Ivan Radford | On 12, Jun 2024

“Am I a suspect?” Those are the words of Rusty (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Presumed Innocent, as he’s quizzed about the death of Carolyn (Renate Reinsve). Rusty is a high-flying prosecutor with a wife and kids. Carolyn is his colleague – and, we soon find out, his girlfriend. And Rusty? By the end of the first episode, you bet he’s a suspect.

If that set-up sounds familiar, that may be because you’ve seen the 1990 film starring Harrison Ford, or read the book by Scott Turow that the series is based on. Or perhaps it’s because you’ve seen other programmes written by showrunner David E Kelley, whose CV ranges from Goliath, Big Little Lies and The Lincoln Lawyer to A Man in Fall, Love & Death and The Undoing. If you want a slick courtroom thriller, the Ally McBeal creator is your prime target.

Events unfold in line with the prestige legal TV playbook, with twists, reveals and confrontations taking place at a snail’s pace with just enough acceleration before each chapter reaches the credits to keep you hooked until the next episode. Does the fact that Carolyn’s gruesome death resembles the murder from decades ago mean anything? Was the person charged for that murder actually innocent? And how big a part of the puzzle are the political players entangled in the district’s legal web?

The mystery itself is a compelling enough reason to tune in to Presumed Innocent, but the show’s real strength comes from its cast. Peter Sarsgaard is excellent as Rusty’s rival, Tommy – who’s leading the prosecution’s case against him – making him at once enjoyably smug and almost plausibly conflicted about it all. Bill Camp is superb at capturing the pent-up frustration of Raymond, who reluctantly agrees to defend Rusty. The always excellent O-T Fagbenle and Noma Dumezweni bring strong support as the newly elected district attorney and the judge in the case.

Ruth Negga, meanwhile, steal every scene going as Barbara, Rusty’s wife who is loyal even as she knows she’s being loyal to a terrible husband – she brings depth, anger, resentment and determination to a character who could just be a forgotten, two-dimensional background figure. As the TV news cameras close in on their family, she makes the domestic tensions and consequences of Rusty’s actions brilliantly tangible.

But this is undoubtedly Jake Gyllenhaal’s show, and his first long-form TV role is one to relish. Whereas the recent courtroom film Anatomy of a Fall was a masterclass in glacial ambiguity, Gyllenhaal goes the other way and invests Rusty with a fiery, volatile energy. Flashbacks to his affair show us a passionate man, an opening courtroom speech present him as an honourable chap, and therapy sessions depict him as a dishonest person. All are true simultaneously, and Gyllenhaal balances Rusty’s charisma and conscience with an unsettling dark side and anger issues that simmer just below the surface.

Directors Anne Sewitsky (A Very British Scandal) and Greg Yaitanes (House of the Dragon) assemble the ensuing maze of contradictions and perceptions with a polished slickness that echoes Rusty’s professional life and contrasts with the gritty, intimate tone of his grubby personal life. But most of all, they give the cast breathing room over eight episodes to sink their teeth into interesting material. Is Rusty a suspect? Of course he is. Is he someone you’ll want to spend eight hours watching? Guilty as charged.

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