Written by Avani Goswami
AppleTV+ tries its hand at crime drama in its newest venture, Defending Jacob. The show, based on a novel of the same name by author William Landay, focuses on the Barber family in a small Massachusetts town, whose son gets pinned for the murder of his classmate. Each episode revolves around the same question: “did our son really do it?”
The first three episodes introduce Andy Barber (Chris Evans, Captain American: The Winter Soldier), a notable assistant district attorney, and his wife Laurie Barber (Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey), who works at a school for underprivileged kids. When their 14-year-old son Jacob (Jaeden Martell, It) gets accused of murdering classmate Ben Rifkin, family bonds begin to crumble. Jacob’s parents wonder whether or not they can believe their son when he says he didn’t commit the crime, but throughout the show, Andy makes it clear he is willing to protect his son, no matter the cost.
The cast is full of exciting names, Cherry Jones (Succession) and Pablo Schreiber (Orange is the New Black) among them. The show is written by Mark Bomback, whose credits include The Wolverine and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and directed by Academy Award nominee Morten Tyldum, who directed The Imitation Game and Passengers. This makes it easy to see why the AppleTV+ miniseries is so highly anticipated, but does it live up to the hype?
The show is structured as a flashback, 10 months prior to when Andy sits in a courthouse, telling the story to a lawyer and a jury. Three episodes in, it’s safe to say it’s thrilling enough to keep watching. The story drips of mystery and makes you want to know what’ll happen next, but not because it’s a riveting story, moreso because you are in the dark about so much.
A lot of what Jacob does is questionable; it’s creepy but it’s not necessarily criminal. The classmates’ scenes are intriguing, but fall a little flat. The most interesting aspects by far are Andy’s past and the connections he has to the law, which add something different to the legal drama. Another somewhat compelling aspect is how the show dips into the genetic predisposition of violence. But the idea is far from fleshed out, at least by the third episode, and seems to be brushed over when it’s discussed.
Overall, it feels like a standard formula for an exciting, though not super original, thriller. Some of the details are meant to keep the audience guessing, like how much his classmates know, or how the pedophile living in the town is involved. The setting is fairly dull and muted, with stretching silences. There is new evidence which shifts the narrative repeatedly; there are bursts of unexpected rage; and there are some sweet but uncomfortable family interactions. All of it make the viewer wonder just how broken the relationships can get before they are beyond repair.
So far, the plot is enticing enough. The flashbacks are some of the best bits, like pieces of the puzzle for the viewer to put together, and I hope there are more to come. I don’t know if I’d go out of my way to recommend the show just yet, but if you like crime and mystery, and want to keep yourself busy for seven hours, it’s not the worst you could do.
