Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, J.K. Simmons, Bruce Dern, Nina Arianda, Jena Malone, Elias Koteas, William Hurt, Haley Joel Osment
The fourth and final Goliath season mostly returns to the formula which made season one a success. If you let Billy Bob Thornton do this thing in the courtroom and behind the scenes, you have a deliciously entertaining drama on your hands. Goliath cuts down on the hallucinations and bad dreams which haunt Billy McBride (Thornton), although not entirely. Billy deals with his near-death experience by dreaming that he's waiting for the train in High Noon. The train represents death, and so on. The fantasy sequences don't work nearly as well as Billy's battle with three Big Pharma drug manufacturers who knowingly addicted their customers.
The ringleader of the Big Pharma defendants is George Zak (Simmons), who is gleefully ruthless in his pursuit of the almighty dollar. He justifies his actions by stating he is in the "pain management" business and is willing to step on his own son and niece if they stand in his way. Zak cuts a shady deal with the head of the firm, Samantha (Malone) going after him. The three manufacturers will settle for relative pittances and the firm will receive its cut. McBride is called in to the case at the request of Patti (Arianda), his longtime friend and partner who is aiming to become partner in the firm. Samantha is a walking conflict of interest who suffers from MS who has an eleventh hour change of heart that apparently spares her from prosecution or disbarment. If you consider she has the original lead attorney on the case Tom True (Koteas) murdered, you wonder how the show fails to deal with the consequences of her actions.
Billy also has another meeting with his longtime enemy Donald Cooperman (Hurt) in which we find out Donald has someone out there he despises worse than Billy. Their reconciliation is handled in a subtly touching way, which is better because it's unexpected. Besides Thornton, who is such a natural fit for the sardonic, cynical McBride, season four of Goliath is populated with deft supporting performances all around. It isn't just the Billy Bob Thornton show, although it wouldn't be a horrible thing if it were.
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