Ulasan Presumed Innocent: Sebuah drama hukum yang menegangkan, meski umum

Ketika The Lincoln Lawyer memulai debutnya pada tahun 2022 di Netflix, ulasan The AV Club menyatakan bahwa pembuat serial David E. Kelley akan memanfaatkan genre thriller hukum dengan segala manfaatnya, tidak peduli kualitasnya. Sejak itu, dia mengerjakan Anatomy Of A Scandal , Avalon ABC yang tidak berpasangan ( terinspirasi oleh buku Michael Connelly), drama kriminal nyata Love & Death , The Lincoln Lawyer musim kedua, dan, yang terbaru, A Man In Full dari Netflix . Wah. Kini dia menjadi ujung tombak drama baru dengan Jake Gyllenhaal sebagai bintangnya. Dia tidak menyerah, tapi setidaknya kali ini, Presumed Innocent , yang tayang perdana  pada 12 Juni di Apple TV+ ,  memiliki kaki yang kuat untuk berdiri dan merupakan jam tangan yang sangat memadai.

Serial yang berdasarkan novel Scott Turow yang sudah diadaptasi menjadi film tahun 1990 yang dipimpin oleh Harrison Ford ini memiliki cukup banyak peralihan yang menegangkan untuk membuatnya tetap menarik bagi mereka yang telah mengonsumsi materi sebelumnya. Ini masih mengikuti peta jalan kiasan, jargon panjang, dan tarif khas ruang sidang yang sudah dikenal. Jadi ini ideal untuk penggemar yang ingin tersesat di dunia spesifik ini (dari Ally McBeal hingga The Undoing , tidak dapat disangkal bahwa Kelley memiliki penonton yang berdedikasi). Berkat penayangan delapan episode, Presumed Innocent berlari dengan kecepatan yang sebagian besar bisa digunakan dengan beberapa penampilan utama yang luar biasa.

Detail dasarnya sama seperti di buku dan film: Jaksa Chicago Rusty Sabich (Gyllenhaal) dituduh membunuh rekan kerjanya yang ambisius, Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve), yang menjalin hubungan asmara dengannya. Dia dengan keras menyangkalnya dan mendapat dukungan gigih dari istrinya, yang mengetahui perselingkuhannya. Dia diam-diam menyelidiki kejahatan tersebut dengan bantuan seorang teman polisi. Dan di sini dia mempekerjakan bosnya, DA Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), sebagai pengacaranya untuk persidangan.

Presumed Innocent often feels like multiple TV shows striving to fit into one. It’s got a pulsating legal and police procedural vibe, but it’s also an annoying workplace soap opera. On top of it, it charts Rusty’s family/relationship issues. This stretches the narrative a little too thin. The episodes aren’t necessarily boring; they simply fail to offer something new or inventive despite an impressive effort to provide some character study of Rusty and his spouse, Barbara (Ruth Negga). Their emotional interactions give Presumed Innocent the heft it needs to escape from its otherwise generic identity. In the process, Gyllenhaal and Negga deliver excellent, all-encompassing work.

He’s aptly cast as the role requires him to be both winsome and shadowy so the audience is constantly guessing his motivations and actions. Gyllenhaal switches from mania to despair, playing coy well with the camera on him. It’s nowhere near his best performance (that’s in Nightcrawler ), but he’s evocative. And he’s got a terrific scene partner in Negga, who deserves better than a soon-to-be-forgotten Apple TV+ series. She immerses herself completely into Barbara, who is confronted by everyone in her life—her teen kids, friends, the media, and her therapist—with why she chooses to stay. Presumed Innocent is illuminating when it digs into their complicated personalities and bonds.

However, that gravitas is missing when it comes to the victim. In the seven installments watched for review, there’s barely any insight into Carolyn, robbing us of any emotional investment in her arc. Who is she besides a motivated woman who seemingly abandoned her son? Is her brutal death related to a man she put behind bars? The show dances around these questions for far too long. Again, it’s a wasted opportunity not to take advantage of The Worst Person In The World’s talented star Reinsve.

Presumed Innocent also relies too much on Rusty’s rivalry with his opposing lawyer, Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard). He’s determined to bring Rusty down for personal reasons, with their back-and-forth rooted in melodramatic, repetitious mind games straight out of daytime TV. It stops PI from becoming the elevated legal thriller it badly wants to be. It doesn’t help that The Handmaid’s Tale’s O-T Fagbenle is horribly miscast as Tommy’s pushy boss, Nico Della Guardia. (Seriously, what is up with that unnecessary accent?).

All these flaws notwithstanding, Presumed Innocent is gripping enough because of its twists and slow burn, making it a worthy endeavor for those patient with cliffhangers. It might be cursed to live on Apple TV+ in silence, as most of the platform’s original content tends to do nowadays, but Presumed Innocent is sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt.

Presumed Innocent tayang perdana 12 Juni di Apple TV+