The Final Season of Billy Bob Thornton’s ‘Goliath’ Is a Noir Lover’s Dream
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The fourth and final season of the legal thriller about psychologically fragile attorney Billy McBride (Billy Bob Thornton, above) is a noir lover’s dream.
“I had an image of Billy Bob wearing a trench coat standing by the Golden Gate Bridge,” says Goliath executive producer Lawrence Trilling, who decided to move the action from L.A. to San Francisco following the lawyer’s near-fatal shooting.
Up north, he reluctantly joins his old pal Patty (Nina Arianda) at a prestigious law firm, where they target a new corrupt Goliath: George Zax (J.K. Simmons), the ruthless CEO of his family’s pharmaceutical company, which aggressively markets opioids to agreeable doctors and pharmacies. (Don’t miss Simmons’ surreal song-and-dance number extolling the drug.)
As in any good noir story, the drama is fueled by several ambiguous characters. Among them? Frank (Bruce Dern), Billy’s eccentric neighbor with a surprising connection to the case, and two feuding law firm partners: the cofounder’s young widow, Ava (Lenora Crichlow), and his sympathetic daughter, Sam (Jena Malone).
As Billy throws himself into work, he also tries to heal his strained relationships with the women in his life, including his resentful daughter Denise (Diana Hopper). “He begins to understand how much pain his self-absorption has caused,” Trilling shares. In the end, he adds, “I think things are looking good for Billy.”
Goliath, Fourth and Final Season, Friday, September 24, Amazon Prime Video
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2021 Returning Favorites issue. For more inside scoop on the new fall TV season, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.
