‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Season 4 Escapes Three Common Netflix Pitfalls

The Lincoln Lawyer has returned to Netflix for season 4, another batch of 10 episodes for the legal drama starring Mickey Haller, based on the Michael Connelly novel and evolved from the 2011 Matthew McConaughey film.

The Lincoln Lawyer is well-liked, with a 90% critic score and an 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (no scores in yet for season 4), and it’s well-watched enough to get, well, four seasons, as we see here. But past that, I am happy to see that The Lincoln Lawyer has avoided some common Netflix pitfalls of its show releases, namely three that I hope more and more shows adopt on the service:

• No Split Season – Netflix tried to split The Lincoln Lawyer season 2 into 5 and 5 episodes the way they do with so many seasons of popular shows now, but in a surprising reversal, they went back to a 10-episode binge for season 3 and have not kept that format for season 4. I do not know of anyone who actually likes that kind of split Netflix has been doing, really only in place to avoid subscribe/cancel binging in one month.
• Short Seasonal Gaps – While not exactly a year, The Lincoln Lawyer has shaved the spaces between its season to pretty close to that. Season 2 arrived 13.5 months after season 1, season 3 arrived 15 months after season 2, and season 4 is now here 15.5 months after season 3, not even getting to the 1.5-year mark, which is what is often considered “short” in this day and age. Netflix has been trying this with a few shows like The Diplomat, but The Lincoln Lawyer is another good example.
• Very Early Renewal – This is a main reason these gaps are so short. In this instance, The Lincoln Lawyer was renewed for season 5 before season 4 even aired, expressing confidence in the series and allowing an early start on the following season, so these short gaps are easier to make. Shows on Netflix and elsewhere sometimes take months to greenlight additional seasons, and even longer to start filming, which is part of the reason for these 2-3 year splits at times.

I haven’t watched the show since season 1, but clearly it’s continued to be a lower-profile success for Netflix, one they can produce cheaply and often without sacrificing quality. I wish more Netflix series would follow its lead, and Netflix learns something from how this is received.

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