‘Presumed Innocent’: Jake Gyllenhaal’s New Show Is Summer’s Best TV Binge

Distending their source material to egregious lengths with unnecessary exposition, superfluous additions, and ham-fisted “timeliness,” most long-form TV adaptations of popular films have severely underwhelmed. Consequently, it’s a welcome relief to report that Presumed Innocent, which premieres June 12, is the excellent exception to this most unfortunate of rules.

Created and largely written by David E. Kelley (A Man in Full, Big Little Lies), and starring Jake Gyllenhaal in the role first played on the big-screen in 1990 by Harrison Ford, this eight-part version of Scott Turow’s 1987 bestseller is a thriller par excellence, this despite the fact that, per modern convention, it switches things up (some major, some minor), adds a few subplots, and updates its story for the 21st-century. Gripping from the start, it would earn the distinction of being “binge-able” if not for the fact that its episodes will premiere weekly on Apple TV+—although that release strategy simply means that it should be the television talk of the summer, which is fitting considering Turow’s novel has long been an ideal beach read.

In present-day Chicago, deputy district attorney Rusty Sabich’s (Gyllenhaal) relaxing afternoon with wife Barbara (Ruth Negga) and kids Jaden (Chase Infiniti) and Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick) is interrupted by horrific news: his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve) has been murdered. If that weren’t shocking enough, the scene is unbelievably grisly, as Carolyn was bludgeoned to death with a fire poker from her apartment and left to bleed out from her wounds on her living room floor, face down and hog-tied. This homicide throws Rusty into turmoil, and it does likewise for the rest of those in his office, including district attorney Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), who’s running for re-election against Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fagbenie). Tensions are already high between Raymond and Nico, and that goes double for Rusty and Nico’s right-hand protégé Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), and their explosive professional dynamics are thoroughly detonated by Carolyn’s demise.

Read more at The Daily Beast.