Post by rjamielanga on Jun 12, 2024 15:18:00 GMT -5
The first two episodes of Apple TV's series adaptation of Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent are out now.
I'm trying to figure out how to discuss this without spoiling either one, so a lot of this will be elliptically phrased. The thing about the original novel is that it came out 37 years ago. And not too long after 1987 there would be technological developments in criminal forensics that would render a major plot point ... well, pointless. In fact, Scott Turow himself makes this clear in the follow-up novel Innocent, in which the main character is again being tried for murder.
The series takes place in the present-day, and so the plot has to change with it. There is a revelation at the end of the first episode that makes clear the divergence.
So this is kinda, sorta like the book, but with a reboot. It's not clear to me how well the changes will work. Most of the main characters are there, with (at least so far) one major notable exception: the defense attorney Alejandro Stern is not representing the main character, Rusty Sabich. Oh, and it seems as if the judge will not be Larren Lyttle, which may be somewhat necessitated by plot changes. Dan Lipranzer doesn't show up, but he might do so later, I can't tell.
But the main characters being present in name doesn't prepare you for how different a number of them are in sensibility. Peter Sarsgaard is playing Tommy Molto, but the character isn't recognizable. (Neither is "Painless" Kumagai, but there's no way the character could be played as written in the novel.) And that's kind of the problem of any adaptation of Turow's novel. The descriptions and characterizations are so rich that even with the advantage of being able to apply direct visuals, nothing really compares to the words on the paper.
Oh, and one thing, which struck me as a very odd change. Just like in the book, Sabich's attorney asks for a speedy trial. In the TV series, Sabich's kid asks if a speedy trial is a good thing for him, and Sabich says that it's the prosecution that likes delays, generally. But not in the book. When Sabich's attorney asks for a speedy trial, it is massively unexpected because, as Sabich-as-narrator points out, delays tend to favor the defendant. Recollections change, witnesses for the prosecution become unavailable. It is the specific nature of that murder trial that turns the usual state of things on its head.
Now, I'm not an attorney. And I could imagine any number of cases in the present day where the defense would want a speedy trial. But this is one instance where I really felt the absence of Turow's incisive legal mind in the series' writing.
I'm sticking with it, even bought an Apple TV subscription so I could. But a bit more reluctantly than I thought I would after seeing those episodes.