. You believe his desperation as the web of lies he spins starts to collapse, and you share in the few moments of reprieve he’s afforded along the way. It’s another magnificent performance from Cranston.
The supporting cast more than holds its own, as well. Hunter Doohan is equally sympathetic and exhausting as Adam, a basically decent kid who’s in way over his head. Michael Stuhlbarg steals many scenes as Jimmy Baxter; he does some of his best work with Hope Davis, who plays Jimmy’s wife Gina. Lilli Kay is winning as Jimmy’s daughter Fia, who grows close to Adam. Fia is sad about what happened to her brother, but she has a basic decency that may offer a way out of the cycle of lies and violence.
Elsewhere, the show has a terrific lineup of acting veterans like Margo Martindale (Justified), Maura Tierney (The Affair), Carmen Ejogo (The Penguin), Rosie Perez (Do the Right Thing), and Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire). Even when the script lets the show down a bit, the actors are more than capable of heaving it back up.
Objections to Your Honor
Sustained
And the script does let the show down occasionally. We’ve compared Your Honor to Breaking Bad a bunch, but it must be said that these two Bryan Cranston dramas are not created equal. Your Honor has plenty of plot twists, which is good because it keeps things interesting, but sometimes they strain believability to the breaking point, like when we learn that Adam is romantically involved with his high school photography feature Frannie (Sofia Black-D’Elia), or a bit where someone is poisoned and dies on the stand.
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of melodramatics in our legal dramas. The show also sometimes dabbles in cliche; for instance, you may not be surprised to hear that Michael’s wife and Adam’s mother is dead by the time the show starts. The mystery behind her death drives much of Season 2, which is not as strong as Season 1. Your Honor wasn’t even originally supposed to last more than one season, but it proved so popular that Showtime greenlit another batch of episodes. Both seasons are worth watching, but if don’t want to risk a drop-off in quality, you can always stop at Season 1, since it does tell a complete story.
This fantastic detective series has quietly become the biggest show on Netflix
Please ignore the hilarious name.
Farewell, Your Honor
Your Honor is leaving Netflix on May 31, 2026. If you happen to be reading this after that date, you can always stream it on Paramount+, if you can figure out the UI.
Or if you’re in the mood for something less devastating, may we recommend the hilarious Malcolm in the Middle reboot over on Hulu, which shows that Bryan Cranston is great at whatever he does. And of course, Breaking Bad won’t leave Netflix until 2027, so you can always just watch that again.
