When junior prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus is brutally murdered, her colleague Rusty Sabich -- with whom she was having an affair -- becomes the prime suspect. As Rusty's home life fractures, his co-workers who have long held hostility for him seize the opportunity to railroad him in court. And though Rusty maintains his innocence, his cheating and hot-headedness aren't helping him come off as the "good guy."
Presumed Innocent was based on a novel by Scott Turow, and has been previously adapted in a movie starring Harrison Ford. (If you're familiar with either, they've changed up the ending this time to preserve some surprise.) But it's not that pedigree that made me curious to watch this new version. It's that spearheading this adaptation was David E. Kelley, the television writer-creator-producer behind legal shows like The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Boston Legal (plus a number of other non-legal shows less relevant to this endeavor).
Kelley's brand can be polarizing. His love of placing cartoonishly eccentric characters in serious situations just doesn't gel for some. I personally dig it, having watched every episode of every one of those past shows I mentioned. And yet, I knew that Presumed Innocent was going to be a far more serious story than even The Practice (by far the most realistic and dramatic of Kelley's legal shows). I was curious to see what he would do here, adapting someone else's work and presumably feeling too constrained to go off on his typical flights of fancy.
The results are intriguing. I think if you know what you're looking for, the signs that "this is a David E. Kelley show" are there -- perhaps once an episode, a character imagines something fleeting and strange in their head (and we often aren't meant to know it's imagined until some line is abruptly crossed). Certainly, a lot of the legal procedure we see takes considerable liberties with what's allowed in the real world -- though that's kind of what all dramatized legal stories do and not only a Kelley thing. Generally, Presumed Innocent plays it straight and gives us one court case from murder to resolution, told over eight episodes.
Because this was conceived as a limited series, adapting this one novel, there are some bigger names in the cast. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Rusty Sabich, and is the perfect lead for the story. His career is full of movies without vanity, and here he's unafraid to present a man who actually isn't very likeable, supporting the ambiguity of the story. Peter Sarsgaard plays Tommy Molto, the guy who is emotionally out to get Rusty. He too is a great choice for this story, portraying someone irrationally (but believably) out for revenge.
But there are plenty of other less well-known performers in the cast that really build the atmosphere of the story. Oscar nominee Ruth Negga plays Barbara Sabich, and makes compelling a significant subplot about her character exploring her husband's betrayal. Bill Camp is a long-working character actor who plays Raymond Horgan, the attorney who agrees to take Rusty's case. And depending on what other shows or movies you watch, you might recognize O-T Fagbenle, Chase Infiniti, Lily Rabe, Noma Dumezweni, and more. Not everyone in the show has a lot to do, but it feels like a perfect ensemble who makes this world feel real. That said, it is a story with "no heroes," so you have to be up for something dark and brooding. This isn't uplifting television.
The show was such a hit on Apple TV+ that they renewed it for a second season... despite the fact that the story of Turow's novel has now been told. The word is that the new season will feature an entirely new cast, and will be adapted from the different book by a different author. Presumed Innocent will apparently become a sort of anthology show for as long as it lasts... and that too is an interesting proposition for David E. Kelley, who likes his own characters so much that he'll keep crossing them over and reviving them across his TV series.
I'd give Presumed Innocent a B. I admit, I didn't like it as much as Kelley's more confectionery delights -- but I still found it to be a worthwhile watch.
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