In Your Honor, Bryan Cranston plays a judge trying to cover up his son’s crime. Its writer thought he was unshockable – until he went to America to research its justice system
What would you do if your child killed someone in a hit and run? “The answer,” says Peter Moffat, “is fairly obvious. You have to take your child to the police station.” But what if it turns out the victim was the son of the biggest mob boss in New Orleans? “You turn around,” says Moffat. “You can’t send them off into probable death. That’s not something any parent can do.”
This conundrum forms the centre of Moffat’s new drama, Your Honor, a remake of the hit Israeli show Kvodo. In it, Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston plays another father bending the rules for the benefit of his family – this time Judge Michael Desiato, who is forced to confront the consequences of protecting his own son from the justice system he upholds. As he scrambles to cover up the crime, using his legal connections at every turn, Desiato sucks others into the case – and is forced to face the damage his own desperation has caused. Desiato, says Moffat, “knows how the system functions, how he can manoeuvre it to his advantage. It just felt great to write.”
