DVD Review: Bull Season 5

 

The 16-episode fifth season of Bull aired during the 2020/2021 TV season. It is the first season that aired post-covid-lockdown, so it is shorter (just the16 episodes), started later in the year (November), and incorporated the pandemic into the storylines (mostly the use of masks and social distancing in nearly every scene). The first episode, Corona, was a totally covid-centric episode that saw the characters break the fourth wall at the end to welcome the fans back. After that, the show continued with its case-of-the-week format procedural stories, with the effects of the pandemic always looming in the background. 

The DVD set is a four-disc MOD set. It does not have captions in any language, and the only extras are deleted scenes for some, but not all, episodes. The length of the deleted scenes for a given episode ranges from about 35 seconds to over 6 minutes. Overall, the show does a good job with the ensemble cast, providing all of the main characters one-centric episode and then having actual story arcs for others. The focus is still on Bull and this season. Specifically, his relationship with Izzy. Benny had the second-largest arc of the season as he mulls a run for district attorney. Chunk and Miranda are also more involved in the cases this year, with Chunk acting as lead attorney in many of TAC's cases. Of course, given that Chunk is just out of law school, in the real world, he would be a junior associate who would never talk in court based on his experience level. 

Overall, the show has evolved a lot since season one. The days of focusing a ton on jury selection and the mirror jury are over. The show presumes that the audience understands that (although people just jumping into the show this season may not get the complete idea). The show deals with many real-world issues, including BLM, the "Me Too" movement (which is a bit ironic given Eliza Dushku's allegations against Michael Weatherly), and the like. The show continues to be strong, and I can mostly watch it, even as a lawyer, without getting too nit-picky. While the writers get a lot of the court stuff right, they totally dramatize some aspects of what a real case would be like for TV (such as the length of time from the incident or crime until the trial, how witness questioning actually works, etc.). Hilariously, in one episode, a witness is asked why he has no bruises as if a trial would occur a week or so after the incident that prompted it. But, if you can overlook things like that and the lawyers testifying when they question witnesses, it can be an enjoyable show even for those of us who know what they are taking creative license with. Ultimately, I cannot say that everyone who was a fan of the first couple of seasons will automatically like this season because it has changed quite a bit from season 1. However, the show is still well-written and acted and worth checking out.