Nobody really saw Michael Weatherly transitioning from NCIS to Bull at first, but since it appeared that his tenure was over on the show that helped to make him so famous he needed something to move on towards, and another program that would allow him to be every bit the cocky individual he’s been seen as throughout the years was the only route that seemed feasible. As Dr. Jason Bull he’s got his own set of issues that he has to work through on a regular basis and his own hangups that get in his way at the start of the show. But as you might expect from this actor his character does a serious turnaround as the seasons have kept coming and has endeared himself to those that might otherwise spell his downfall since a lot of folks have been looking at Bull as something that wouldn’t pass the first season without serious threats of cancellation.
Well, he’s still there, and it might interesting to see just how the changes from season 1 to 3 made that happen.
In season 1 he started off kind of scruffy.
Bull is the kind of guy that does have a bit of an attitude and as such if he find life a little too difficult or things aren’t going the way he wants he either finds a way around it or turns around and finds a different path to follow. As you might have seen in the pilot and the first season he went through a transition of being pretty scruffy to finally being more polished and professional since things started going the way he needed them to. Having failed to become a lawyer but still retaining the kind of intelligence that would ultimately help him in a court room he’s a valued asset that knows people and understands just how to read them in order to do his job. But throughout the first season it almost seemed like he had a giant chip on his shoulder that really needed to ditch before he could become the kind of person that a lot of people remember him as.
Seasons 2 and 3 saw him continue to clean up his act.
There’s only a small amount of correlation between Tony from NCIS and Bull since when he was playing the character of Tony, Weatherly didn’t have to really change his character that quickly, it was more of a gradual shift from one season to another. With Bull things had to go quicker since the show had to establish itself as something different and worthwhile considering that it already had a big star but not much else to go on. This could be why you see Bull change from the beginning of season 1 to the end and then continue that transition throughout the next two seasons since by season 3 he’s clean-shaven and dressing up in a suit more often than not. The quick character transition is something that was absolutely needed in order to make the show come off as something that was a little more realistic and more appealing since keeping Bull scruffy-looking would have likely lost a lot of viewers.
Jury or Trial Consulting has become a much greater interest thanks to Bull.
Some people didn’t think that such a thing is an actual practice that people utilize until they started doing their research upon watching the show. What they found is that not only is the process real, but there are some accurate moments and glaring inaccuracies that Bull utilizes for the sake of the show and to create dramatic effect. It is interesting however to note that some of the processes used in the show are accurate, such as the idea that human psychology is a very big factor in jury selection. It does take individuals that have a greater understanding of the human mind and reactions to certain stimuli to really ‘read’ people as they sit and wait to answer the questions posed by the attorneys during selection.
Any character is going to undergo a certain amount of change when it comes to a series and as they do people tend to either like what they see or pull away from certain characters as they undergo one dramatic change after another. But the greatest thing about any series is that it does change and that the situations and characters will roll along with it and seek to find new, exciting, and sometimes controversial ways by which to entertain the audience and make certain that people will keep watching. Michael Weatherly has for a long time now been the kind of guy that’s ultimately dependable when it comes to giving people what they want even if they didn’t know they needed it. His acting has been on point and easily adapted to any project he’s been on, and should Bull continue it’s easy to assume that he’ll continue to amaze.
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