Is there anything better than reading a steamy, twisty smart-person legal thriller poolside in the summer? No, but a close second is when that steamy, twisty smart-person thriller gets turned into an eight-episode Apple TV+ series starring the absolutely snackable Jake Gyllenhaal.
Ladies and gents, meet Presumed Innocent, the streaming service’s most-watched drama and a total treat for anybody who has fantasized about Jakey G. wrestling them in a speedo and swim goggles. (Just me? Ok.)
The show is actually based on the 1987 book by Scott Turrow. (If you haven’t read it, stop what you’re doing and do so immediately.) It was then adapted into a Harrison Ford movie in 1990 which, in the era of Witness and The Fugitive, felt as inevitable as Pearl Jam and sun-dried tomatoes.
The streaming series courtesy of David E. Kelly (Big Little Lies) takes the story in new directions and updates it for the modern era. Set in Chicago, the show follows family-man Rusty Sabich (Gyllenhaal), a city prosecutor whose world is upended when his colleague Carolyn Polhemus is found brutally murdered. The reason? Rusty was having a slightly obsessive affair with Carolyn, and he quickly becomes the prime suspect.
Rusty’s wife Barbara is played by the supremely steely-faced Ruth Negga (Passing), who knew about the affair, but thought it was over (spoiler: it wasn’t) and wants only to move on with preserving her family. Meanwhile, Rusty has to contend with Tommy Molto, the vengeful prosecutor trying his case and working to uncover even darker secrets. (Molto is played by Peter Sarsgaard who is, FYI, Gyllenhaal’s real-life brother-in-law).
It's best if you don’t know too much more before going in, but I will say that the vibe is claustrophobic and gripping, and the magic of Presumed Innocent is that you never, up until the final moments, know if Rusty did it. In the book, this is masterfully achieved even with a close first-person narration. In the show, intimate scenes with Rusty and Barbara where they dance around the question help build an unsettling tension.
The final episode airs on Wednesday July 24th, so you can watch the whole thing in a hot seven hours if you so choose, and the show has even been renewed for a second season, based, presumably, on Turrow’s sequel. Fingers crossed for more swimming pool scenes.
Watch ‘Presumed Innocent’ Now on Apple TV+.
