'Goliath' Season 3 sees a change in scenery as Billy Bob Thornton's Billy McBride travels to find a new nemesis
Legal drama 'Goliath', after a much-loved season one that was tightly scripted by David E Kelly and Jonathan Shapiro who wrote every episode for the season, saw season two suffer without their ministering.
Season two was thrown partially under the bus when the writing duo handed over the reins to showrunner Clyde Phillips ('Dexter'). Phillips, without the legal know-how of Kelly and Shapiro, changed 'Goliath's DNA from a legal drama to a crime whodunnit. In the process, the lead character, lawyer Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton), was sidelined by the crime and political stakes this season.
After writing 10 episodes, that left Thornton unhappy with the direction of the show, Phillips was replaced by showrunner Lawrence Trilling. However, despite this mid-season change, season two remained low on the "lawyering" that made season one such a fun watch. So what can we expect from season three that premieres on October 4?
The end of season two, where the main villains succeed in evading the law, led fans to believe that season three might follow up on the duplicitous politician Marisol Silva (Ana de la Reguera) and her brother, Gabriel Ortega (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), who was the Mexican drug cartel boss.
However, Lawrence Trilling seems to want to leave the season two mess behind, even though Ana de la Reguera's Silva is part of the returning cast.
Hence season three sees Billy hit the road to travel to the drought-stricken Central Valley to investigate the unexpected death of an old friend ('Twin Peaks' Sherilyn Fenn).
There Billy goes head to head with a new Goliath: a brother-sister duo comprising a billionaire rancher played by Dennis Quaid ('The Day After Tomorrow') and his sibling, played by Amy Brenneman ('The Leftovers').
The official season three description reads, "As Billy and his team pursue the truth, old enemies and personal demons resurface, forcing him to confront his own mortality." Amazon also released a trailer for the season that shows we will see a lot more of the courtroom drama than we did last season.
The trailer reveals that the drought and the land collapse that killed Billy's friend is connected to the tunnels being dug by the commercial farmer and rancher played by Quaid's character. Billy challenges him in court for privatizing a "public" resource. So be prepared for some hard-hitting indictment of how privatization is weakening citizen's rights to public goods.
There are also some stellar cast additions like Beau Bridges ('Homeland'), Griffin Dunne ('House of Lies'), Shamier Anderson ('Destroyer'), Graham Greene ('Wind River') and Illeana Douglas ('Grace of My Heart'). The characters played by these actors are yet to be revealed.
However, the roles of two other characters have been revealed. Julia Jones will play a Hollywood stuntwoman named Stephanie Littlecrow, who inherits the property that causes a problem for corporate farmers in the Central Valley and Leslie Grossman will play Rochelle Purple, a financial advisor. Returning cast members, besides Thornton, include, Nina Arianda (as Patty Solis-Papagian), Tania Raymonde (as Brittany Gold), Diana Hopper (as Denise McBride), Ana de le Reguera (as Mirasol Silva) and Julie Brister (as Marva Jefferson).
