S02.E04: The Illusion of Control

[MyAimIsTrue]

Bull hires an eccentric attorney to represent him when a celebrity sues him after his advice regarding her custody case backfires.

[dttruman]

Is it me or should this have never gone to trial? Wouldn't a judge throw out this whole thing because Bull only suggested the idea, but it was the others that failed in their jobs that let this situation transpire. She should be suing her own attorney who set up the visitation, or she should be suing the father for kidnapping. Bottom line, this episode was poorly conceived and it forced viewers to accept a lot of non realistic situations.

[marina to]

Yeah. My first response was "you can't sue for that!" Then I remembered that in the US they'll let you sue for anything. 

Boy, they're really taking our suggestion to heart to make Bull more human and fallible. Glenn Gordon Caron's doing, I suspect. Another episode I enjoyed and I'm glad there was an happy ending. This season is a lot of fun so far.

[brgjoe]

Yeah, that case seemed pretty thin.  Bull only mentioned the idea as a *possible* solution.  He's not a lawyer himself so he couldn't have drawn up a legal document himself to finalize the deal.  That should have been left up to the attorney's on her side.  And any due diligence that they didn't do should be on her law firm. 

And I admit, it didn't end quite they way I thought it would.  I actually thought that Bull would actually (gasp) lose the case.  But then they would find the kid and bring him back over and she would have the judgement thrown out now that she was reunited with her kid.  Am glad it ended with her and the child back together once again tho.

I know they are trying to humanize Bull more.  But I thought the outbursts were definitely way out of his character.  Even though the second one was more calculated on his part.

I thought Brad Garrett was great as the lawyer in this episode.  Wouldn't mind seeing his character return at some point.

[JackONeill]

7 hours ago, brgjoe said:

Yeah, that case seemed pretty thin.  Bull only mentioned the idea as a *possible* solution.  He's not a lawyer himself so he couldn't have drawn up a legal document himself to finalize the deal.  That should have been left up to the attorney's on her side.  And any due diligence that they didn't do should be on her law firm. 

And I admit, it didn't end quite they way I thought it would.  I actually thought that Bull would actually (

I thought Brad Garrett was great as the lawyer in this episode.  Wouldn't mind seeing his character return at some point.

I agree, and I’ve never been a Brad Garrett fan. But he seemed to be exactly what this show needed. One thing that bothers me though: Why no mention of Bull reaching out to the female attorneys (can’t remember their names) he’s worked/battled with? Was it something along the lines of Brad Garrett’s character being more of a “common man”? But it was some super well-known person who was suing Bull? I don’t understand the logic. (And, yes, I know it’s just a TV show.)

[shrewd.buddha]

After this episode, I think I'm going to need to stop watching. The writing has become so bad that all the actors seem like   caricatures instead of actual people. 
The cut-to scene of Benny and Chunk 'playing' with the child was all sorts of weird. And the not-Madonna celebrity  being able sneak into Bull's office for her 'dramatic' confrontation was also ridiculous.  

The trial was silly, unnecessary and somehow managed to hinge on  Marissa's sad past as a foster child. (Half the characters on TV these days seem to be neglected/abused foster children.) 

How could not-Madonna's team sue Bull personally and not his company? If they could prevent Marissa from doing her job just by calling her as a witness, why not call all  the team members as witnesses and eliminate all of Bull's help? Again - ridiculous. 

[snarkylady]

I watched the first 3-4 episodes last year and the shtick of how they went about getting the correct juror's panel wore thin.  Tuned in again last night because I wanted to see Brad Garrett in a serious role.  I thought he was fine but I was rolling my eyes at the plot nonsense.  Makes you wonder what they probably rejected in order to come up with what we saw last night. 

[Bobbin]

19 hours ago, dttruman said:

Is it me or should this have never gone to trial? Wouldn't a judge throw out this whole thing because Bull only suggested the idea, but it was the others that failed in their jobs that let this situation transpire. She should be suing her own attorney who set up the visitation, or she should be suing the father for kidnapping. Bottom line, this episode was poorly conceived and it forced viewers to accept a lot of non realistic situations.

It's human nature that agrieved parties often avoid confronting those people most directly responsible.

I would argue that cross-examining Marissa with a "J'accuse!" approach was unnecessarily confrontational. She would have given the same innocent testimony about her adoption experience if prompted without the accusatory bombast.

[dttruman]

8 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

After this episode, I think I'm going to need to stop watching. The writing has become so bad that all the actors seem like   caricatures instead of actual people. 
The cut-to scene of Benny and Chunk 'playing' with the child was all sorts of weird. And the not-Madonna celebrity  being able sneak into Bull's office for her 'dramatic' confrontation was also ridiculous.  

The trial was silly, unnecessary and somehow managed to hinge on  Marissa's sad past as a foster child. (Half the characters on TV these days seem to be neglected/abused foster children.) 

How could not-Madonna's team sue Bull personally and not his company? If they could prevent Marissa from doing her job just by calling her as a witness, why not call all  the team members as witnesses and eliminate all of Bull's help? Again - ridiculous. 

Are the writers taking the viewers for granted?  Do they think that the audience will believe even the most irrational of scenarios? Will the "Bull"'s show runner use the same excuse as CSI Miami when questioned about the quality of the writing? He said that the show's episodes are more about fantasy situations than about realism. I think that is just a lame excuse for coming up with legitimate plots.

