Showtime’s new drama “Your Honor” posits this eternal grey-area moral dilemma: how far will a parent go to protect their child — even under the most brutal of circumstances?
The answer, for respected New Orleans judge Michael Desiato (Bryan Cranston): too far.
After his teenaged son, Adam (Hunter Doohan), accidentally mows down joyriding motorcyclist Rocco Baxter — the son of ruthless local mob boss Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg) — Michael concocts an elaborate coverup that quickly cascades out of control.
“Michael has no intention of being a criminal,” says Cranston, who spoke to The Post along with series creator Peter Moffat about “Your Honor,” premiering Sunday at 10 p.m.
“This falls into his lap immediately and he makes a decision … with repercussions that are great and numerous,” says Cranston. “It’s a very animalistic response. Sure, Michael has regrets — my God, a ton of regrets — and anxiety over the decision he’s made. He’s anguished and spinning plates and trying to cope with what he’s doing.
“It’s never clean, and that’s what makes good drama,” Cranston says. “It’s a very exciting and compelling spiral of events played out in 10 episodes.”
The English-born Moffat (who created the BAFTA-winning “Criminal Justice,” adapted as HBO’s “The Night Of”) is a former barrister with a keen sense of Michael’s desperate coverup amidst the tentacled New Orleans justice system.
“The criminal justice system there is interesting,” Moffat says. “Everbody knows everybody, which makes Michael’s job, when he has to hide things and be secretive and tell lies, way harder. [The series] was going to [be set in] Chicago … but I decided to move it to New Orleans. Culturally it’s an interesting and complex place, full of history, with a real mix of different types of people.
“I had 10 years in that [legal justice] environment watching people like Michael … and understanding those pressures and strains,” Moffat says. “At any moment in the criminal justice system you have choices and options — there’s more drama in this genre than anywhere else.”
“Your Honor” also explores the repercussions that Rocco Baxter’s death has on his family, not only on his father but his vindictive mother (Hope Davis) and his good-natured sister (Lilli Kay). Meanwhile, there’s growing resentment between Michael and Adam, who’s overwhelmed by guilt and wants to confess despite his father’s edict that he stick to the coverup story — or risk death at the hands of the vengeful Baxters.
“We’re making sure that right from the start we’re telling the audience that Jimmy Baxter is not one-dimensional,” says Moffat. “His daughter is a lovely person and he loves her. Why wouldn’t he? But it’s true at the same time to be a terrible person who’s suffering and in pain — it’s possible for that to exist in all of us when we’re put under stress, and that duality makes for much more interesting television.”
Into this roiling mix are thrown a falsely accused suspect (Lamar Johnson); Nancy Costello (Amy Landecker), a tenacious New Orleans cop growing increasingly suspicious of Michael; and Charlie Figaro (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), Michael’s best friend who’s running for mayor.
“I think what Peter wrote is an authentic look at the conditions of, not only the American judicial system but the penal system — which is not an equal opportunity system and where the rich have the advantage over the poor,” says Cranston. “Over the 10 episodes the depiction of that is very honest, sometimes in a brutal way, but this is life in America.
“It was incumbent on Peter as a writer, and us collectively as storytellers, to be able to honestly embrace it for its apparent ugliness.”
