Presumed Innocent (2024) Apple TV+ Series: Engaging Legal Thriller Remake

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The Apple TV+ streaming network presents the second adaptation of Scott Turow’s novel this time starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead character, Kindle County prosecutor Rožat “Rusty” Sabich. Unlike Alan J. Pakula’s 1990 legal thriller with Bill Pullman playing Sabich, the new Presumed Innocent is an 8-episode series from writer/director David E. Kelley that runs three times longer than the original film version.

Living in Chicago, Rusty is married to Barbara (Ruth Negga) and has two adolescent children—daughter Jaden (Chase Infiniti) and younger son Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick). As the series opens Rusty receives the shocking news that his former mistress and fellow prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve) has been brutally murdered in her home. The case is assigned to him, and his new partner Mya Winslow (Gabby Beans), an eager but inexperienced member of District Attorney Raymond Horgan’s (Bill Camp) office.

No one in Horgan’s office knows about Rusty’s lengthy affair with Carolyn.  Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenle) becomes the new D.A. and assigns Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) (who holds a longstanding grudge against Rusty) to oversee the investigation. After Rusty’s fingerprints are found in Carolyn’s bedroom and the coroner Dr. Herbert Kumagai (James Hiroyuki Liao) discovers that the dead woman was carrying Rusty’s child, Molto quickly has him arrested as the main suspect. Barbara who was aware of her husband’s wandering ways makes him tell their children about this affair with devastating effects.

The scene shifts to the same courtroom, presided over by Judge Lyttle (Noma Dumezweni), in which Rusty had successfully tried many cases. He convinces the newly retired Raymond to act as his defense attorney. However, when the former D.A. has a cardiac arrest in the courtroom—and gets resuscitated by Rusty—Sabich now decides to take over his own defense and is pitted against his nemesis, Tommy Molto. The trial proceeds and the Sabich-Polhemus relationship is revealed to the jury as are shocking photos taken at the crime scene. However, there remains no conclusive evidence that Rusty actually murdered his mistress and as the trial draws to an end, there is a surprising revelation in the Sabich home.

The combination of Kelley’s brilliant directing and Gyllenhaal’s superb acting deliver a remake at least as good as the original version and, in some respects, even better. Given the added length of the series, Kelley spends valuable time in developing three-dimensional characters whose performances go from strength to strength—a cast without a weak link includes the young actors who play the Sabich children. Viewers who have read the novel or seen the film will notice some substantial changes to the original characters and the storyline. The Sabich family is now interracial, the presiding judge is now a woman, and Rusty did not defend himself during the original trial.  Further, in the film version Caroline had been sterilized long before she met Rusty so pregnancy would have been impossible and she is murdered by a far different character.  Yet all of these changes do not detract from what is a strong new show from Apple TV+ and one that both merits its TV-MA rating and my strong recommendation.

Presumed Innocent is now streaming on Apple TV+

• Rating Certificate: TV-MA
• Show Creator: David E. Kelley
• Studios & Distributors: Apple Studios | Bad Robot | David E. Kelley Productions | Old Curiosity Shop | Nine Stories Production | Warner Bros. Television
• Streaming Service: Apple TV+
• Episode Run Time: 42-53 Mins.
• Num. Episodes: 8
• Release Date: 24 June 2024