“Your Honor” left the air last weekend after a season that, despite its very strong start, devolved into serious over-plottedness and at times inadvertent humor. It became work watching Bryan Cranston’s Judge Michael Desiato break bad badly, with twists and turns that led nowhere, and slowly. The more balls Michael had in the air, as he tried to cover up his son’s accident, the sillier it all began to seem.
The finale was maddening, with an unnecessary and infuriating last-minute twist (which I won’t spoil here, in case there are masochists still hoping to watch). The writers had set up far too much to resolve satisfyingly, so I was not surprised. Somewhere out there in the TV cosmos, loose threads from “Your Honor” are floating into eternity.
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Interestingly, “Your Honor” has been a huge success for Showtime. The 10-episode limited series has reached some record-breaking ratings highs for the channel. Recently, an episode drew 7.4 million viewers across all platforms, and the average number of viewers for the season is approaching 7 million. Them’s “Homeland”-like numbers.
Will there be a second season? “Your Honor” has been billed as a limited series, which usually means one and done. But that label hasn’t stopped other limited series from expanding into regular multi-season shows — “Big Little Lies,” for example. With those ratings, I’m betting Showtime will try to lure all the talent back for another round.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at matthew.gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.