General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Your Honor

Your Honor is an American legal drama television series starring Bryan Cranston as Michael Desiato, a respected New Orleans judge who goes to extremes to protect his teenage son after a fatal hit-and-run accident. It premiered on Showtime on December 6, 2020, and is adapted from the Israeli series Kvodo (כבודו), created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach for the Yes satellite channel¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Original run	December 6, 2020 to March 19, 2023, on Showtime; two seasons, 20 hour-long episodes³
Lead	Bryan Cranston as Michael Desiato, a New Orleans judge; Hunter Doohan as his son Adam⁴
Source	Adapted from the Israeli series Kvodo, created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach, which aired on Yes from 2017 to 2019²
Developer	Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice, The Night Of); executive producers include Robert and Michelle King⁵^•⁶
Format reach	The Kvodo format has been adapted at least 12 times, including the US, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, Russia, India, and a Chinese-language version⁷
Streaming revival	The first two seasons premiered on Netflix in May 2024 and stayed in the top 10 for eight weeks, reaching number one⁶

Spoilers

Premise

The series follows Michael Desiato, a well-regarded New Orleans judge whose son Adam kills another teenager on a motorbike in a hit-and-run. Michael initially urges Adam to turn himself in, but changes his mind when he learns the victim was the son of Jimmy Baxter, the head of a powerful crime family who would likely have Adam killed. The cover-up triggers a chain of lies, deceit, and impossible choices that pushes Michael's morals to the brink⁸.

The plot is complicated by the fact that Michael and Adam are mourning the boy's mother, who recently died in what appears to be an accidental victim of street violence¹.

Cast

Bryan Cranston, known for his Emmy-winning role in Breaking Bad, leads the cast as Michael Desiato¹. The principal cast includes Hunter Doohan as Adam Desiato, Michael Stuhlbarg as crime boss Jimmy Baxter, Hope Davis as Jimmy's wife Gina Baxter, Carmen Ejogo as lawyer Lee Delamere, Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Charlie Figaro, a connected politician and Michael's best friend, and Sofia Black-D'Elia as Frannie Latimer, Adam's photography teacher⁴. Guest performers include Maura Tierney as prosecutor Fiona McKee, Amy Landecker, Margo Martindale, Lorraine Toussaint, Chet Hanks, and Lamar Johnson³.

Production and origin

The American series was developed for Showtime by British writer Peter Moffat, who deliberately avoided watching the Israeli original so that its strong voice would not deflect him from his own vision⁵. Executive producers include Robert and Michelle King, creators of The Good Wife, along with Liz Glotzer, Alon Aranya, Rob Golenberg, Cranston, James Degus, Ron Ninio, Shlomo Mashiach, Ram Landes, Ron Eilon, and Danna Stern; the studio is CBS Studios⁶.

The Israeli original, Kvodo, was created by director Ron Ninio and writer Shlomo Mashiach, produced by yes TV and Koda Communication, and ran for two seasons on Yes between 2017 and 2019². It was set in Be'er Sheva and the surrounding Bedouin villages in southern Israel, places rarely seen on screen⁹. Ninio has said that the more local the original production, the more each remake takes the story into its own country's judicial system and criminal landscape¹⁰.

Broadcast history

The show was initially conceived as a 10-episode limited series, but its success led Showtime to extend it to a second season⁸. It was confirmed in July 2022, six months before season two aired, that the series would end with that season⁸. The finale, "Chapter Twenty," aired on March 19, 2023³.

Netflix debuted the show's first two seasons in May 2024, where they held a top 10 position for eight weeks and climbed to first place.⁶ Cranston said in 2023 that Showtime had shown interest in more episodes, but no third season has been announced, and Paramount+ still lists the program as a two-season series¹¹.

Reception

Season one holds a Metascore of 59 on Metacritic, labeled "mixed or average" based on 32 critic reviews, while its user score of 6.6 is "generally favorable"¹². Sky describes the series as one of the most successful debuts on Showtime, which prompted its renewal⁸.

The Kvodo format worldwide

Kvodo won the Grand Prix at the 2017 Series Mania festival in Lille, France, and was an official selection at festivals including the Chicago Festival of Israeli Cinema and the Israel Film Festival in Los Angeles¹³. Ninio credits that Series Mania win with starting a wave of international interest².

Yes Studios, the distribution arm of yes TV, represents the format worldwide, and it has been remade in the US, India, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Turkey, Spain, South Korea, Ukraine, Hong Kong/Taiwan, and Greece¹³. A deal announced in February 2025 with Hong Kong-based Ladder Ideas made the Chinese-language version the 10th adaptation and the first Israeli drama to be remade in Chinese¹⁴; by later count the format had reached 12 adaptations, with Ukrainian and Chinese versions in production⁷. The German-language version, a three-part adaptation filmed in Tyrol and Vienna, was a coproduction between Germany's SquareOne Entertainment and Austria's Mona Film, with Sebastian Koch in the lead¹⁵^•¹⁶.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Adapted and franchise screen series › Remakes and foreign-format adapted series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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