THE MORAL MAZE (YOUR HONOR)

Some actors have certain screen personas they make their own.

Tom Cruise has often been at his best in roles that allow him to portray a cocky individual whose confidence is tested or chipped away.

Michael Douglas has built a career playing self-centred, vain men whose flaws are exposed for the whole world to see.

Watching Showtime's 10 episode miniseries 'Your Honor,' you cannot help thinking Bryan Cranston might be cornering the market in dodgy men in respected jobs who tend to get in a bit too deep.

Based on the Israeli series 'Kvodo,' English screenwriter Peter Moffat's series sees Cranston's New Orleans judge Michael Desiato and his son, Hunter Doohan's Adam swimming in a tank full of sharks and doing whatever he can to get them out. 

In Britain, Moffat has a solid background in crafting legal dramas.

He was a writer for ITV's popular 'Kavanagh QC' with John Thaw and created Channel 4's legal firm tale 'North Square' with Philip Davis and Helen McCrory, two series of BBC1's taut 'Criminal Justice' with Ben Whishaw and Maxine Peake and three series of the BBC1 barrister drama 'Silk' with Peake, Rupert Penry-Jones and Alex Jennings.

Working with American writers David Matthews, Alison McDonald, Dewayne Darian Jones, Jennifer Cacicio, Joey Hartstone and Frank Baldwin, he makes his first foray into the world of the US courts.

However that also means diving into corrupt big city politics and organised crime.

While it is a very different culture to the stuffy traditions of Britain's legal system, Moffat easily adjusts.

Cranston's Judge Desiato is an unconventional judge.

A keen jogger, he uses his dawn runs to gather intelligence about the cases he is trying - even turning up at the door of a house belonging to Melanie Nicholls-King's Female Jones to check the veracity of a police officer's claims that he saw her conceal drugs on her person in a bathroom while standing at the doorway.

Desiato gets flustered when challenged by Female's son, Benjamin Flores Jr's Eugene Jones about what he is doing there and he flees.

Later in court, he is able to use the knowledge he acquires to prove the police officer's account cannot be true because the bathroom cannot be seen from the doorstep.

Female walks free.

Meanwhile across town, Judge Desiato's teenage son Adam is conducting an illicit affair with his photography high school teacher, Sofia Black-D'Ella's Frannie.

Grabbing his car keys, he heads across town to mark the anniversary of his mum's murder by visiting the neighborhood where she died.

However he panics when confronted by African American youths and gets a little lost in the maze of streets.

Adam suffers a severe asthma attack while driving and struggles to reach for his inhaler which is on the floor of the passenger side of his vehicle.

Desperately trying to reach it, he bends down to grab the inhaler only to feel a thud as his car hits a motorcyclist.

Still struggling for breath, he gets out of the vehicle only to find Benjamin Wadsworth's Rocco Baxter bleeding on the side of the road, coughing up blood and struggling to breathe.

Adam takes Rocco's phone and rings 911 despite being in the throes of his asthma attack but can only wheeze down the phone, unable to communicate.

Eventually he finds his inhaler but after recovering his breathing, panic takes hold and he flees the scene - leaving Rocco to die against the sidewalk.

Adam realises he has left with Rocco's phone and must get rid of it.

Scared and panicking, he confesses to his father what he has done.

Michael Desiato is shocked but decides to take Adam to a police station to turn himself in and fess up to panicking and fleeing the scene.

However when Michael gets to the police station, he spies Rocco's grieving parents are Michael Stuhlbarg's notorious Scottish-born mobster Jimmy Baxter and his wife, Hope Davis' Italian American Gina.

Realising the Baxter crime family will stop at nothing to find and kill the person responsible for their son's death, Judge Desiato quickly crafts a Plan B - cleaning down his son's car and arranging through a close friend, Isiah Whitlock Jr's savvy street politician Charlie to use his organised crime connections to have the car disappear.

Michael gives Charlie no explanation why the car must be destroyed and badgers Adam into keeping schtum about what he has done, given the Baxters' propensity for violence.

But like a moth to a flame, Adam cannot draw himself away from what happened - confessing to Frannie what he did and even going to a vigil for Rocco, meeting his sister, Lilli Kay's Fia and falling for her.

Charlie's plan to get rid of the car also goes awry, with Eugene's older brother, Lamar Johnson's Kofi Jones being stopped by the cops and arrested for driving it.

