“Presumed Innocent,” which premieres Wednesday on Apple TV+, is a television adaptation of the 1987 Scott Turrow novel previously adapted as a 1990 Harrison Ford film (or an Alan J. Pakula film, to identify the director). A semi-erotic legal thriller, with the indefatigable David E.
Kelley as showrunner, it’s a limited series, though at eight episodes, perhaps not limited enough. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Rusty Sabich, the head prosecutor in the Chicago district attorney’s office, who, as this train leaves the station, learns that his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve, in flashbacks and gruesome crime scene photos) has been murdered. The disposition of the hogtied body reminds Rusty of a case he and Carolyn had successfully prosecuted some years before, though the person they convicted, Liam Reynolds (Mark Harelik), is currently in prison.
Rusty is a family man, married to Barbara (Ruth Negga), with teenage children Jaden (Chase Infiniti) and Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick), but from the first glimpse we get of Carolyn as a still-living person, we know without being told that she and Jake have had an affair. This will complicate matters when Dist. Atty.
Raymond Horgan (Bill Camp), who is up for reelection, assigns Rusty to the case. Rusty’s reputation as a prosecutorial sharpshooter notwithstanding, it seems clear to everyone, except Raymond, that this is not a good idea. Matters only get worse when Raymond loses his office to new D.
A. Nico Della Guardia (O-T Fa.
