Hit Bryan Cranston Series Surprise Dropping on Netflix This Week

Your Honor, Bryan Cranston’s acclaimed series about a judge trapped in a nightmarish conflict of interest, is coming to Netflix. The series ran for two seasons on Showtime, but in spite of fairly strong numbers was cancelled before season two even premiered. Cranston, who announced its cancellation during a podcast interview, has taken to calling the show a “limited series,” which tracks since it was composed of two, relatively short seasons. It seems likely its ratings success dragged a second season out of a planned one-and-done, rather than it being open-ended and then cancelled.

Based on the Israeli series Kvodo, Your Honor follows Michael Desiato (Cranston), a prominent and respected New Orleans judge. When his teenage son Adam kills another teenager in an accidental hit-and-run collision, Michael encourages his son to turn himself in, but quickly changes his mind when he discovers that the boy whom Adam killed was the son of a mafia kingpin and decides to cover up the hit-and-run instead. Michael’s attempts to dispose of the evidence and conceal the truth have tragic consequences.

Cranston announced the move to Netflix on social media, saying, “I’m excited to announce that my show, Your Honor, Seasons 1 & 2 will be on Netflix as of this Friday May 31st. If you haven’t seen this limited series, please do catch it. I’m very proud of it. We have a terrific cast, and you’ll be on the edge of your sofa watching this story unfold.”

Your Honor also stars Hunter Doohan, Hope Davis, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Michael Stuhlbarg, and Carmen Ejogo. The series became the most-watched debut season in Showtime’s history, with 6.6 million viewers weekly.

“Whenever there’s a character who is facing an emotional, ethical dilemma, it draws me in,” Cranston previously revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “And with this dramatic construct of having your son make a mistake and panic and leave the scene of an accident, which results in a death, is disturbing and very, very possible. You go, ‘Yeah, I think under stress and shock, you could make a mistake like that.’ That possibility lends itself to some really terrific drama.”

Production on the second season was challenging: during the offseason, reports emerged that Joey Hartstone, who wrote on the series’ first season, had stepped in as showrunner for its second, succeeding both Peter Moffat (who reportedly opted not to return so he could stay in the UK with his family) and David Manson, who parted ways with the series.