Presumed Innocent TV series is not as good as the 1990s film starring Harrison Ford

OK, who did it? If Jake Gyllenhaal’s philandering prosecutor Rusty Sabich didn’t kill his colleague and mistress Carolyn Polhemus, then who did? The streaming series Presumed Innocent has armchair detectives out in force.

Was it Rusty’s wife, jealous over her husband’s affair? Was it Tommy Molto, his professional rival who has an animosity for Rusty that doesn’t quite make sense? Was it one of the crims she had sent to prison, out for revenge?

The mystery of the courtroom thriller has fans gripped and Apple knows a good thing when it sees it. Nine days out from the finale, the series has just been renewed for a second season. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean the current conundrum will drag out to another instalment. The producers have said the next chapter will centre on a different case.

If you’re hanging out to find out what happens and don’t want to wait another week and some change, here’s the case for watching the 1990 film which was the first adaptation of the Scott Turow book the Gyllenhaal series was based on.

And here’s the thing. The 1990 movie? It’s great. Obviously because it’s a two-hour movie, it’s a tighter work that doesn’t suffer from the drag of an eight-episode series trying to sustain one story.

The 2024 series has some advantages in that it can give more time and room to develop the supporting characters but a page-turner doesn’t necessarily need it. What’s more important is momentum and the focus on Rusty’s sins.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula, Presumed Innocent stars Harrison Ford as Rusty, the lawyer and family man who is accused of bludgeoning his ex-lover and fellow prosecutor Caroline (Greta Scacchi) to death.

Instead of his former boss (the late Brian Dennehy), Rusty’s lawyer is a prominent defence lawyer named Sandy Stern (the late Raul Julia). Along with Rusty’s friend, Detective Lipranzer (the late John Spencer), and a junior lawyer (Bradley Whitford), they try to torpedo the prosecutor’s case.

Without the long detours into red herrings, the film’s foundation is Rusty’s internal turmoil as he is confronted with his many failings.

He has a perception of himself as a decent person who has erred. The case against him is framed as unjust. But how much does he maybe deserve what he’s being put through? Rusty is not entirely blameless, he has indulged and he has stepped over the line. “Innocent”? Perhaps not.

Ford’s quieter and more interior energy also serves the character better than Gyllenhaal whose performances are generally chewier.

There’s a grime to Pakula’s version, borne out of the filmmaker’s experience making political dramas and psychological thrillers such as The Parallax View, Klute and All the President’s Men. He knows how to delve into the nitty gritty of a compromised system such as Chicago’s legal sphere, without getting lost in the weeds.

Everyone is tainted, the question is a matter of to what degree.

Admittedly, the 1990 version was ambivalent about Carolyn, who was depicted as an ambitious and talented lawyer who was crusading for victims of crimes that had little chance of being prosecuted. But it ultimately slut-shamed her as a promiscuous femme fatale who wreaked chaos on the men in her life.

The film’s denouement is a chilling scene in which the killer explains why they did it but also reveals an unsettling psychology that sticks with you. The ending is satisfying but not comforting.

As a story, Presumed Innocent can make the argument for both a TV series and a movie treatment, they’re just different approaches and pacing. But it’s also the kind of narrative that is increasingly less likely to be a film right now, or at least two years ago when the Gyllenhaal show went into production.

Then, streaming services wanted stickiness and engagement times. Now, the industry is contracting so maybe there will be a return to the discipline of telling a great story in two hours and not eight.

Adult crime dramas like Presumed Innocent work best when you control that tension in a shorter runtime.

The 1990 Presumed Innocent movie is available on digital rental, the 2024 streaming series is on Apple TV+