The new Apple TV series, Presumed Innocent, is a thriller starring actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Ruth Negga, Renate Reinsve, and Peter Skarsgaard. Gyllenhaal’s character, Rusty Sabich, is a prosecuting attorney in Chicago whose life unravels when a woman he had an affair with, Reinsve’s Carolyn Polhmeus, is murdered.
While Rusty is outside with his wife Barbara (Ruth Negga) and kids, Jaden (Chase Infiniti) and Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick), he gets a call from someone. After the call, he’s shaky and pulls Barabara inside to talk. He tells her that Carolyn, a friend and colleague of his, was murdered.
He meets his colleague Raymond (Bill Camp) at the crime scene. When he goes inside the home, he sees Carolyn’s body.
Afterward, he goes to the office and everyone on the team discusses who will lead the case. Rusty is set on being the lead. Carolyn was a lieutenant and prosecutor for Chicago, which hits close to home for everyone because she was their colleague and friend.
The memorial is the following day. Rusty and Raymond meet there, along with another colleague and someone we can tell Rusty doesn’t have a good relationship with, Nico (O-T Fagbenle). The three of them head into the church for the service.
Next, the episode moves back in time to a murder trial that Rusty and Carolyn worked together. Liam Reynolds was the murderer, and at the current time, Rusty believes it could be him who killed Carolyn.
Coming back to the present, Rusty visits Liam in prison. Liam didn’t do it, but he wishes he had. Rusty asks if there’s any information he could give him, but he doesn’t have anything to do with the murder and doesn’t know anything about it. Since his visit with Liam wasn’t helpful, Rusty then goes to Carolyn’s ex-husband’s home to ask him some questions.
Her ex-husband, Dalton Caldwell (Matthew Alan), tells Rusty that he had nothing to do with Carolyn’s death. He expresses that their son is mad at everyone and everything saying, “His family unit failed. I’m sure he blames me for that failure.”
Rusty goes back to the office and notices an envelope on his desk. He quickly puts it in his bag as he reads what it is and goes to a meeting with the team. Rusty gives them the rundown on the information he’s gotten so far. But, the information he has isn’t very helpful to the case.
Later, we see Rusty and Barbara in bed. She asks him if he’s leading the case and he tells her the truth. She asks him what would happen if the secret relationship between him and Carolyn got out. He says that it won’t, but by the look on her face, she’s concerned about it. She’s worried that this murder case will consume Rusty because of how close he and Carolyn actually were, intimately and emotionally.
The next day, Rusty has an appointment with his therapist, Dr. Liz Rush (Lily Rabe). Rusty thinks back to his relationship with Carolyn, saying that it was different than his marriage with Barbara, but in a good way.
At home, Barbara tells Rusty that the only two reasons why she hasn’t left him or ended their marriage are because she loves him and they have a family. She doesn’t want to ruin any of that. She tells him that he needs to stop loving Carolyn.
Afterward, the following day, Rusty watches as Raymond steps down from the DA’s office as the lead man, packing his things from his office. The two of them then go to their meeting with Nico and Tommy, who’s also another attorney at the firm. Nico takes the initiative and makes Tommy the chief deputy prosecutor, Rusty’s original role.
Tommy insinuates that Rusty either had something to do with Carolyn’s murder or that he was involved with her on a personal matter. He then asks if they were romantically involved. Rusty says that his personal relationship with Carolyn doesn’t relate to the investigation. Tommy then says that Carolyn was pregnant, which visibly shocks Rusty.
Overall, this was a good episode for the introduction of the series. It was slow, but things were starting to unpack quickly concerning the relationship between Rusty and Carolyn. It will be interesting to see what will happen in the next episode. Will Rusty tell Barbara about Carolyn’s pregnancy? What will Risty do now that he’s not the chief deputy prosecutor?
Rating: 7.5/10