'Defending Jacob' is Apple TV+'s attempt to mount their own movie star-meets-bestseller miniseries. It's exhibit A in how to prestige-TV a project to death. Our review
? — is designed to be the TV equivalent of an airport-read page-turner, part courtroom thriller and part parental-nightmare hand-wringer. What this eight-episode miniseries, written by creator Mark Bomback and directed by Morten Tyldum really is, however, could be described as an attempt for the streaming service to get in on a successful formula: Movie stars plus marquee book-club staple, divided by a single filmmaker’s vision, equals beaucoup eyeballs and Emmys.
To be fair, anyone who abandons this exercise in potboiling-by-numbers early on will miss J.K. Simmons, who shows up as Andrew’s estranged father, and who, no joke, improves every scene in he’s in by half.
Even the name-brand talent can’t quite up the voltage. Chris Evans is an underrated actor . Thanks to his matinee-idol looks, he’s been earmarked for leading-man status, which may not be his true forte. Evans has a tendency to radiate a sort of steadfast everyman sincerity when he’s stuck having to shoulder the bulk of the proceedings, which can work in his favor; it’s a big reason why he was the perfect guy to play Captain America.
Anyone who’s read the source material knows there’s a major twist embedded in the narrative, and while we can’t vouch for how the climax reads on the page, we can say that you either buy it wholeheartedly, or it will inspire you to throw numerous sharp objects at your television.is not bad so much as the result of what happens when you try to reverse-engineer a bestseller into a conversation-starter, and prestige-TV it to death.
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