[Sarah 103]

On October 17, 2017 at 10:08 PM, dttruman said:

Is it me or should this have never gone to trial? Wouldn't a judge throw out this whole thing because Bull only suggested the idea, but it was the others that failed in their jobs that let this situation transpire. She should be suing her own attorney who set up the visitation, or she should be suing the father for kidnapping. 

I had the exact same thought. It's always good to know I'm not the only one who thought it was strange. 

On October 18, 2017 at 1:18 AM, brgjoe said:

Yeah, that case seemed pretty thin.  Bull only mentioned the idea as a *possible* solution.  He's not a lawyer himself so he couldn't have drawn up a legal document himself to finalize the deal.  That should have been left up to the attorney's on her side.  And any due diligence that they didn't do should be on her law firm. 

I completely agree. He wasn't even in the room or part of the process for creating the final agreement, beyond suggesting the idea. She was the one who agreed to go forward. 

I like the idea of Bull being on trial, but this was the wrong way to do it. 

[JessDVD]

I liked the concept of this as the "Humanize Bull" campaign continues, but I felt like the execution fell short. While it would frustrate Bull to no end to have the juror he didn't like chosen, him bursting out like that seemed OOC to me, and then nothing even ever came of the 'wrong' juror being picked.

Since obviously Bull was going to be free at the end, I would have liked to have seen more of the trial, the prosecution spinning Bull as whatever it was that Brad Garrett's character (who can show up again, please) called him, how Brad Garrett defended Bull, etc. I always enjoy seeing the closing arguments as well.

And I thought this was a lame way to go about Bull being on trial. Now what might have been interesting, is if a previous plaintiff who lost while Bull was working for the defense (or the other way around) sued Bull & co for their work, although I have no idea if that's a sue-able situation (I know nearly nothing about law other than what I've seen on this show...).

[Destiny74]

My main thought was this...

Does this actress not have enough money to hire a mercenary of sorts to go to Ethiopia and get her son back?  I would’ve spent my last dime.

Also, Bull’s one woman investigation team flys to Ethiopia and not only finds the paperwork needed but also the kid to return to America.  Ok.  If I can buy that, why on God’s green earth did Ms. Famous Actress’s crappy ass law firm not figure it out?  They are probably a big money firm, they could afford an entire team of investigators to fly over.  The actress really dropped the ball on twisting that firm’s arm. 

I don’t know if I would have been a good enough person to let the father go.  He kidnapped my son, even when I was in the right but still willing to work with him so he could have a relationship with his son.  I guess I am just a horrible person.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice...

[Notwisconsin]

The ending was totally stupid. The father had he only record that showed he had given up all his parental rights. Why didn't he destroy it ages ago? What happened to the REAL mother. I know that this is based on a real incident, but still....the kid was trafficked by the orphanage and kidnapped by Ms. Famous Actress.

[sinkwriter]

Bull got pretty over-the-top with his outbursts, but I did like Brad Garrett's character taking him down a peg, telling him to stop acting like the egomaniac the opposition is going to paint him as. That was pretty marvelous. 

I also liked the stunned, slightly offended / hurt look on Benny's face when he first realized Bull wasn't going to have him lead the case and instead had brought in this seemingly eccentric guy to do the job. Nice touch. And that he put aside that hurt and supported Brad's suggestions showed grace.

[sinkwriter]

I agree with everyone here - the case was ridiculous and should have been thrown out. The very idea that the celebrity's own lawyers didn't even consider covering bases or ensuring measures in case the parents caused trouble is hard to believe. Especially after the spectacle the father made in public the day he tried to take his kid from her on the red carpet. How could they not have figured he might try something? They would have to be pretty incompetent. Lawyers usually have to think of things from all angles, don't they?

[sinkwriter]

Here's the big question: why didn't we get a final scene between Marisa and Bull? After her being surprised on the stand, using private information she told Bull in confidence, I expected at least a conversation between them about it in the end. I know she's smart enough to realize he didn't reveal it with the intent to hurt her, but I thought she'd still want to have a word with him. I think it would have been a good scene to have. Especially after the previous week's episode where she wasn't in the office when he thought she would be, and we saw Bull seeing Marisa with a different perspective, one that surprised (and possibly hurt) him. I just feel like they skipped the opportunity for character or relationship development.

[lh25]

Too many things that didn't make sense.  While I loved Brad Garrett's character, the plot just didn't make sense.  Why would the celeb have come to Bull for advise in the first place?  He's not a lawyer, and not a custody expert.  So, from the start I didn't buy it.  And yes, suing him for the advice was silly.  And I thought early on they said they couldn't use a mirror jury because of the celeb factor, then later made a comment about the mirror jury's reaction.  And of course in the end, Bull is shown to be just as wonderful as he thinks he is.

It just felt sloppy.

[Ceindreadh]

On 5/11/2017 at 7:53 PM, lh25 said:

Too many things that didn't make sense.  While I loved Brad Garrett's character, the plot just didn't make sense.  Why would the celeb have come to Bull for advise in the first place?  He's not a lawyer, and not a custody expert.  So, from the start I didn't buy it.  And yes, suing him for the advice was silly.  And I thought early on they said they couldn't use a mirror jury because of the celeb factor, then later made a comment about the mirror jury's reaction.  And of course in the end, Bull is shown to be just as wonderful as he thinks he is.

It just felt sloppy.

They said they couldn’t use the jury for the mock trial because it wasn’t effective in celebrity cases when the celebrity wasn’t in the mock courtroom.  Once the trial was underway the mirror jury was effective.