Bull is back with its latest start to a new season so far after a shortened fourth season. Fans have had more than half a year to wonder how the show that relies on people being together could possibly get back to business as usual with new quarantine protocols in place. With the Season 5 premiere on November 16, viewers get their first look at how the courtroom will work as the team deals with COVID, and things could get wild.
A clip from the Season 5 premiere of Bull, called "My Corona," reveals what the team is facing with the new courtroom policies, and even masks can't conceal that Jason Bull and Benny Colón aren't thrilled about them.
Bull and his team rely on the reactions of people within the courtroom -- particularly jurors -- to analyze the probable outcomes of arguments and cases, and the mirror jurors not having a place to sit is the least of their problems. Not even the real prospective jurors will evidently be in the courtroom, which presents a very big problem. Bull may have been able to remove his mask in the clip, but he's facing social distancing and absent jurors when it comes to the jury pool.
Working trial analysis magic is what has kept Bull and his team busy (and employed) over the first four seasons, and their work will likely become exponentially more difficult if they can't have their pick of the jury pool based on their usual tells. The clip doesn't reveal how the cases will be tried once the juries have been selected, so it's possible that Bull has found a way to socially distance jurors within the courtroom or include the jurors via video once chosen.
After all, even though Bull will have a shortened season in the 2020-2021 TV season, the show has 16 episodes to fill, and I don't see Bull pulling that off if Bull and his team don't catch a break to let them do their jobs. Zoom calls have made work possible for many people over the months of quarantine, including TV personalities who mostly remembered to wear pants, so that's a possibility. It's also worth noting that Bull can use TV magic to accomplish what may not be possible yet in the real world, so hopefully the show can get back to what fans know and love.
Find out with new episodes of Bull airing on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. The show usually returns in September, and the shortened episode count means that fans won't get as long of a season despite having to wait for production to safely begin, but at least Bull and Co. will be back! For more of what will be back soon and in the coming months, be sure to check out our 2020 fall TV premiere schedule and our 2021 winter and midseason premiere guide.
