Defending Jacob

Screw it, if I'm going to be subscribing to Apple TV, I might as well review Defending Jacob as well.

All right, the premise is this: Chris "Captain America" Evans is a DA in Newton, Massachusetts. One of his kid's classmates is murdered. And shortly thereafter, his son Jacob is arrested for the murder.

I recently reviewed the first two episodes of Presumed Innocent, also on Apple TV, and that platform pushed this series at me. And so there is the obvious comparison between that series and this one.

I am at a disadvantage, given that I've read Presumed Innocent and watched the 1990 movie Presumed Innocent, and this series is completely new to me. I have no idea if this is an adaptation and, if so, how it will end.

There is a parallel in the plot: in both series, there are DAs who are under suspicion, and colleagues of theirs are opponents in cases targeting their families. It is unclear if the defendant is guilty.

Okay, let's take a look at this series.

There is a visual choice here to mute the color palette and push everything away from bright red and purple and blue. If you had to describe it in one word, you'd use "depressed". Think about New England in fall after the leaves have dropped, and that's what you'll see, mostly.

The diegetic [Edit: I had written "exegetic", which is wrong] music is also meant to give the feeling of depression. As are the long faces of everyone in the show.

None of that is out of place in a legal drama centered around a murder of a high schooler. It's pretty much at the same level as Presumed Innocent. Maybe slightly worse, I guess. The framing of the first three episodes, which uses a grand jury inquiry, is clunkier than what you'll see in Presumed Innocent. The dialogue is worse. 

Does all that amount to a thumbs down? I don't know. I have a soft spot for legal dramas, so I'm still watching. I'm curious what others think.