Despite the fact that the film version of Presumed Innocent was released 34 years ago, it was such a huge hit that the news of a Jake Gyllenhaal-led series remake, written by David E. Kelley, arched our eyebrows up a bit. Was it really necessary to revisit the story, given that the film did such a good job of bringing Scott Turow’s novel to the screen? Kelley and Gyllenhaal would have to take the story in a new direction to make it distinct. After watching the first episode, we think they were able to accomplish just that. PRESUMED INNOCENT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot: “My name is Rusty Sabich, and I am the prosecutor on this trial,” says a voice, as we see a lawyer facing a jury. The Gist: Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the chief deputy prosecutor in Cook County, Illinois. As he’s spending the weekend with his family — wife Barbara (Ruth Negga), son Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick) and daughter Jaden (Chase Infiniti) — when he gets a call from his boss, District Attorney Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp). Their co-worker Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve) has been found dead in her home. When Rusty gets to Carolyn’s house, Raymond warns him not to go in, but Rusty does anyway. The scene is grisly: Carolyn was bludgeoned to death, and her body was hog tied. Back at the office, Raymond puts Rusty in charge of the case, over the objections of fellow prosecutors Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) and Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle), who think that Rusty was too close to Carolyn to conduct an objective investigation. It might not be a coincidence that Nico is pitched in a fierce primary election battle with Raymond for the DA nomination, and Tommy is firmly in Nico’s camp. One of the people who knows how truly close Rusty was to Carolyn is Barbara; after all, she decided to keep their marriage going even after she found out that Rusty and Carolyn were having an affair. Supposedly the affair ended long ago, Rusty’s account of it to his psychiatrist, Dr. Liz Rush (Lily Rabe) is quite vivid and passionate, as if he still has her on his mind. Nico is using Carolyn’s murder as a campaign issue against Raymond, and Rusty wants to make sure the affair doesn’t come out before the primary, so Nico can’t use it against Raymond. The investigation he is leading with his police liaison, Det. Alana Rodriguez (Nana Mensah), isn’t going far; Rusty’s best lead is to find out if Liam Reynolds (Mark Harelik), a murderer with a similar MO that Caroyln successfully prosecuted, might have a partner on the outside willing to take revenge. In the primary, Nico defeats Raymond, and Raymond steps aside prior to the general election. Nico, temporarily in charge before the general, predictably promotes Tommy to chief deputy prosecutor. But Rusty has more to worry about than losing his job when he and Raymond meet with the pair; Tommy and Nico think Rusty murdered Carolyn, and they think there’s enough evidence to indict What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on Scott Turow’s novel of the name name, the best comparison to the Presumed Innocent series is the 1990 film version that stared Harrison Ford, Bonnie Bedelia, Brian Dennehy, and Raul Julia. Our Take: It’s interesting that J.J. Abrams and David E. Kelley, both of whom are executive producers of this new Presumed Innocent series, along with Gyllenhaal — Kelley wrote the first two episodes and co-wrote most of the other six — decided to streamline the story while spreading it out. How is that possible? Well, the number of characters have been boiled down a bit from the book and film versions — there is no equivalent to Julia’s character Sandy Stern in the series, for instance — but the story itself is now spread over six hours instead of the film’s two. As we watched the first episode, we wondered just how that was going to be possible. Perhaps Kelley is concentrating on the psychological parts of the story, given the fact that Rusty’s sessions with Dr. Rush are a new aspect of the story added for the series. And while there is going to be lots of legal machinations on the series — Kelley’s bread and butter — but we spend a good amount of time in Rusty’s head as he remembers his affair with Carolyn and what it meant to his marriage. There’s more than once scene where Barbara explains why she decided not to end the marriage, despite how deeply the affair wounded her. So if the legal is being balanced with the psychological, that might explain how the story can be expanded while the number of characters are slimmed down. It certainly gives the story a different, more modern feel than the potboiling legal drama that was both Turow’s novel and the Alan J. Pakula-directed film. Gyllenhaal certainly brings a different dynamic to Rusty Sabich than Ford’s usual gruff stoicism. The confidence in how he does is job is there, as well as the disgust he has for Molto and Della Guardia as they try to pin Carolyn’s murder on him. But he also has to communicate the idea that he’s not completely over Carolyn, and that the affair may not have ended when Barbara thought it did. Negga, for her part, does a lot with a thankless role, and we appreciate Camp’s ruddiness as Horgan and Sarsgaard’s sliminess as Molto. All that being said, we’re decidedly mixed on the show. Given Kelley’s recent track record, there is a chance that the show could be a taut psychological thriller, but an equal chance it can be a self-indulgent mess. Sex and Skin: When Rusty recalls to his therapist what attracted him to Carolyn, we see scenes of their various sexual encounters, though only fleeting glimpses of nudity. Parting Shot: Tommy presents a shocking revelation from the medical examiner’s report on Carolyn, and asks Rusty if he knew about the revelation. Sleeper Star: As we said, Ruth Negga has a thankless job playing “the cuckoldee”, as she mildly jokes to Rusty after his therapy session, and she is compelling when Barbara talks about why she wants to keep the marriage together after Rusty’s affair. Most Pilot-y Line: “You’re a fucking hack, Tommy. You’re a fucking hack,” says Rusty as Molto reveals that he thinks Rusty was involved in Carolyn’s murder. Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re cautiously optimistic that David E. Kelley has taken Presumed Innocent in a direction that’s not only distinctive from the novel and film, but has done so in an watchable way. We might need a few more episodes to know for sure, though. Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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