Goliath Justice

I’m not going to get too deep into this (maybe, we’ll have to see how this goes). Right now, I we are only the second episode into the series out of 8 episodes. I’m talking about Goliath (Amazon Studios 2016). You can watch it with Prime.

I want to start off with, this one hooked me from the start. It’s been a long time that any series has grabbed my attention like this one has. When we first turned it on, we weren’t even sure we would like it. Billy Bob Thornton tends to be a hit or miss for me. Big hit on this one. But we aren’t binging on it. We like to take our time with shows, so we aren’t left with nothing after we finish one we like.

The basic premise of the story is, Billy Bob is a failed lawyer, a drunk, and divorced. He’s approached for a possible trial case that he doesn’t want to do at first. We can see the buildup in all of that, right? It’s a path that leads through familiar waters. You would think that there would be no surprises. And yet, I find all manner of surprises along the way.

Now I am avoiding spoilers in this simply because we haven’t gotten that far into the series yet. There isn’t all that much for me to spoil so far. But there is one scene in the second episode that sparked my desire to talk about the series today.

We’re almost to the end of episode 2 (Pride and Prejudice). They have finally had their first day in court and Billy Bob (don’t ask me character names, I can never remember them) has done his lawyer judo on the judge that was about to throw out the case for a second time. He is walking next to the woman who is the main reason for this part of the case (her brother either committed suicide or was murdered. They are trying to prove murder). You know something is bound to happen. They had achieved a small victory and the powers that be will not stand for such nonsense.

She’s hit by a van.

I want that to sink in a moment. How that feels right here, just hanging there by itself, that is exactly what you feel as you watch it happen. I mean, the way they did it, my wife and I both caught our breath and almost in unison we both said, “what the fuck!” We felt the same shock and surprise the characters did. The episode ended with Billy Bob looking down on her, still in shock, hoping to get a response. But we know, she has to be dead. There is no way she could have survived that. Talk about a cliff hanger…

That’s the thing with this show though. There are these moments that surpass expectations. You as the viewer know what is going on (they aren’t trying to hide anything) and still you are unprepared for the levels the bad guys are willing to sink to.

So, I’m still processing this storyline. With what they have shown us so far, I feel it’s going to be a dark ride to the end, but so very worth the trip. Even as we dig through expectations and our rewarded with fulfillment of them, they still find ways to surprise us. That’s the little extra that takes the story from, “eh, it’s alright,” to “damn, have you experienced this one yet?”

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