Apple TV+ has a murder, a prosecutor, and a problem: the man who would try the case is the man who might have done it. Presumed Innocent, created by David E. Kelley, premiered on June 12, 2024, and ran eight episodes through July 23. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Rusty Sabich, a Chicago prosecutor who becomes the prime suspect in the killing of a colleague he was sleeping with. That is the whole engine, and it is enough.
Trailer, via Apple TV.
Rusty Sabich and the Affair
The premise is old, and the show knows it. Presumed Innocent comes from Scott Turow’s 1987 novel, which was already a 1990 film with Harrison Ford. Kelley’s version keeps the spine: a prosecutor becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his colleague with whom he was having an affair. What changes is the length. Eight hours let the show sit in the marriage, the office politics, and the slow rot of a man who keeps telling the truth in the wrong doses.
Gyllenhaal’s Rusty is not a hero and not quite a villain. He is a man who had an affair with Carolyn Polhemus, played by Renate Reinsve, and then has to explain her death without explaining himself. The show’s best trick is that it never lets him off the hook emotionally, even when the evidence wobbles.
Carolyn Polhemus Is the Case
Carolyn is dead before the story properly starts, which is a risk. A murder mystery where the victim is a body and a set of flashbacks can flatten fast. Presumed Innocent avoids that mostly because Reinsve plays her as a person with appetites and a career, not a symbol. The show treats her death as a crime first and a plot device second.
That matters, because the case against Rusty is built on the messiest parts of his life. His affair. His temper. His refusal to step away from the investigation when any sane person would. The show does not pretend the case is thin. It is not thin. It is the kind of case that ruins a man whether or not a jury convicts him.
Bill Camp and the Office
The supporting cast is where Presumed Innocent earns its keep. Bill Camp plays Raymond Horgan, Rusty’s boss, and Camp does the thing he always does: he makes a man in a suit feel like a man with a pulse. Elizabeth Marvel plays Lorraine Horgan, and the two of them carry the office scenes that could otherwise be pure exposition.
Peter Sarsgaard is Tommy Molto, the prosecutor turned antagonist, and his scenes with Gyllenhaal have a specific pleasure. Two men who know each other, who have worked together, and who now have to pretend the fight is professional. It is not. Sarsgaard plays the grudge without announcing it.
O-T Fagbenle’s Nico Della Guardia and Nana Mensah’s Det. Alana “Rigo” Rodriguez round out the machinery. Mensah in particular gives the investigation a working cop’s patience rather than a TV cop’s speeches.
Ruth Negga Holds the House Together
The strongest performance in Presumed Innocent is Ruth Negga as Barbara Sabich. She has the hardest job in the show: she has to be the wife who was betrayed and still be a person with her own judgment, not a wound with dialogue. Negga plays Barbara as someone doing math in every scene, deciding how much of her husband she still believes.
Chase Infiniti as Jaden Sabich and Kingston Rumi Southwick as Kyle Sabich play the children, and the show uses them sparingly, which is correct. The family is the stake, not the subplot. Every courtroom beat lands harder because the kitchen scenes already told you what a conviction would cost.
The Emmy voters noticed the acting. The first season received four acting nominations at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, for Gyllenhaal, Negga, Camp, and Sarsgaard. That is a fair list. It is also a tell: this is a show carried by performers more than by plot.
What Works and What Drags
Here is the ranking of what Presumed Innocent does well, in order:
- The Barbara Sabich marriage scenes, which are the actual show.
- The Raymond Horgan office politics, which give the murder a workplace.
- The Tommy Molto antagonism, which gives the trial a face.
- The investigation procedural, which is competent but familiar.
- The flashback structure, which is the weakest tool in the box.
The flashbacks are the problem. Presumed Innocent keeps cutting back to the affair, and each return adds less than the last. The show trusts its present-tense scenes more than it trusts the audience, and the result is a season that could lose twenty minutes of memory and be tighter for it.
The other issue is the anthology promise. In July 2024, Apple TV+ renewed the show for a second season, which will be based on Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray. That is a strange fit. Presumed Innocent works because the title is the thesis: a man is treated as guilty and has to live inside that assumption. A second season with a new book and a new case keeps the brand and drops the idea.
The Verdict on Presumed Innocent
Presumed Innocent is a good legal thriller with one great performance and a structure that occasionally gets in its own way. Gyllenhaal is credible as a man whose life is collapsing in public, and the show never lets him off with a single clean lie. But Negga is the reason to watch. Barbara is the one character who has to decide something real, and the show knows it.
The murder itself is less interesting than the marriage it destroys. That is the correct priority for this story, and Kelley’s version understands it. Where the show stumbles is in the padding: eight episodes for a case that wants six, and a flashback habit that keeps re-litigating an affair the audience grasped in the first hour.
Against the 1990 film, this Presumed Innocent trades compression for texture. It wins on Barbara, on Camp, and on Sarsgaard. It loses on momentum. The 7.9 rating on IMDb is about right, and it is right for the reason the show is worth your time: it is a solid, well-acted drama that never quite becomes the great one its cast could carry.
Presumed Innocent scores 7.9 of 10.
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