What Went Wrong With Your Honor, Bryan Cranston's First "Rotten" TV Show On Rotten Tomatoes

Your Honor was Bryan Cranston’s highly anticipated television follow-up to Breaking Bad, but the series did not even come close to matching the latter’s quality. After Breaking Bad wrapped, Cranston could seemingly do no wrong, having dedicated 62 episodes and five seasons to one of the greatest television series ever made and making Walter White one of television’s most iconic and profound anti-heroes. Cranston starred in a few movies after Breaking Bad ended, such as 2014’s Godzilla, 2015’s Trumbo, and 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3 and Why Him?, and had a recurring role in Sneaky Pete.

Your Honor was expected to mark Cranston’s celebrated return to starring in a television series that had many people calling it Breaking Bad’s replacement in a way. However, after two lackluster seasons that resulted in the series earning just a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, Your Honor was not picked up for a season 3. The series was created by Peter Moffat, who was behind the celebrated HBO limited series The Night Of starring Riz Ahmed and John Turturro. Outside of Cranston’s leading role, Your Honor’s cast consisted of Hope Davis, Michael Stuhlbarg, Lilli Kay, and Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Your Honor Was Criticized For Its Derivative Storyline & Writing

Your Honor’s storytelling failed to deliver

Despite Cranston giving a great performance as Michael Desiato, a respected judge who gets wrapped up in a world of organized crime through a mistake by his son, Your Honor failed to deliver on the storytelling front. Because Breaking Bad was so rich in its storytelling thanks to the brilliance of Vince Gilligan and other writers such as Moira Walley-Beckett and Peter Gould, expectations were sky-high for Your Honor and the series simply fell flat. After a strong and compelling premiere episode, the series struggled to find its footing throughout its first season and was unable to gain consistent momentum in its narrative.

Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote in his review of Your Honor season 1, “It feels like we’re wallowing in misery that no one has to go through, and the effect isn’t thrilling but dreadful. Perhaps later episodes will find stronger footing, but for now, don’t worry about it.” Dan Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter noted, “The series struggles to give us an anchor for who or what Michael Desiato’s character was before the series’ inciting event.” James Poniewozik of The New York Times shared similar sentiments, writing, “The characters feel like stock illustrations in a moral-philosophy seminar hypothetical… The result is an out-of-whack ratio of acting talent to material.”

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Your Honor Was Frequently Compared Unfavorably To Bryan Cranston’s Breaking Bad

Your Honor had massive shoes to fill after Breaking Bad

Any television series starring Bryan Cranston after 2013 was bound to be inevitably compared to Breaking Bad, which certainly added another layer of pressure and criticism for Your Honor. While the vast majority of television series belong in the category of being worse than Breaking Bad, critics and fans both set the bar high for Cranston’s follow-up, which is likely why it took him seven years to take on a leading role in a new drama series. While the comparisons of Your Honor to Breaking Bad are fundamentally unfair, they don’t have much to do with why the show was dropped after two seasons.

Walter White became such a monumental figure in television that it’s difficult to see Cranston in any project nowadays and not immediately go back to his masterful performance in Breaking Bad. In a sense, Walter White has become such a landmark in television history that Cranston can’t ever really escape it. Fortunately for him, as Walter descended into the cold-bloodied Heisenberg and continued to don his classic bald profile, he started to look less and less like Cranston in other roles, which is partly why his performance is so transcendent. Still, even Cranston’s next leading role in a drama series, which has yet to be announced, will draw Breaking Bad comparisons.

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Why Your Honor Season 2 Was Such A Big Improvement From Season 1

Your Honor season 2 tried to make good use of its stellar cast

Your Honor season 2 received more critical acclaim than season 1 did, earning a 67% and a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics mostly agreed that even though Your Honor season 2 was nearly as unrefined and underwhelming as season 1, it was still entertaining in disjointed parts and was overall an improvement from the first season. The additional praise was not enough for Showtime to pick the series up for season 3, making “Part Twenty” which aired on March 19, 2024, the unintentional series finale. Your Honor had the ingredients to become something great but even with Cranston’s efforts, it ultimately couldn’t make the cut.