I recently got through watching Your Honor on Netflix.
It was a fairly decent show; it definitely kept my attention, and Bryan Cranston is just a phenomenal actor.
But I’m here to tell y’all court is not like what they show on TV.
After sitting through the double murder trial against Derrick Hightower late last year, I’ve become a critic of these cops and courts shows. I find myself yelling at the TV, “That’s not how this works!”
To put it bluntly, court is boring.
Over the course of a several week murder trial, there were definitely a few edge-of-your-seat moments. But they were fair outweighed by the mundane-ness of what a trial is actually like.
“Did you receive this envelope in a signed and sealed condition?”
“Did you transport said envelope in its signed and sealed condition?”
“Did you retrieve the envelope from the evidence locker in a signed and sealed condition?”
And “Did you bring that envelope to court in its same signed and sealed condition?”
Over and over, piece of evidence after piece of evidence. The same set of questions.
Over and over.
Signed and sealed condition. Signed and sealed condition.
Then onto the next person. “Did you receive this piece of evidence in a signed and sealed condition?”
Again and again.
There’s very few “Gotcha!” moments like they show on TV. It’s mostly about signed and sealed conditions.
But what’s really unrealistic about TV is how judges and lawyers insert themselves into cases. What was most frustrating about Your Honor was Cranston, who plays the judge, was basically a player in the case. There was one point where a 911 call was played for the jury — with no evidentiary hearing prior — and Cranston quite literally narrates the call.
Without giving too many spoilers away, Cranston describes what’s allegedly happening during the call without any evidence to support it. Ultimately, he’s trying to fix the case — and it works.
I was screaming at my TV so loud in this moment. “This would never happen in real life! Judges don’t do that!”
I also watch a lot of true crime documentaries — less so since I became a news editor, if I’m being honest. And even those shows don’t really depict what the ins and outs of a trial are really like.
Of course, in a three-hour documentary or even a 10-episode long show, TV producers and directors want the most action on screen. If they spent as much time on the evidentiary stuff as happens in real life, it’d be a waste of someone’s time to watch.
But I would highly encourage folks in the public to experience a real trial at some point in their lives. It’s an eye-opening experience to be sure. There are tons of very important cases coming up on the docket, especially in Tallapoosa County, and it’s important for the public to understand what the justice system is really like.
Lizi Arbogast Gwin is the managing editor of Tallapoosa Publishers Inc. She can be reached at 434-962-9420 or via email at lizi.gwin@alexcityoutlook.com.
