That’s right, only a month after the premiere of the Apple+ series Presumed Innocent aired, it received another season. I was momentarily stumped as to how they would continue on, but it’s doable. It just won’t have any source material to go with it. If you’re wondering, yes, this is an adaptation of a novel, but it’s the first televised one. Harrison Ford starred in a film of the same name back in 1990.
For those of you also wondering if it’s worth watching for fear of a shot for shot remake: fear not. There are plenty of nuanced differences to make it interesting, and the ending is in fact not the same as the film or the novel. They pay it a bit of an homage, but it’s distinctly its own beast. When I first hear about this tense courtroom drama, I was excited. The casting made it even more so. But to be honest, when it came around to actually watching it, I dozed off a lot. I took to finishing it out during daylight hours and found the last two episodes to be particularly engaging.
The premise is this: prosecutor Rusty Sabich is put on the case of his murdered colleague Carolyn Polhemus by district attorney Raymond Horgan. Given that Rusty has had a long-standing affair with Carolyn, he’s trying to contain as much as he can. When Raymond loses out on the election shortly after Carolyn’s murder, new district attorney Nico Della Guardia assigns it to Tommy Molto. They waste almost no time discovering the details of Rusty and Carolyn’s relationship and name Rusty as the prime suspect. From here, Rusty’s life spirals.
Turns out his wife, Barbara, knew about the affair but thought it was done and over with. She had no clue it started back up and that Rusty had essentially become obsessed with Carolyn. Of course, all of this was news to Rusty’s two teen children. I give all of these people some credit. Rusty would be out of my life faster than you could say “bye,” but for whatever reason they stood beside him through it all. I think the son had the most naturally realistic reaction, but his daughter Jaden was steadfast in his innocence.
While there were plenty of plausible red herrings throughout the season, I do think they stuck the landing. There’s plenty of mess for this group of people to work through in another season, so I just hope everyone stays onboard to see it through. By the way, Bill Camp remains one of my most favorite character actors out there. He’s terrific.