History Series / Bull

Creator/MichaelWeatherly stars as Dr. Jason Bull, a brilliant psychologist who uses his intimate knowledge of human behavior to better understand what motivates a jury to decide the guilt or innocence of someone on trial. Together with his team at Trial Analysis Corporation, Bull uses the science of human behavior and interaction to help his clients prove their innocence in court.

The show has aired for six seasons.

* InsistentTerminology: Diana is the only person Bull lost to in court, but he insists he just "not won".

* ThePerryMasonMethod: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for most of the murder cases. Even when one of the witnesses is the real killer, the case is rarely solved by having them confess on the stand. Usually, they're arrested on suspicion of murder ''after'' the trial is over and the defendant is found innocent by other means.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The episode "It's Classified" is a striking resemblance to the Bradley Manning case.
** "Snatchback" is one for child abduction cases that concern Japanese nationals who kidnap their own child from their foreign spouse and fly to Japan since it didn't sign the Hague Convention until 2014. Russia is a HC member country in 2011, so the episode is incorrect on that detail.[[note]]The declaration mentions that Russia has "reservations" on using it under bad faith and incorrect presentation and interpretation of facts and law with regards to Ukraine if it involves the breakway areas of Donetsk and Lughansk.[[/note]]

* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: In "False Positive" Veridipoint manage to beat the case against them for causing Corey Rice's death through their faulty algorithm. However, Bull gets suspicious that they offered to settle even though they were winning and ends up uncovering wider corrupt business practices by Veridipoint. One anonymous tip later and Veridipoint is facing bankruptcy with their CEO on the way to prison for securities fraud.

** In "Flesh and Blood", TAC talks about how their case can be made a mistrial after Benny had to go to the hospital after his appendix bursted while in a court session.
** Season 5 has Bull thrown by the Covid pandemic is affecting his work. With courtrooms now doing away with as many people inside as possible, Bull has to watch via monitors which don't allow him the same "read the room" feeling and jurors are selected via a monitor from a nearby station, which makes it harder for Bull to fully test them. Also, because everyone is wearing masks, Bull and the team can no longer judge by the micro-expressions and thus be unable to adapt to how jurors are reacting as they normally would.
** The episode "Uneasy Lies the Crown" has Bull being detained on a judge's orders because a witness reportedly spotting him encountering one of the juror in a case against Smokestack and trying to influence him to make the cas go against the company.

* EcoTerrorist: At the start of the episode "Dirty Little Secret", a bombing takes place that was said to be done by eco-terrorists. [[spoiler: At the end, it's revealed that an international consortium is trying to frame them.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the third episode, as evidence is presented at trial [[spoiler: that the murdered's teammates were using steroids]].

* MockMillionaire: Bull thinks he's finally landed a high-priced client, a woman accused of killing her rich husband for his $25 million life insurance. Bull goes to the mansion to meet with the family and his expert eye spots there's a lot of dust around and absolutely no staff. It turns out the husband had gambled away their money (including their daughter's college fund) and they were bankrupt and keeping up appearances. Bull is upset as this plays into a motive for the woman killing him. As it turns out, [[spoiler: it was the man himself who hired a hit man to kill him so his family could be well off.]]

* ChekhovsSkill: Bull has had to correct people every now and then that he is ''not'' a lawyer. He is a psychiatrist. One or two criminals he's defended but didn't have evidence against, got themselves convicted when they confided an important bit of information to him, thinking Lawyer-Client Confidentiality would protect them. Because he's not a lawyer, this doesn't apply to him.

* NoPronunciationGuide: In one episode, Bull introduces a new staff member who hails from Wollongong, Australia. Bull pronounces it "Woll-on-gong", which is considered a cringeworthy pronunciation to Australians, who pronounce it "'''WOOL'''-en-gong". While an American mangling an Australian word is nothing new to Australians, what makes the scene especially absurd is that the supposedly Australian character is standing right beside Bull as he butchers the pronunciation of her home town, ''and she doesn't even flinch.''

The show has aired five seasons with the sixth already airing as of October 2021, which will serve as the last season.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Episode four features an interesting one involving a patent infringement suit being filed in a minor Texas community with a reputation as a favorable jurisdiction for patent plaintiffs. As patent law in the US is a federal issue, it must be tried by one of the federal district courts in a state. Given that these are generally located in major cities, it may come as as surprise to some to learn that Callisto is a NoCommunitiesWereHarmed version of Marshall, Texas. Officially based in the minor city of Tyler, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas divides its proceedings between 5 courts, each located to (in theory) serve a set of surrounding counties. One of these happens to be Marshall, a rural community of about 23,000 that has decided roughly one in four patent suits in the United States over the past few decades, due in large part to the exact sort of convinient trial rules and statistically high favoring of the plaintiff depicted in the episode.

* BaitAndSwitch: In ''Stockhom Syndrome'' we are lead to believe the meekish glasses wearing man who is believed to be falsely convicted and we see going to jail is going to get killed or brutalized by the inmates who are more than twice his size. At the end of the episode, he stabs one of the inmates and shows he's more than capable of taking care of himself in an unnerving scene.

Not to be confused with the 2000 Creator/{{TNT}} Wall Street drama of the same name.

** "Goodbye" has Bull tamper with the jury votes in the trial of Ed Wilson. He's arrested, but Bull decides to step back from TAC since his actions violated several ethics rules.

** In "A Higher Law" a priest is pulled over driving a church van that was involved in a fatal hit-and-run an hour earlier with a BAC above the legal limit. He tells the police that the actual killer just confessed to him what he did and that he was only driving the van so that he could find the victim and make sure she is okay, but refuses to reveal who the perpetrator was because it would be violating the Seal of the Confessional. In the real world, mentioning what a penitent said during confession at all is a violation of the Seal of the Confessional, even if one doesn't reveal who the penitent was.

** Episode four is about a patent infringement suit in Texas. It takes place in a fictional town named Callisto. However, patent law in the US is a federal issue. Therefore it would be tried by one of the four federal district courts in Texas. All of these are in major cities. Callisto's reputation as a favorable jurisdiction for patent plaintiffs probably comes from the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which also has this (where one in four patent suits is filed). It's located in the city of Tyler.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} 'He'll get you off.']] [[SincerityMode Seriously. This is the tagline they're going with.]]]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bull_title_9.jpg]]

The show has aired five seasons with the sixth already airing as of October 2021.