The wait for Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 might feel impossible, but other great courtroom and legal movies and TV shows can effectively fill the time and keep audiences entertained. Based on the Lincoln Lawyer books by Michael Connelly, the eponymous TV show has become one of Netflix’s best originals, garnering a pᴀssionate audience. Like other courtroom dramas, the show explores humanity and its connection to criminality, the meaning of right and wrong, and all the gray areas that exists.
The Lincoln Lawyer season 3 provided the most enthralling case yet, uncovering the true idenтιтy of Glory Days’ killer and the connected conspiracy. The ending sets up Mickey’s most difficult case for the next season, though. Instead of defending another person, Mickey Haller will have to defend himself after he’s arrested on murder charges for the death of his former client, Sam Scales. Netflix renewed the show, but filming for The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 only recently started filming. While waiting for more episodes, fans can check out other great courtroom and legal dramas to satiate their appeтιтes.
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How To Get Away With Murder (2014-2020)
Viola Davis Leads This Compelling And Soapy TV Show
The wait for The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 might be a while, and How To Get Away with Murder is a great subsтιтute in the meantime. Led by the Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis, How To Get Away With Murder is sharp and compelling. The show follows a defense attorney and law professor named Annalise Keating who selects a group of students to intern at her law firm during a murder case.
Like The Lincoln Lawyer, it has just the right balance of legal preparation, courtroom scenes, and interpersonal drama. The soapy feel of How To Get Away With Murder shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes produced it. However, the show still feels driven by the actual murder and court cases.
7
Primal Fear (1996)
A Courtroom Drama That Questions Truth & Justice
Like most films similar to The Lincoln Lawyer, Primal Fear approaches criminal court cases from the perspective of a defense attorney rather than a prosecutor. The movie centers on Martin Vail (Richard Gere), a defense attorney known for taking on high-profile cases with frequently guilty clients. He takes on a 19-year-old alter boy named Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton), who’s accused of killing a Catholic bishop, as a client and comes to believe Aaron’s actually innocent.
While this movie is compelling, it does include inaccurate and dated information about Dissociative Idenтιтy Disorder that could upset some viewers.
Although Primal Fear is a clear-cut courtroom drama by story and structure, the movie lives up to its name, injecting every moment with tension, doubt, and fear. Primal Fear’s ending feels like it’s pulled directly out of a Mickey Haller case, so it’s the perfect choice to keep the momentum and excitement going while waiting for The Lincoln Lawyer season 4.
6
12 Angry Men (1957)
One Of The Best Legal Movies Of All Time
Throughout The Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller and the other employees of his law firm have a deep appreciation and understanding for the fact that human biases are just as crucial in court cases as facts and evidence. This intrinsic belief is the cornerstone of the 1957 movie 12 Angry Men, which is considered one of the best movies of all time. Like The Lincoln Lawyer, 12 Angry Men explores the idea of evidence, reasonable doubt, and biases in a court case.
The film follows twelve jurors who must deliberate on the guilt of a young man who’s accused of murdering his father. Ultimately, as Mickey suggests in The Lincoln Lawyer season 1, episode 5, “Twelve Lemmings in a Box,” the prejudices of the jury influence their initial votes in 12 Angry Men. The movie could be a refresher, prior to The Lincoln Lawyer season 4, of what Mickey would have to navigate if he goes to trial for murder.
5
Saint Omer (2022)
A French Courtroom Movie With Plenty Of Heart
The Lincoln Lawyer is just as much a story about people than it is a story about court cases and trials. The showrunners are experts at crafting morally nuanced characters who are easy to empathize with, even if they make questionable choices. One courtroom movie that feels akin to this is Saint Omer. Unlike most courtroom TV shows and movies that lean more heavily into the legal drama category, Saint Omer feels like a true courtroom story.
In the French 2022 film, a novelist named Rama (Kayije Kagame) travels to Saint-Omer, France, for the trial of a Senegalese woman named Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who’s accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter. The slow-burn story brings an open mind when questioning right, wrong, and the truth – a philosophy integrated into The Lincoln Lawyer as well. I can easily imagine Mickey Haller empathizing with the experiences of Laurence Coly and trying to help her through her trial.
4
Reasonable Doubt (2022-Present)
Hulu’s Best Courtroom TV Show Infused With Plenty Of Drama
Hulu’s legal drama, Reasonable Doubt, has a similar premise to The Lincoln Lawyer, which makes it the perfect watch while waiting for season 4. In Reasonable Doubt, Jax Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi) is a former public defender who becomes known as one of the best defense attorneys in Los Angeles. The show follows her high-profile cases and her love life in a gloriously soapy drama.
Like Mickey Haller, Jax Stewart knows how to use the law to her advantage, even when it involves questionable morality. She and Mickey also view the justice system as deeply flawed, seeing her job as an integral protection against injustice. Reasonable Doubt has an impressive 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, and Hulu renewed the show for season 3 at the end of 2024.
3
Suits (2011-2019)
A Legal TV Show That Will Last Viewers Quite A While
The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 likely won’t be released on Netflix until late 2025 or early 2026. While waiting for the new season, Suits is the perfect show to stream. Suits rides the line between a legal and courtroom drama, leaning slightly more towards the former while still dabbling in elements of the latter. The show follows a college dropout named Mike Ross, who gets hired at a law firm without a law degree because of his pH๏τographic memory.
Based on sheer quanтιтy, Suits could fill a large portion of the wait time unless binge-watching the show since it includes 134 episodes across 9 seasons. Additionally, Suits is packed with just as much interpersonal drama and narrative twists as The Lincoln Lawyer, keeping viewers guessing at times.
2
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
A Hilarious Courtroom Movie With Surprisingly Accurate Law
Although The Lincoln Lawyer primarily includes drama and tension, it also has moments of comedy, mainly driven by Mickey Haller’s happy-go-lucky atтιтude. Viewers who enjoy these moments of the show need to watch the film My Cousin Vinny while waiting for The Lincoln Lawyer season 4. The 1992 movie tells the story of an inexperienced New York lawyer named Vinny who comes to Alabama to defend his cousin and his cousin’s friend after they’re wrongly indicted for the murder of a convenience store shopkeeper.
My Cousin Vinny will keep viewers laughing thanks to the incredible performances of Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, and Fred Gwynne. The TV show and film also have another mᴀssive similarity that will make My Cousin Vinny more enjoyable. The legal comedy film accurately depicts some elements of the law, which aligns with The Lincoln Lawyer getting parts of the law right.
1
The Night Of (2016)
The Perfect Miniseries To Binge-Watch For Fans Of The Lincoln Lawyer
While waiting for The Lincoln Lawyer season 4, fans can check out a 2016 miniseries that’s enthralling. In 2016, HBO released an eight-part courtroom drama miniseries called The Night Of, which expands the story from the first season of the anthological British show Criminal Justice. The story follows a Pakistani-American college student named Nasir “Naz” Khan (Riz Ahmed), who wakes up to a woman named Andrea (Sofia Black-D’Elia) stabbed to death. Naz gets charged with her murder, and a defense attorney named John Stone (John Turturro) takes him on as a client, leading to a tense, dramatic, and thrilling story.
The Night Of’s tone feels more like True Detective than The Lincoln Lawyer, but it will still appeal to fans of the Netflix show because it scrutinizes the legal system in the same way. Additionally, the story of The Night Of builds at the same pace as one season of The Lincoln Lawyer, with the story building up over the course of multiple episodes, leading to the climactic trial in the final few.
