'Goliath' Season 3 review: Billy McBride's sojourn into drought-stricken Central Valley is the perfect set-up for a little people’s victory
This article contains spoilers for Goliath 'Season 3'
The first few minutes of 'Goliath' Season 3 Episode 1 seem like its the live-action take on 'Courage the Cowardly Dog'. There's an oldish couple, Gene (Griffin Dunne) and Bobbi (Sherilyn Fenn), and their dog Noodle in a remote farmhouse in the fictional 'Blackwood County' in Central Valley, California.
But it isn't aliens or otherworldly monsters Noodle goes out to investigate in the dead of night but a rumble that feels like a mini-earthquake. As Bobbi follows the dog out into the parched vineyard that stretches before their porch, a menacing hum fills the air, and the land collapses from under her as Gene watches her go down in front of his eyes.
And just like that, she is dead. Bad dog Noodle! And very bad neighbors too, as we are about to find out. The charm about a series like 'Goliath' is that it harks back to old-school story-telling with familiar beats.
None of that hippy-dippy experimentation that makes you work to piece together the narrative. Nope. Just sit back and enjoy how the first few episodes laden with quick, repartee-filled dialogue will set up the key antagonists, their victims and the funny sidekicks to provide comic relief [Thank you Rita (Illena Douglas) and Patty Solis-Papagian (Nina Arianda)].
Enjoy how the middle will have the "hero" [Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton) and his cohorts] come up against insurmountable odds and setbacks. Enjoy the triumphant denouncement with unlikely allies surfacing in the last minute and reversals of fortunes and that satisfying victory of the "little people."
Goliath Season 3 resets the clock, somewhat, on the macabre season 2. Instead of relying on amputation to provide the menace, we have "bad apple" Diana Blackwood (Amy Brenneman) in ethereal, floating, caftan-like clothes.
Hers is one of the most chilling portrayals of understated villainy on-screen in recent years, with her spiritual new ageism masking cold-eyed greed and ambition and like all great villains, a touch of madness. The other big villain, Wade Blackwood, Diana's brother, is less effective.
Dennis Quaid plays Wade with mustache-twirling gusto and his exaggerated grimaces and menacing glares get a bit repetitive by episode 4. Surrealism and some tired Native American mysticism are used to liven up the proceedings.
The casino with its mournful singer, the location of many of the show's primary events, is one of the best backdrops ever -- it is the constant reminder that the house (read the rich guys) always wins. Unless you have McBride as your lawyer.
Showrunner Lawrence Trilling takes his time to build the landscape and the setting of the story. Farmlands stretch for miles with the lush orchards of the rich farmers contrasting sharply with the death, decay and drought in the smaller farms opposite them.
When Billy McBride drives into the county to investigate the death of his friend Bobbi, he is met with surreal sights -- a drilling setup that gushes water like oil while he pees next to a dead animal skull that has been bleached white in the sun. There is a lot of drilling going on in Blackwood County.
The unofficial reasoning is that the water that flows beneath the ground belongs to no one and the ones who drill the deepest have access to the water. The land collapse is attributed to this too. But as the story progresses, the real facts emerge.
Wade Blackwood, the richest farmer, owns Tall Grass Farms and along with a few of his rich neighbors, like Uncle Roy (Beau Bridges), have cornered the water rights in the drought-stricken land by taking control of the water board that takes the decision about how the water is to be distributed from the $100 million water bank. So, while the big corporate farmers like Wade always have water to irrigate their water-intensive crops of almonds and oranges, the other residents go without drinking water.
It is all perfectly legal and protected by a non-disclosure agreement that allows no one to access information about the water distribution in the county. What is not legal is Diana Blackwood's side operation with "Little Crow", the owner of the Native American casino and mystic drug connoisseur for the boys club of rich farmers.
Her ambitious plan to build the secret mega tunnel, to funnel water from reserved federal land and to her almond crop, is a federal crime and is the reason why the land is collapsing across the county. The strength of the show has always been the perfect character studies by actors who know their job. None more than Bill Bob Thornton as Billy McBride with his casual toss of the lighter on the bed with just that little flair, the sneaky side glance as a blonde on legs walks by -- the little things that make the character come to life.
Nina Arianda, as always, is a reliable comic foil to the McBride darkness as Patty Solis-Papagian. If you decide to watch 'Goliath' afresh from season 3, you can. But those following 'Goliath' from the start will see old villains come back to haunt McBride; from his ex-law firm partner and all-round bad guy, Donald Cooperman (William Hurt), whose firm Wade hires to defend him, to Marisol Silva (Ana de la Reguera), McBride's duplicitous lover from season 2, who is now the mayor of Los Angeles and engaged to Matthew Weiner.
Yes, the 'Mad Men' Matthew Weiner who appears as himself in the story's universe. Season 3 is in many ways also the origin story of Marisol Silva's climb to power. If you were as distressed by her getting away scot-free last season, like Billy McBride's daughter, Denise (Diana Hopper) is this season -- she comes close to knifing her -- there is satisfaction at the end of the season for you.
Season 3 ends on a Billy McBride-related cliff hanger and some deaths that are too pat to feel satisfactory. But we won't quibble. Overall, this season is worth your time.
'Goliath' premiered on Amazon Prime Video October 4 and all eight episodes are available for viewing.