Overlooked Epic Legal Thriller Series On Prime Video Gets New Fans Thanks To Leading Star
Billy Bob Thornton is racking up award nominations again thanks to his starring role in Taylor Sheridan’s latest hit, Landman, but it’s not his first streaming series. In 2016, Billy Bob Thornton starred in the Amazon Prime Original, Goliath, as Billy McBride, a former lawyer that found his way to the bottom of a bottle. The series was largely ignored by both critics and the public, but thanks to Landman, it’s finally getting watched the way it deserved in the first place.
One Man Against Titans Of Industry
Goliath starts off putting Billy against his old law firm, Cooperman McBride when he accepts the case of a man who died in an explosion. Borns Technology, a massive corporation and one of Cooperman’s biggest clients, claims that he committed suicide, but the man’s sister is convinced there’s more going on and gets Billy to take the case. Immediately, it’s clear that powerful men want the case to never even make it to trial, but Billy, with an axe to grind and a need to atone for a past mistake, isn’t going to go away quietly.
Before the start of the series, Billy helped defend a murder suspect, and though he won the case, the suspect took advantage of his newfound freedom to murder a family. Walking out on Cooperman McBride, Billy made an enemy of his former partner, Cooperman, played by William Hurt, and his ex-wife, Michelle p,ortrayed by Maria Bello, who stayed at the firm. The basic setup of Goliath isn’t groundbreakingly original, but it’s well-acted, and the writing is the type you’d expect from creator and megaproducer David E. Kelley.
Each successive season sees Billy take on another “Goliath,” which includes the Mexican Cartel, Los Angeles politics, and a massive agricultural conglomerate. The role is a mirror of Billy Bob Thronton’s Tommy Norris in Landman, the confident and cocky hotshot that’s working for one of the biggest players in the oil industry. The two shows share a lead and a lot of the same themes but are just different enough that it’s easy to binge them at the same time.
Goliath Was Ignored By Everyone
Alongside Billy Bob Thornton, the cast of Goliath, which turns over almost every season, includes a bevy of familiar faces, including Dennis Quaid, J.K. Simmons, Jena Malone, David Cross, and Haley Joel Osment. It only aired for four seasons, with less attention for each successive season, but the show maintained the same level of quality throughout. Each season on Rotten Tomatoes was reviewed by fewer and fewer critics, with a total of five reviewing Season 4, but those who watched it rated it as a perfect 100 percent fresh experience.
It’s easy to forget a series is out on streaming, or to simply overlook it in the first place, since every week a different streamer is releasing another expensive show with at least one major Hollywood star attached to it. There’s no science behind what will or won’t become a hit; for example, Goliath fell between the cracks, while Landman has already earned Billy Bob Thornton another Golden Globe nomination.
Goliath is streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
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