Netflix has confirmed ‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘ Season 5 has started filming in Los Angeles, with Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother, Secret Invasion) returning as series regular Emi Finch. That alone is enough to make this worth flagging, but what makes it more interesting is what Emi appears to mean for the story going forward.
Viewers already got a first glimpse of Emi in the Season 4 cliffhanger, when Mickey discovered he had a half-sister he never knew existed. Now, with Season 5 officially underway and Netflix confirming the new run is based on Michael Connelly’s Resurrection Walk, it is becoming much clearer why she matters.
In the novel, Mickey Haller teams up with his half-brother Harry Bosch to help free a woman they believe was wrongly convicted. That works perfectly well on the page, but it creates an obvious issue for the TV adaptation. While ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ sits at Netflix, Bosch is already tied to Amazon’s live-action Connelly universe, which continues through ‘Ballard‘ and the upcoming prequel ‘Bosch: Start Of Watch‘.
That means a straight screen version of Resurrection Walk was always going to need some reworking, and Emi Finch looks like the answer. Rather than trying to create a thinly disguised Bosch substitute, the Netflix series appears to be reshaping that side of the story around Mickey’s newly discovered sister, giving the show a fresh family dynamic while still keeping the emotional and investigative engine of the book intact.
According to the official Season 5 synopsis, Mickey’s world is upended when Emi comes to him with a plea to help free a wrongfully convicted woman. The case centres on a gruelling habeas petition aimed at overturning a six-year-old murder conviction, but as Mickey digs deeper, he finds himself pulled into a far darker web of corruption, lies and buried secrets. For a season already being framed around blood ties and fractured family history, Emi is clearly not just a supporting addition. She looks set to be central to the entire story.
That also gives Smulders far more to do than simply turning up as a last-minute tease. If Season 4 introduced Emi as a hook, Season 5 seems ready to turn her into one of the most significant pieces on the board. And in adaptation terms, that is probably the smartest move the show could make. It lets Netflix stay close to the spirit of Resurrection Walk without crashing headfirst into the reality that Bosch belongs to another streaming franchise.
Alongside Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Magnificent Seven, The Night Agent), the returning cast includes Becki Newton (Ugly Betty), Jazz Raycole (Jericho), and Angus Sampson (Fargo), with Neve Campbell (Scream), Krista Warner (The Cleaning Lady), Angelica Maria (The House of Flowers), and Gigi Zumbado (Bridge and Tunnel) back as recurring guest stars.
Season 5 also adds a raft of new recurring cast members, including Chris Diamantopoulos (The Sticky), Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law), Diane Guerrero (Doom Patrol), Iker Garcia (The Pitt), Patty Guggenheim (Twisted Metal), Richard Cabral (Mayans), Steve Howey (Shameless), and Teresa Maria (Narcos Mexico).
So yes, the immediate news is that ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ is back filming in LA. But the more intriguing part is what that production update confirms about the shape of Season 5. Emi Finch is not just an extension of the Season 4 cliffhanger. She may well be the show’s solution to its Harry Bosch problem.
‘The Lincoln Lawyer‘ Season 5 does not yet have a premiere date but will air on Netflix. If you want to keep track of this or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date. Visit Never Miss.
Login to Geektown