Lawyer Ligas: an Italian legal drama with international appeal

Lorenzo Ligas is one of the most brilliant criminal lawyers in Milan, an attorney endowed with an instinctive intuition, capable of transforming infinitesimal details into procedural weapons. He works for one of the most prestigious law firms in the city and seems to have it all: talent, charm, and a reputation as a ladies' man. But the protagonist of Lawyer Ligas also has a notable propensity for getting into trouble.

When he is caught in bed with his boss's wife, he is fired on the spot. Forced to start from scratch, he decides to take on the most complicated and desperate cases, those that no other lawyer would have the courage or desire to undertake. Beside him is Marta, a young, strongly idealistic trainee, convinced that every accused person has the right to a defense. While facing difficult and morally ambiguous trials, Ligas must also contend with the problems of a private life that is anything but idyllic, with the tense relationship with his ex-wife Patrizia and his daughter Laura, and the increasingly heated duels with public prosecutor Anna Maria Pastori.

A protagonist to love and hate

It doesn't take long to present him as a modern anti-hero: arrogant, cynical, often out of place. He has a weakness for gin and tonics and beautiful women – in many cases several years younger than him – he is always late, he gets into situations that would make anyone lose patience, and he doesn't have a particular respect for rules.

But despite all these flaws, Lawyer Ligas is also someone who perfectly understands the mechanisms of justice, sharing no romantic illusions but making pragmatism his main strength. He reiterates that he feels more comfortable in the role of defender than in that of judge, ready to stand by those who make mistakes, perhaps because he sees himself in them, as brazen as he is consciously fallible.

"Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum" (To err is human, to persist is diabolical) and Luca Argentero's character, sufficiently over-the-top in a role that seems tailor-made for him, seems to abuse it to exhaustion. The very choice to build such an ambiguous protagonist is one of the most interesting elements of the series, especially in a domestic television landscape populated by upright figures – to which the actor himself, it must be said, has elsewhere contributed – apart from questionable criminal exceptions that, however, fall outside the discussion. Ligas is an enigmatic and controversial figure who lives on the razor's edge, capable of both charming and irritating. An individual who knows he can convince any judge of his client's innocence, but who at the same time always seems on the verge of sabotaging himself.

A potentially exportable product

The influence of modern legal dramas or crime shows like The Lincoln Lawyer is evident, as is the rapid editing that meticulously reconstructs our protagonist's musings through details and extemporaneous, brilliant, and sudden intuitions. A high-paced style, with dynamic enough direction that exploits the urban context of metropolitan Milan. While the staging is effective, the screenplay proves to be engaging but does not shy away from some missteps, especially in the management of secondary and supporting elements.

Forced situations appear evident here and there, with things happening as they should "just because," while the casting, despite having found its battering ram, does not maintain consistent quality, with that popular seriality vibe peeking through on several occasions during the six episodes that make up this first season. The writing works better in the purely technical phases, being co-written by Federico Baccomo, a screenwriter with a past as a lawyer and therefore able to provide firsthand information and details to make the misadventures of this unconventional colleague more credible.