About five years after the launch of Apple TV+, the tech giant is making a damn fine case for being a must-subscribe streaming service. Particularly in the realm of bingeworthy thriller shows — think Severance and Silo — this streaming service is approaching supremacy, and to that end, a new legal thriller starring Jake Gyllenhall will soon arrive.
Presumed Innocent does come with a built-in audience of devoted book readers, although there is no guarantee that the show will roll out exactly like the source material. Let’s discuss what viewers — whether they have read the book or not — can expect from this series.
Plot
The set up of this show from executive producers David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams vaguely resembles another Apple TV+ series, Defending Jacob (2020). That show starred Chris Evans as a prosecutor whose son was accused of murder, and plenty of ethical fallout was involved as Evans’ character wrestled with whether his competing interests for the district attorney’s office and his family could be reconciled. In Presumed Innocent, Gyllenhaal portrays a prosecutor who is accused of murdering a colleague. Even messier?
Oh yes.
The eight-part series is based upon Scott Turow’s same-named book (previously adapted in an 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford), which paints an incredibly damning portrait of this prosecutor as a married man who was having an affair with that now-murdered colleague. (David E. Kelley loves doing these dirty-dog shows, doesn’t he?) We shall see whether Kelley and Co. adhere to the outcomes that Rusty must deal with following revelations of his affair in the book. The show’s trailer doesn’t shy away from dragging the dude, but Kelley is also a master at pulling off twists, and not everything in a trailer is necessarily as it seems.
Heck, even Gyllenhaal wasn’t sure whether his character was really guilty or innocent, as detailed in his recent Hollywood Reporter interview:
During the making of the eight-episode series, Gyllenhaal’s first TV show, the actor didn’t know, he says, whether Rusty was actually guilty. “You’re waiting to know which way to turn, playing the potential variations of what possibly could be,” he says.
Also, Gyllenhaal’s filming for Roadhouse overlapped with this Apple TV+ series, so he’s more fit than he should be for the role:
At points in the show, Rusty runs on a treadmill to deal with his stress. Because Gyllenhaal is an avid runner in his downtime, and was still in the midst of shooting Road House during the Presumed Innocent production, Rusty’s level of fitness does strain credulity a bit for a middle-aged lawyer with two kids. “They’re like ‘OK, we’re going to get you on a treadmill and we need you to be really out of breath and sweating,’” Gyllenhaal recalls of a particular scene. “We waited a long time for me to be out of breath. I was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ They’re like, ‘Well, turn it up to a sprint.’”
So, there’s sprinting Gyllenhall to enjoy. From the show’s synopsis:
Starring Gyllenhaal in the lead role of chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich, the series takes viewers on a gripping journey through a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorney’s office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. The series explores obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.
Cast
Gyllenhaal will be accompanied by Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, Elizabeth Marvel, Peter Sarsgaard, O-T Fagbenle, and Renate Reinsve.
Release Date
Presumed Innocent will debut with two episodes on June 12 with weekly followups until July 24.
Trailer
Gyllenhaal is working the guilty and innocent vibes equally well here.