REVIEW: ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 1 Delivers Frustrating Performances

Presumed Innocent Season 1 is a soap opera masquerading as prestige television. It should’ve simply leaned into the soap opera theatrics. Because many bizarre acting choices are going on throughout that, it distracts from any impactful drama. Based on the 1987 novel of the same name and following the 1990 film adaptation starring Harrison Ford and Brian Dennehy, this iteration lays it on thick. Despite the severity of the topic and how show creator David E. Kelley attempts to modernize some of the original’s more problematic tropes, it never gains any thematic weight.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as the superbly named Rusty Sabich, a star Chicago prosecutor who becomes a prime suspect after the murder of his colleague, Carolyn (Renate Reinsve). Rusty and Carolyn had a prior relationship, and their affair, plus Rusty’s recorded disinterest in ending it, speed runs him to the top of the suspect list. While he tries to discount the accusations by pointing the finger at a previous murder that Carolyn seems to mimic, it’s not enough to stop the trial despite his and his team’s best efforts. The series tracks both the lead-up to the trial, the trial itself, and the family drama that weaves throughout.

The strongest aspect of Presumed Innocent is the mechanics of the trial and watching as every new piece of evidence and untoward secret comes forth. There’s genuine intrigue as we try to figure out who is responsible for Carolyn’s murder while simultaneously realizing just how unreliable Rusty is as a narrator. For every piece of information that helps their side, there’s something that Rusty holds close to the chest, threatening their efforts. It’s a decent enough courtroom drama, even if the writing leans heavily into tropes and egregiously affected one-liners that we’ve heard in every other crime drama worth their salt in the last twenty years.

Even as the mystery remains intact, the series still has a frustrating level of predictability. It’s a shame, considering the updated adaptation should allow for certain characters’ growth. But despite Kelley having dedicated recent years to dramas about the complex interior lives of women, Presumed Innocent falls hellaciously flat. The women of this world are victims or victimized. Carolyn is never a real, substantial character. Instead, we only ever get pieces of her story. She’s mainly seen through Rusty’s eyes—sexually enticing, wickedly intelligent, but cruel. She’s a mirage of one man’s ego, and the series never tries to interrogate this beyond Raymond (Bill Camp) once, who calls Rusty out on his bullsh*t.

The entirety of the series builds itself from Carolyn’s death, yet we never learn more than what the men in her life recall of her. Ultimately, she’s little more than a body in the eyes of the writing and direction. She’s someone who slept with Rusty, and she’s someone who died. Even some of the most significant dramatic moments, such as the early reveal of her pregnancy, boil her down to what she meant to others. She has an affair with Rusty; she became pregnant with his child after having a strained relationship with her teenage son, then died tied up and bludgeoned. What a thankless, cold depiction of a character meant to be someone who captured the eyes of many.

Rusty isn’t likable from the start, and Gyllenhall fails to imbue him with any charisma. Whereas Ford can bring a slick charm to even his most nefarious characters, Gyllenhall falls firmly into exaggeration and jumpy hysterics. We never sympathize with him, even if we don’t think he’s responsible for her death. He shows such little remorse other than how Carolyn’s death has detonated his life. Even the majority of his conversations with his family devolve into talking about the case. His two teenage kids seeming to have better heads on their shoulders than he does.

It could be an exciting character, except the series doesn’t seem to realize how unlikable he is. Despite his infidelity, there is no shortage of supporting characters willing to go to bat for Rusty. And the ones who go after him, such as prosecuting attorney Nico (O-T Fagbenle) and prosecutor Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), are just as, if not more, unlikable. It makes it hard to root for them. And it’s these two, along with Gyllenhaal, that make some of the most peculiar acting choices that can’t help but rip us from the drama.

Fagbenle’s delivery and intonation suggest he’s performing in an entirely different show with stage-ready diction and zany posturing. But it’s the usually reliable Sarsgaard who completely whiffs it. His Tommy is a weasel on page, and Sarsgaard certainly leans into that, but to the point where his character becomes inert and passive to the point of unaffected. There’s no spark in this performance. The face is one of an actor’s greatest weapons, yet all Sarsgaard does is allow him to settle into redundant, smug smirks.

It’s like Sarsgaard saw all the over-acting that Gyllenhaal was doing and opted for the opposite. The only performer who comes out relatively unscathed is Ruth Negga as Rusty’s put-upon wife, Barbara. But since she’s a woman in this world, she’s either orbiting Rusty, her children, or another potential love interest. Negga is a consummate performer who can make a meal from lesser material, but Presumed Innocent tests it.

And then the ending. It’s clear the writers were aiming for a shock — especially for those who know the ending of the film and book. But by making it Rusty’s daughter who ultimately killed Carolyn opens up a whole new can of worms. The finale tries to force episodes worth of information, motive, and exposition into a five minute scene because it failed to tee up the reveal.

Learning that Rusty tied Carolyn up, believing it had been Barbara who killed her, is interesting and plays with the sociopathic leanings we’ve seen throughout the season. It being his daughter just feels like writing trying to have it’s ‘gotcha’ moment with unsatisfying results.

Unfortunately, the series is a miss. While Presumed Innocent Season 1 has plenty of chances to overcome its desire to be high-brow television, it suffers from the mood and tonality of the filmmaking, the central story, and the dissonance of whatever the hell Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard are doing. It’s digestible, pulpy TV that refuses to reach beyond the source material and update it to something timely.

Presumed Innocent Season 1 is out now on Apple TV+.