‘Bull’ episode 5 review: False confessions and elevator mayhem
Is Dr. Jason Bull a perfect person? Far from it. He’s cocky at times, unlucky in love, and is so focused at times on his relationships that he allows almost the entirety of his personal life to fall apart regularly.
When he’s on the job (as he was during Tuesday night’s “Bull“), that’s when we see him as a bit of a folk hero. He fights often for the little guy, and he did that on Tuesday night’s new episode, turning aside a rather lucrative payday in order to defend someone accused of murder. Originally, the victim’s socialite parents wanted to hire him, but he opted to go in a different direction. When the trial started to hit some bumps in terms of jurors who weren’t altogether receptive to the strategy, we started to see his team resort to more manipulation than ever before, getting much of the jury stuck in an elevator long enough for them to search within themselves.
While we could talk more about the elevator scene since there was some humor in here, we do want to go back and praise the writers for telling the story of Richard, the accused suspect who lacked money or resources. His attorney, with Bull’s help, argued that Detective Murphy coerced his client into making a false confession in order to make his job easier. It is something that does at times happen in real life; the struggle here is getting a jury to buy into the concept of an under-duress confession like this.
Bull’s strategy worked, and yet again, our hero helped to clear the name of he man he proclaimed innocent. While we’ve been critical at times of the show being formulaic, there was something about this particular case that was more emotional than clinical. Maybe it was in part because of Bull’s intent to get justice for the victim while also preserving the future of his client. He was sympathetic to the family of the deceased, but not at the expense of an innocent man.
While “Bull” may still need to figure out how to tell complex, long-form stories, this episode proved to be so much better than we thought it would be through the first ten or fifteen minutes. There were enough twists in the case to satisfy, and there was a different energy than we’re used to. Grade: B+.
We’ll have a preview for next week’s “Bull” and more soon over at this link. (Photo: CBS.)