Critic Reviews

After a strong pilot episode, Goliath felt like it was starting to find its rhythm in episode two. The series moved to the courtroom and McBride's legal acumen was on full display. It was impressive albeit familiar ground.

This is all one big story, but each episode builds to an interesting climax that drives the story forward, and there's not the usual sag you get with a lot of the serialized Amazon and Netflix dramas.

What’s there so far is damn entertaining TV, but steady updates in the upcoming episodes could make Goliath truly mighty.

In “Fargo,” Thornton’s character was pure evil, but in Goliath he's just flawed--despicable at times, but with a good heart that shows often as he pursues justice against his old law firm and partner. This one’s quite bingeworthy.

Unlike many streaming dramas, each episode of Goliath has a satisfying internal structure, and the series exudes a notable sense of forward movement. This allows the stellar cast to wring evocative moments of intensity, pathos, and sly humor from the solid spine constructed by Kelley and his writers.

Bolstered by as A-list a cast as anything on TV (with the exception of “Westworld” perhaps) and tighter, less showy writing than we’ve come to expect from Kelley, Goliath cruises through boardrooms of billion-dollar law firms and seedy bars populated with lowlifes with equal amounts of confidence.

The show has the kind of jaunty professionalism of a John Grisham novel, in which an outmatched lawyer takes on a, yes, goliath, and usually wins at great personal expense.

Thanks to Thornton’s consistent performance and the addition of heavy hitters like J.K. Simmons and Bruce Dern, it’s more than worth your while.

The show nonetheless sails along thanks to a full tank of Billy Bob. [14 Oct 2016, p.52]

What keeps Goliath watchable, and it's certainly quite watchable, is the superlative ensemble cast, particularly Billy Bob Thornton, whose gift at taking predictably quirky characters and making the beats of that quirkiness slightly off-kilter is close to unmatched.