Fans of Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Need To Watch This Forgotten Legal Comedy Series That Is So Unserious

This series serves as the more comedic blueprint for The Lincoln Lawyer and its tarnished surfer-boy-gone-straight Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). The lighter tone touches down quickly in the pilot episode of Franklin & Bash, with a sexy mattress ad causing a midday fender-bender, as a good payday for Peter Bash (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and his legal partner, Jared Franklin (Breckin Meyer). In stark contrast, The Lincoln Lawyer gets moving for Haller courtesy of a quick and brutal murder in one of Los Angeles’ ubiquitous monolithic parking structures at night. Despite being polar opposites in tone, both shows are eerily similar and will please any fan of courtroom chaos.

‘Franklin & Bash’ Doesn’t Take Itself Seriously

While The Lincoln Lawyer’s power is in its hard-boiled characters, Franklin & Bash takes an utterly different approach, and it’s better off for it. Yes, the show deals with murder and other serious crimes from time to time, but that was never Franklin & Bash‘s hard focus. As a refreshing comedic spin on a dark subject, Season 1, Episode 2, “She Came Upstairs To Kill Me,” follows Isabella Kaplowitz (Natalie Zea), a much younger, attractive new widow criminally accused of loving her husband to death.

As a textbook Franklin & Bash combination of both comedy and drama, her exoneration is literally tied to the punchline of a cheesy joke on the subject of accidental death by fornication. In equal measure, big boss Stanton Infeld (Malcolm McDowell), in Season 1, Episode 10, “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” stands accused of murdering an old associate. Infeld’s humorous transformation into popular prison “It Guy” is a light take on a rather daunting reversal of fortune that is soon set right with his exoneration.

In keeping with Franklin & Bash‘s unusually dedicated rule of keeping all things not that corrosive when it comes to character, Bash’s biggest reoccurring problem is the love that got away with perky Assistant District Attorney Jane Ross (Claire Coffee) and Franklin’s biggest source of existential woe is his unresolved daddy issues with his emotionally lacking, but extremely successful lawyer father, Leonard Franklin (Beau Bridges). Everything else is just another case in sun-dappled paradise as lighter, more consumable episode-to-episode tensions versus the much heavier, slow build of inequity, greed, and the chillingly regenerative properties of power within the hard-to-crack dens of the rich and famous that always threaten to dissolve Haller.

‘Franklin & Bash’s Cameos and Cast Make the Crime Comedy a Fun Binge

Starting with Gosselaar, as an actor irrevocably tied to high school at its fictionalized best and most relatable in Saved by the Bell, there is a sense of positive nostalgia that is infused into Franklin & Bash that is so underground that it borders on cheating. To watch both Gosselaar and Meyer, another actor who has been a fixture in many iconic, feel-good, high school movies, like Clueless and Road Trip, will feel like a fun high school reunion.

If You Love ‘The Lincoln Lawyer,’ You’ll Be Hooked on This Gripping Billy Bob Thornton Series

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Thankfully, unlike most high school reunions, there are fresher, newer supporting characters that might mitigate any sudden feelings of buyers remorse, or wanting to get the hell out of high school as passé. These spots of bright star energy are directly cast in the supporting characters outside Franklin & Bash‘s buddy twosome as their signature, independent of all other legal entity law operations. These co-stars are none other than the agoraphobic techie Pindar Singh, played with uniquely wacky comedic timing by Kumail Nanjiani, and the cute and squeaky clean adjacent ex-con-turned-private-investigator Carmen Phillips (Dana Davis).

Other extremely familiar guest stars that make Franklin & Bash imminently watchable include Jason Alexander, Rob Lowe, Heather Locklear, Jane Seymour, and Carmen Electra, to name just a few. In particular, seeing Jason Alexander in Episode 6 playing a Jeff Bezos-level “Big Fish” business tycoon that George Constanza of Seinfeld fame always dreamed of becoming (but hilariously could never) is quite a fun ride.

‘Franklin & Bash’ Uses California As Its Playground

The big thing that Franklin & Bash unrelentingly gets right is that Los Angeles is a fun place. Always ripping back the curtain on the Hollywood dream to show its darker undersides, The Lincoln Lawyer serves as a streetwise note of caution to those that might be seduced by its fantasy land aura as an enduring stereotype with the power to kill. Yes, like any major city, Los Angeles has its share of violence and cruelty, but it also does have its beautiful men and women that would absolutely be willing weekly attendees at parties thrown by two unencumbered dude bro lawyers like Franklin and Bash (as well as Pindar and Carmen) that have a cool Los Angeles abode to work and live in.

Could Franklin and Bash, who are making billable hours’ money, descended from Los Angeles trial lawyer money, replete with a rich, eccentric boss like Stanton Infeld backing them, see Los Angeles as more of a playground than a cesspool, given their uninterrupted and smooth access to privilege? Versus the combination of strife and vice that put Mickey Haller well outside that emotional zip code, as two very different states of mind within the same generalized series blueprint? All answers point enthusiastically to yes, because sometimes the audience gets a kick out of being firmly on the side of the haves rather than the more devastating side of the have-nots.

Are you anxiously waiting for Season 4 of Netflix’s hit legal drama, The Lincoln Lawyer? Us too. The series, which has an impressive 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, doesn’t have a set return date, but, don’t worry. There is a series that has all the legal lingo plus laughs to fill the void: Franklin & Bash.