In a year jam-packed with TV releases, Stan's gripping new thriller Your Honor stands out for two reasons:
1. Bryan Cranston, and
2. Murders. Several of them.
PAUSE. Watch the trailer for Stan's Your Honor to see what the heck we're talking about. Post continues below.
Based on the Israeli series Kvodo, the new legal thriller, which is streaming exclusively on Stan, is the perfect mix of murder mystery, crime lord thrills, and courtroom drama.
Here we unpack what the 10-episode first season is about and deliver our verdict on whether you should watch it (spoiler alert, you certainly should you Walter White-loving, true crime addict, you).
What's it about?
Your Honor tells the tale of New Orleans judge Michael Desiato (Cranston) and his teenage son Adam (Hunter Doohan).
Michael isn't your average judge. He's a good guy who bends the rules and advocates for the alleged criminals who find themselves in his courtroom.
On the one-year anniversary of his mum's unsolved murder, Adam drives to the place where she was killed to leave a tribute to her. He flees in his car when some locals confront him, has an asthma attack, hits another teenage boy on a motorbike and leaves him to bleed out on the street.
When Michael arrives home from work, Adam tells him what he did. They head down to the local police station so Adam can hand himself in. But when they arrive, Michael discovers the boy Adam killed was the son of Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg), one of the city's most influential crime bosses.
Jimmy Baxter vows to find who killed his son, and Michael is now locked in a never-ending Jenga game of covering up evidence and creating lies to divert Jimmy's attention away from Adam.
Basically, he Walter White's the sh*t out of it.
Cue lies upon lies, ever-increasing stakes, and an escalating sense of anxiety for both the characters and the audience.
Come for the...
Bryan Cranston in his first major TV role since Breaking Bad.
Stay for the....
Murder mystery, crime lords, layers upon layers of lies.
What shows will it remind you of?
Breaking Bad for the Cranston goodness, The Wire for the organised crime element, The Night Of for the justice system and Seven Seconds for the hit and run.
How many episodes are there and how long are they?
There are 10, 40-minute episodes and they're dropping weekly on Sundays.
So, should you watch it?
Hells yes.
Your Honor is less of a who-dunnit and more of a how-to-cover-it-up-once-you've-dunnit. While the main story revolves around one teenager accidentally killing another teenager, and their two families subsequently being locked in a game of cat and mouse, which is fascinating in itself, there's so much more to unpack in this series.
Listen: Watch club, the self-aware, self-satirising Saved By The Bell. Post continues below.
Like who killed Michael's wife? What kind of dodgy dealings are the Baxters involved in? Is this all connected?
The first episode is available to stream on Stan now and new episodes will drop weekly on Sundays, meaning you can bookend your week with some crime-y, thriller-y goodness.
Get on it.
You can watch the first episode of Your Honor on Stan now. New episodes drop weekly on Sundays.