YMMV / Bull

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: 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 No Communities Were Harmed 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 convenient trial rules and statistically high favoring of the plaintiff depicted in the episode.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Crossing over into Narm, "Absolution" (S02E16) suddenly cuts from Chunk trying to deal with personal drama to a three minute long dream sequence where he sings about his troubles while dancing in front of paper cut out animation.
  • The ending of "My Corona" has the cast sing and dance as if they were in a theater production.
• Critical Dissonance: Most critics have given low ratings for the show, but it has been seen by more than 10 million viewers.
• Designated Hero: The main cast's jury manipulation and invasion of privacy sometimes goes a little too far and makes them harder to sympathize with. It tends to depend on the episode though.
• Designated Villain: Detective Joe Kaminsky, the police detective who arrests Arthur Craddick and is later murdered, leading to the arrest of Craddick's son, is treated as a racist Dirty Cop who railroads an innocent black man. This is despite the fact that an eyewitness who he had no reason not to believe testified that he saw Craddick shoot the victim and Bull's entire defence boiled down to "Oh, well eyewitnesses get things wrong sometimes". Yes, Craddick was indeed innocent, but Kaminsky had no way of knowing that, especially since the evidence that proves his innocence is the confession of a man who Kaminsky had no reason to suspect and who didn't confess until twelve years after Craddick had already been convicted.
  • This extends to the prosecution of Leo Craddick for Kaminsky's murder, which is treated by the defence team as a blatant example of police racism even though he had previously yelled at the victim that he would make him pay for imprisoning his father, a man roughly fitting his description (who, as it turns out, was in fact him) was seen fleeing the scene and his palm print was on Kaminsky's car. The audience may know that Leo didn't do it, but from the perspective of someone who doesn't know that like the ADA it seems like a pretty strong case. Mitigated somewhat near the end of the episode when the ADA is willing to drop the charges after finding evidence implicating a pair of Dirty Cops and tells Bull that she's upset because she was genuinely sure that he was guilty.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Bull having a mental discussion with himself and deciding he already hates Marissa's new boyfriend Kyle is Played for Laughs, but a couple episodes later its revealed that Kyle's a con man who has emptied the bank accounts of numerous people.
  • Bull has Belligerent Sexual Tension with J.P. Nunnelly (Eliza Dushku). Dushku accused Weatherly, and several other men working on Bull, of sexual harassment.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • The main reason people watch Bull is that Michael Weatherly, who had a 13-year stint as Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo prior, is the starring actor.
  • Some people watched "The Fall" for being about Titanfall.
  • The episode "The Invisible Woman" is one for the COVID-19 Pandemic going on worldwide.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Eliza Dushku was brought on as a potential new major cast member, at least until making accusations of sexual harassment towards several cast and crew members—including main star Weatherly—as well as CBS executives seemingly wanting to buy her off with an NDA (this was also when the disgraced Les Moonves was still in charge). While kept quiet for a time, it exploded during the show's third season when Dushku was awarded a $9.5 million settlement and went public about her treatment during the show. When the show was renewed for a fourth season, Steven Spielberg and Amblin announced that they won't participate further.
• Paranoia Fuel: In "Excessive Force" the officer involved in shooting an unarmed civilian was in on the idea to split the money after the civilian would sue the city for a lot of money.
• Strangled by the Red String: In one episode, two of the jurors begin a relationship, but their "mirror jury" counterparts don't. This ruins the team's trial prediction as the two juries are now "out of sync", so they try to push the two mirror jurors together. As you'd expect, it doesn't work since they're obviously not exactly the same people as the real jurors. Except the team then concludes the two jurors' relationship was based simply on the fact that it was taboo, and upon imposing a "no fraternization" rule on the mirror jurors, their counterparts immediately hook up.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Susan Bryant from Teacher’s Pet. While the episode doesn’t ignore the Double Standard Rape: Female on Male of her actions (her lawyer specifically took the case because of the pliability) she is still presented sympathetically even though she cheated on her husband with one of her students then convinced him to quit school to take care of her and her child. She seems to get her Laser-Guided Karma when it’s discovered that the baby is actually her husband (who is in no way villanized). It is here that the episode provides her a Freudian Excuse which is Parental Abandonment. Not only does this in no way make her sympathetic as the show is essentially trying to use Good Adultery, Bad Adultery as an excuse the before mentioned Double Standard Rape: Female on Male, but it actually makes her come across as a Manipulative Bitch. Not only has she convinced her student to enter an All Take and No Give relationship that involves taking care of her and someone else’s child, but her abandonment issues means that she’s eventually going to abandon him as well.
  • Cable in Keep Your Friends Close. After disobeying not only Bull's orders but the FBI's she nearly allows a hacker terrorist to get off of charges. This is played up that she made a mistake because she 'has a good heart' but it comes off as her being a massive idiot who nearly destroyed Bull's entire company because she can't use common sense. Then, after Bull pulls some favors and gets her out of jail for destroying evidence, he informs her that he has to fire her and Cable throws a hissy fit and storms off; once more it is supposed to come off as a tearjerker but instead makes her look like a brat who thought she could break federal laws without any consequences.