Kofi soon becomes the main suspect in Rocco's killing and is leant upon by the gang he is a member of to take the hit and plead guilty to the hit and run despite his innocence.

His bosses' need him to protect their interests and their relationship with Charlie who is planning a run for Mayor.

Kofi reluctantly agrees but this makes him the Number One target for the Baxter family who want to avenge Rocco's death.

With Rocco's brother, Jimi Stanton's Carlo serving time in the same jail, Gina Baxter arranges for him to attend Rocco's funeral where she whispers in his ear to avenge his brother's death.

Having waded into morally complex waters in Vince Gilligan's AMC series 'Breaking Bad', it's not that hard to understand why Cranston is drawn to the challenging world that Moffat creates in 'Your Honor'.

Like Walter White, Michael Desiato has a job that commands respect.

But the events in 'Your Honor' allow Cranston to once again explore the depths a desperate man may plumb to protect his interests and avoid retribution.

And just like 'Breaking Bad',' Desiato gets pulled deeper and deeper into the swamp to the point that every principle he holds dear is tested.

It is another terrific performance among a cast on top form.

On the other side of the fence, Stuhlbarg eagerly embraces the opportunity to play a psychotic gangland boss intent on revenge, while Hope Davis is excellent as his Lady Macbeth style wife.

Doohan does an impressive job as the dazed and naive Adam whose inability to fathom what he has done further complicates the situation he and his father find themselves in.

Whitlock Jr is as charming as ever as a likeable rogue bending the rules out of deep loyalty to Desiato and self-interest.

English actress Carmen Ejogo is terrific as Kofi Jones's lawyer Lee Delamere, a former protégé of Desiato's, who wants to unearth the truth about the framing of Kofi Jones, as is Amy Landecker as Nancy Costello - a detective friend of the judge's who often seeks his advice, even as she circles the case.

Lamar Johnson and Benjamin Flores Jr turn in affecting performances as Kofi and Eugene Jones who in their own ways have to battle a corrupt system of justice that is just stacked against them because of their race and underprivilege.

Maura Tierney is effective as Fiona McKee, a no nonsense prosecutor who ends up in Desiato's courtroom.

Lorraine Toussaint also shines as Sara LeBlanc, a fellow judge who has a particular beef with the Baxters.

The ever reliable Margo Martindale turns up as Adam's grandmother.

Lili Kay does a decent job as the Baxters' sassy daughter Fia, while Jimi Stanton is suitably thuggish as her psychotic brother Carlo and Scottish actor Tony Curran has a ball playing their father's brutal henchman Frankie.

Andrene Ward-Hammond grabs her chance to shine as Big Mo, the leader of the Desire gang that leans on Kofi to admit to the hit and run and Keith Mackheckanyanga is perfect as her right hand man, Little Mo.

Melanie Nicholls-King also impresses as Kofi and Eugene's mother Female, while Belfast actress Geraldine Hughes is as dependable as ever as Judge Desiato's loyal assistant Betty.

As strong as the performances are, they are superbly knitted together by four directors Edward Berger, Clark Johnson, Eva Sorhaug and Cranston working with the editing team of Tim Murrell, Michael Ruscio, Lynne Willingham, Jennifer Barbot and Diva Magpayot.

With so many writers, film editors and directors on board, you would think there would be the potential for too many cooks spoiling the broth.

But they do a superb job passing on the baton to each other and maintaing the unrelenting pace of a tough, nerve shredding drama.

Cinematographers James Friend, John Lindley and Richard Rutkowski also bring a lot to the party, capturing New Orleans in all its shabby glory.

The Israeli series 'Kvodo,' on which 'Your Honor' is based, ran for two series.

While at times, Moffat's drama seems to wobble under the weight of all the wrongdoing and occasional moments of coincidence that occur, it somehow manages to keep its audience onboard.

All of that is down to the high quality of the writing, the acting and the filmmaking which keeps you invested in Judge Desiato and his son despite every liberty they take with the truth and with justice.

As it hurtles towards a jaw dropping climax, 'Your Honor,' with its focus on flawed fathers in flawed families fighting for their flawed sons, earns the right for another series.

Hopefully, Showtime will allow that to happen because a show as rich in characterisation as this, as visually impressive and as narratively ambitious has the potential to really get under the skin of a flawed justice and political system.

('Your Honor' was broadcast on Sky Atlantic and made available for streaming on NowTV from March 2, 2021)

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