Years ago, I read Scott Turow’s book, Presumed Innocent. Later, I saw the movie starring Harrison Ford. I liked both, so when Apple released David Kelley’s television adaptation, I decided to watch it.

I vaguely remembered the plot. But, as it turned out, that didn’t matter. David Kelley made significant changes to the story, including a new location, bringing the story into the present, and adding two children to the main character’s family. All these changes brought much more complexity to this version of the story.

Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a prosecutor accused of the brutal murder of his colleague, Carolyn Polhemus, with whom he is having an affair. A fellow prosecutor, Tommy Molto, detests Rusty. An opening scene shows Rusty mercilessly mocking the man. Tommy, a socially awkward guy whose best friend is his cat, provides plenty of material for Rusty to ridicule.

After Carolyn’s murder, Rusty is asked to head up the investigation. He neglects to mention his affair to the other prosecutors. When the information comes out, Rusty becomes the lead suspect in the case. News of the affair further infuriates Tommy. In addition to his cat, over the years, Tommy secretly has been obsessed with Carolyn. However, Carolyn rejected Tommy’s romantic overtures. Instead, she had an affair with Rusty, Tommy’s arch enemy. To make matters worse, Carolyn reported Tommy’s inappropriate behavior toward her. Tommy, a jilted man, makes it his mission to put away Rusty for life.  

Tommy’s boss, Nico Della Guardia is an elected official whose main concern is to slam somebody, really anybody, behind bars to appease the public. Nico Della Guardia is smarminess personified. My skin crawled every time he spoke.

Tommy Molto becomes increasingly unglued as the story progresses. Molto rabidly goes after Rusty, even to the point of neglecting to pursue other leads. Throughout, Della Guardia has qualms about Tommy’s approach, mostly because the man is coming off like a lunatic to those around him, not because he’s concerned that Rusty is innocent.  Della Guardia doesn’t care if justice is being served. He just wants to protect his political career. I fear this might be an accurate portrayal what can happen in our legal system.

This series kept my attention. From week to week, I couldn’t wait for the next episode to drop. However, at one point, I almost stopped watching. Throughout, they flash back to the same scene, a horrific image of the murder victim. One glimpse was more than enough for me, multiple views felt disturbing and gratuitous.

Jake Gyllenhaal does a wonderful job of playing an enigmatic character. You want to believe him—he’s so tender and kind to his children and so appropriately apologetic to his longsuffering wife. But then, he goes all Rambo more than once, beating up and/or threatening people. In addition, while trying to defend himself, he takes legal shortcuts that caused my eyebrows to raise. Did I trust Rusty Sabich? Not so much.

Multiple red herrings swim through this plot. Suspects abound, including, but not limited to a convict who hates Carolyn, Rusty and his family, Tommy Molto, and Carolyn’s own former husband and estranged son. At the very end, when we find out whodunit and why, I’ll have to say, I didn’t see it coming. However, when I re-considered all the clues, the plot choice made sense.

Should you watch this eight-part TV series? I loved the moral quandaries, plot twists and the suspense. If you can handle the recurrence of that horrific murder scene, I’d say, go for it.