'Bull' Season 5 Episode 2 Preview: With new conflicts of interest, will TAC be torn from inside?
The Season 5 premiere of 'Bull' was a strange one, as we saw Jason Bull (Michael Weatherly) trapped in what seems like a feverish and musical nightmare of sorts. It turned out to be actually Bull suffering from fever, presumably Covid-19. Throughout the course of the episode, Bull is worried as the social-distancing measures have brought TAC to a grinding halt. Everything has been transferred to virtual mediums, which leaves Bull panicking about the future of his family.
The episode focussed on the effects of the pandemic, and how it had impacted people emotionally and physically. The musical numbers were present to accelerate the story, but it didn't seem to sit well with fans, as it was a legal drama. Fans were also rather confused about the perplexing CGI baby, and it still remains to be seen whether that was part of the nightmare, or did Bull's baby Astrid actually look like a demon. The synopsis for the next episode reads, "The TAC team experiences a conflict of interest in court when Benny represents the plaintiff and Chunk represents the defendant in the same civil suit, where a mother sues a young artist she deems responsible for her daughter’s death.”
In an interview with TVLine, executive producer Glenn Gordon Caron explained that he didn't plan to acknowledge the pandemic at first. "Truthfully, when we first shut down, I naively thought, 'Well, this is going to be over in May.' My initial plan was not to acknowledge it. People tune in to see this legal drama about Jason Bull and the people who work for him, and it just felt not on point," he said. "But as it continued on, and on, and on, and became a part of the fabric of everyone's life — and taking into account that our show is set and actually filmed in New York City — I thought it was irresponsible. But also I thought, 'There's something really interesting going on here.' And people are going to look back in 20, 30 years, and they're going to go, 'That was a fascinating moment.' And to ignore the moment seemed like a missed opportunity," he added.
'Bull' airs on CBS, Mondays, at 10 pm.