Bull (2016 TV series)

Cast and characters

Michael Weatherly portrays Dr. Jason Bull, a psychologist with three Ph.D.s and a pilot's license who owns TAC. He failed the bar exam twice despite holding a JD, and had a difficult childhood. Freddy Rodriguez plays Benjamin 'Benny' Colón, Bull's former brother-in-law and TAC's in-house counsel, who leaves in season 5 to run for District Attorney and later moves to Rome. Geneva Carr plays Marissa Morgan, a psychologist and neurolinguistics expert who developed TAC's predictive algorithm; she briefly leaves in season 6 to join a rival company.

Christopher Jackson plays Chester 'Chunk' Palmer, a former Vogue fashion stylist and All-American football player who prepares clients for court, attends law school, and becomes lead attorney after Benny's departure. Jaime Lee Kirchner plays Danielle 'Danny' James, the team's lead investigator and former NYPD and FBI officer. Annabelle Attanasio plays Cable McCrory, the team's computer expert and hacker, who is killed off-screen in the season 3 premiere. MacKenzie Meehan joined the main cast in season 3 in a similar role.

Production

CBS gave the pilot a pilot order on February 2, 2016, with the episode written by Phil McGraw and Paul Attanasio. Executive producers included Jay McGraw, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Mark Goffman, Steven Spielberg, and Rodrigo Garcia. Production companies involved were Amblin Television, Atelier Paul Attanasio, Stage 29 Productions, and CBS Television Studios. The series was ordered to series on May 13, 2016, and premiered in fall 2016 on Tuesdays at 9:00 P.M. CBS picked it up for a full season of 22 episodes in November 2016.

The series was renewed for a second season on March 23, 2017, a third season on April 18, 2018, a fourth season on May 9, 2019, a fifth season in May 2020, and a sixth season on April 15, 2021. The fifth season was trimmed to 16 episodes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On January 18, 2022, it was reported that the sixth season would be the final season. Annabelle Attanasio did not return for season 3 to direct an independent film.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a 22% approval rating based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 4/10. The critical consensus noted that Michael Weatherly's performance was strong but the show relied on legal show tropes and an off-putting premise. Metacritic assigned a score of 40 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews.