The following contains major spoilers for The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3, now streaming on Netflix.
The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 was the Netflix show’s best yet, as Mickey Haller found himself defending the man accused of murdering one of his former clients. The season featured incredible performances from a number of actors and kept audiences guessing all the way until the last scene. But how did it all come together, and what’s made the series a bonafide hit?
CBR spoke to The Lincoln Lawyer executive producer and co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez to learn how Season 3 was developed and what went into some of the most important scenes and aspects of the story. She also discussed her proudest accomplishment since joining the show in Season 2. Plus, learn how the creative team planned ahead for a possible Season 4.
CBR: Your fellow showrunner Ted Humphrey told CBR that The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 was the season he’d been waiting to do all along. Was that also the case for you, and if so, what made this story stand out so strongly?
Dailyn Rodriguez: When I came in to start working with him on Season 2, I pitched the idea of [adapting] The Fifth Witness, because I had a take on it that I thought could work as a Season 2 — the whole thing with the developer and all gentrification.
But I said to him from the beginning that my favorite book of the series was The Gods of Guilt, and that we should do it sooner rather than later. because it was such a great story. It’s a really well plotted-out book, with that great turn at the end, when the detective is on the stand and shoots himself. I didn’t see that coming when I read the book and I was like, “We should do that as Season 3.” And Ted was on the same wavelength.
Especially when you’re working with Michael Connelly’s book series, where is that balance between planning ahead for the next season, and ensuring that you tell a complete and satisfying story in the current one? How much of Season 3 was also looking to figure out Season 4?
We figure out how we want to cliffhang the season into the next book. In this season, Mickey gets arrested at the end, so we’re establishing [the novel] The Law of Innocence as a possible Season 4. We basically said, “Okay, if we’re establishing that, we’re going to have to go back into Season 3,” and that’s when we started discussing Sam Scales should be a B story for Lorna. We want to reintroduce Sam Scales so he doesn’t come out of the blue. And then if we’re so lucky for you to see Season 4, you’re going to see where we planted some stuff in Season 3 that are kind of Easter eggs.
If you go backwards, you can see where we planted things that will play out in Season 4. The second we figure out what the cliffhanger is, we figure out where we have to place things. [We go] back into the breaking — not the actual written episodes, but back into the breaking going, “Okay, well, in this episode, we’re going to make that Lorna’s first case. That’ll be funny, and then we’re introducing Sam at the same time,” and that’s kind of how we do it.
This is the most emotional The Lincoln Lawyer season by a mile, from the aforementioned finale shocker to Eddie’s death. What were some of the scenes that moved you during filming?
I think there were a few scenes that are pretty pivotal in the story. The one scene that comes to mind specifically is with Legal Siegel. I was on the set when we were shooting that scene, when Mickey goes to visit him in the assisted living place, and Legal says something to the effect [of], “There’s no more noble of a cause than to have an innocent client and defend an innocent man.” I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember the line 100 percent, but it’s straight from the book, that line.
To us, it’s the essence of that season, but it’s kind of also the essence of Mickey Haller — that this is why he’s a defense attorney. He may have clients that are guilty, but there’s just something so noble about being able to go to bat for somebody that you feel in your bones is innocent and is being railroaded. Elliott Gould was so amazing delivering that line and it was such a great moment, and I just felt like it encapsulated a lot of what the season was.
I also think that the flashbacks we did with Glory Days — Fiona [Rene]’s such a wonderful actress, and I think those flashbacks imbued a lot of emotion and a lot of depth to what Mickey is going through regarding Glory’s death and her murder. I think that that was really important in the season, and it was really wonderful. I also really get a lot of joy out of Lorna passing the bar. It is just such a great moment for the show and for the character and so well-earned.
One of the characters that’s painfully fascinating is Neil Bishop, played by Mindhunter alum Holt McCallany. His performance is outstanding, but also, how did you write that character so that you avoided the trope of just another corrupt cop story?
You have Holt, who in the season finale is exceptional. Ted did such an amazing job directing it, and Holt is just a tour de force in that whole entire episode. I really think that you get the pathos of this guy that’s just been squeezed into such a terrible situation, and now it’s all rearing its ugly head, all of the terrible things that he’s done, and it’s a wonderful performance.
We talk a lot in our writers’ room, and I think this series touches upon it a lot, is that people are neither good nor bad. There’s nuance to everyone… Hayley says, “You just defend bad people,” and I don’t think he sees them as that. People are just much more complicated. And so when we approach all of our characters, you look at it from that viewpoint.
It’s just not interesting just to [have] a corrupt cop. We’ve seen that a million times. What are the circumstances that push this guy to this place? In the book, he commits suicide and he has this deal with the devil, with DeMarco, but we were able to really show it and see the transaction happening and understand what a terrible situation he’s in so that he made a very human mistake, because we’re all making mistakes. It adds more pathos to the character and it makes that decision so much more believable, relatable, but also so much more painful.
We hate him through the whole season, and then you have that moment [where] you’re like, “Oh, but this guy just got screwed.” And so you want that moment where you feel like, “Okay, it’s a little bit redeemable. It was fucked up he did that. He shouldn’t have done it, but here we are.” And then the turn is that he can’t even live with the guilt of it, because what comes of it is the death of an innocent person.
The Lincoln Lawyer is also an incredibly diverse TV series, which is important in general but even moreso because it’s set in Los Angeles, which is such a diverse city. How were you able to establish that diversity?
I’m very proud of this. When I came in to start working with Ted in Season 2, I said to him, the first season was really diverse, but I think that we can push it a little bit more. I said to him, L.A. is almost 50 percent Latino and I’m Latina, so I would like that to be even more represented in the show. And so in Season 2 especially, we have Latino people of all stripes. Some that speak Spanish, some don’t. Some have accents, some don’t have accents. Some are cops, tailors, gardeners. It is the fabric of what L.A. is.
And every time we cast, we’re like, “Let’s cast open, best actor,” and then sometimes we change the name of the character to fit the actor that we’ve cast and make slight adjustments to the character. So we are very much keen to represent L.A. as we see it and how we live in L.A., which is a very diverse place.
We have LGBTQ characters, we have a disabled character, and we also keep an eye on casting people over 65 — which is a group that doesn’t get cast a lot in television — because the reality is judges tend to be older. We very much have the ability to showcase all that is L.A. and for me, it’s one of my proudest accomplishments and one of the things that makes the show feel authentic.
This is one of the biggest series that you’ve worked on, and it’s clear that people are responding to it. What has your experience on The Lincoln Lawyer meant to you, not just creatively but personally?
It’s been one of the most rewarding creative partnerships I’ve ever had. I think [Ted and I] have different strengths that we bring to the table. I’ve learned a lot from him, and I think he would probably say the same about me.
And it’s really been a huge privilege for me to work on this show. I’ve worked on a lot of shows, but it’s so great to work on a show on Netflix that has such a huge reach. You meet so many people that have watched the show and are just such huge fans — not only of Michael Connelly’s books but of the show — and I get so excited to talk to people and have them tell me what they love about it.
I finally also have the ability to tell a story about a Latin man — a lawyer who just happens to be Latino, living in a very predominantly Latino community, and [to] not make it just be about him being Latino is very exciting to me. I was very excited to come in and tap into that, and broaden that and broaden his world and his life.
I love the show. I love the people that I work with. I love the cast. I love the crew. I know a lot of showrunners say that, but I’m really not bullshitting. It’s just such a great place to work, and I’m so happy to be there, and I’m so happy that Netflix trusts us and lets us just be creative and do cool shit.
The Lincoln Lawyer Season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.
