Goliath – Season 2 Review (2.5 out of 5)
Finished watching Season 2 of Amazon’s Goliath and have to say I’m pretty damn disappointed. Season 1 was brilliant with Billy Bob Thornton playing the lead role of alcoholic and chain-smoking lawyer Billy McBride. Season 1 was fantastic and full of great characters with a compelling plot and I was stoked for another round.
Season 2 starts off promising before falling completely apart. The plot centers around an innocent kid accused of the murder of two drug dealers. Billy McBride comes to the kid’s rescue and pulls in his cast of supporting characters determined to prove the kid innocent amid a bevvy of dirty cops, a corrupt real estate tycoon, a ruthless limb-chopping Mexican drug cartel and a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose victory could unlock everything the bad guys want…unless McBride proves the kid innocent. Everything was set up for a binge-worthy follow-up to a season I loved.
The Good: Billy Bob Thornton is great as our hero. I love his demeanor and snappy comebacks – you just want this guy to win. I really grew to love Nina Arienda as McBride’s fellow legal counsel Patty Solis-Papagian. Arienda is great in the show and finally shows some nice moments of vulnerability. The gorgeous Tania Raymonde makes the good list as well, though I’m sure she wondered what the hell she did to the writers for them to make her character do such stupid shit. Diana Hopper as McBride’s offspring Denise is quite good as well playing the role of the concerned daughter until the writers throw in a random drunk scene with her at the end. And how can you not love seeing Lou Diamond Phillips – the guy is solid as a rock though his screen time is limited. Also good is the first half of the season which progresses the plot along nicely and kept me clicking the next episode button on my Roku stick.
The Bad and the Ugly: The second half of the season is just freaking weird. The supporting characters become more unbearably over the top than they were in the first half. The dirty cop loses his shit too often, the political lackey can’t stop eating and chewing through his lines and the real estate mogul is an amputee-masturbating freak in bad clothes. And if you want to see comedian David Cross in the stupidest mop wig ever, now’s your chance. I was willing to overlook the bad characters, but the second half of the season just drags along and barely limps across the finish line in episodes seven and eight.
All in all – I give Season 2 of Goliath 2.5 stars out of 5, but I wish the writers would have focused more on the initially promising storyline and characters than trying to gross out and shock the viewers. Though I’m disappointed, I will give Season 3 a shot for Billy Bob and the memory of Season 1.
SPOILERS BELOW: IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING SEASON 2, STOP HERE! I just want to know if other viewers who have seen the show have the same questions as I do. Feel free to reply.
What happened to the Chinese girl after Episode 7? McBride just shoves the blood covered damsel off for protection to random strangers in a Mexican border town and that’s it?
For an alcoholic and chain-smoker, McBride can run for miles and hop fences without even getting winded. Pretty amazing.
Anyone else bothered by the fact that after McBride barely escapes death, he just popped back over the border without a problem and just waltzed up to the house of the drug lord that tried to kill him accompanied only by Patty?
How in the hell did McBride just happen to find Wyatt’s secret kitchen so they could have their little chat?
How did Roman, while under police protection and about to roll over on a major Mexican drug cartel, only be guarded by one guy and just happen to get away to meet Danny?
Did Brittany, at any point, not get freaked out by Wyatt’s amputee fetish? I know she’s an ex-escort and all, but what the hell?
Billy’s daughter gets all liquored up, crashes into a bunch of parked cars and is screaming like a drunken lunatic outside a mayoral candidate’s office packed with people, the police show up and she doesn’t get arrested? She just leaves with Billy like nothing happened. Really?
There’s more questions, but I’ll leave it at that.
