Your Honor: Judge for yourself

What would you do to protect your child?

For most parents the answer to this question is just about anything.

And that is the predicament that confronts judge Michael Desiato in the Stan series Your Honor after his 17-year-old son Adam accidentally kills another teenager in a hit and run accident.

The judge convinces his son that honesty is the best policy, that the right thing to do is to turn himself in and deal with the consequences.

He even drives Adam to the police station.

But that all goes out the door when Desiato discovers the dead boy is the son of mafia crime boss Jimmy Baxter.

Instead he quickly decides to cover up the crime, knowing that to do otherwise would be tantamount to signing his son’s death warrant once his identity becomes known.

It’s a familiar story, but the art is definitely in the telling as the dramatic series unfolds.

Once you start watching, you’ll be hooked. It’s as bingeworthy as the best of them, with two seasons and 20 x 60-minute episodes to get through.

Your Honor stars Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston as Michael Desiato and Hunter Doohan as his devastated son Adam.

Michael Stuhlbarg is the enraged crime boss Jimmy Baxter and Hope Davis his bitter, grief-stricken wife Gina, with Jimi Stanton as their eldest son Carlo and Lilli Kay as daughter Sofia “Fia”.

In a devilish plot twist Fia becomes Adam’s girlfriend, unaware that it was him who killed her younger brother.

Yes. It’s complicated.

Your Honor is actually an adaption of an Israeli TV series called Kvodo.

It was originally commissioned as a miniseries, but was renewed for a second season.

Cranston is superb, known for his role as Walter White on the AMC crime drama Breaking Bad (2008).

He won four Emmys for the role, including three consecutive wins.

After becoming one of the producers during the series’ fourth and fifth seasons, he also won two Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series.

Hunter Doohan is best known as Tyler Galpin in the Netflix comedy/mystery series Wednesday (2022).

He also played a teenage version of the lead character in the 2019 series Truth be Told portrayed by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul.

Desiato seeks the help of friend Charlie Figaro to get rid of Adam’s damaged car, which is supposed to be destroyed and untraceable.

He enlists the help of a local street gang Desire and the job is given to gang member Kofi Jones.

As an alibi he reports the judge reports the car stolen, which leads to Kofi’s arrest before he can get rid of the car.

When part of the dead boy’s motorcycle falls from underneath the car, police charge Kofi with murder.

After that, Desiato’s plans steadily deteriorate with terrible consequences.

The supporting cast includes Isaah Whitlock Jr. as Charlie Figaro, Desiato’s best friend and a politician with connections to organised crime. 

Margo Martindale as Elizabeth Guthrie, a state senator, Michael’s mother-in-law and Adam’s maternal grandmother.

Lamar Johnson is Kofi Jones, a young black man who was forced by Little Mo to take the fall for Adam’s hit and run.

And Benjamin Flores Jr. is Eugene Jones, the younger brother of Kofi Jones and also a gang member.

You can catch Your Honor on Stan.

 

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