Defending Jacob (miniseries)
A family's life unravels after a murder accusation.
Defending Jacob is an Apple TV murder-mystery legal drama miniseries adapted from William Landay's 2012 novel. Mark Bomback wrote and created the show, with Morten Tyldum directing. The cast includes Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, and Jaeden Martell. It aired from April 24 to May 29, 2020.
Quick Facts
- Creator
- Mark Bomback
- Based on
- Defending Jacob, William Landay
- Director
- Morten Tyldum
- Theme music
- Ólafur Arnalds
- Composer
- Atli Örvarsson
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Episodes
- 8
Facts from the source article.
Production
Apple gave a straight-to-series order for an eight-episode miniseries adaptation of William Landay's 2012 novel on September 20, 2018. Mark Bomback created the series, wrote it, and executive produced alongside Chris Evans, Morten Tyldum, Rosalie Swedlin, and Adam Shulman; Tyldum also directed. Paramount Television and Anonymous Content were the production companies. Chris Evans was cast in the lead role at the series order announcement. Michelle Dockery and Jaeden Martell joined in March 2019; Cherry Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Betty Gabriel, and Sakina Jaffrey joined in April 2019. J.K. Simmons was revealed as part of the cast in a March 2020 trailer. Filming began in April 2019 in Newton, Massachusetts, the novel's setting, with locations including Cold Spring Park, Newton Highlands, and the UMass Amherst Mount Ida Campus. Additional filming took place in Belmont, Salem (from June 15, 2019), MCI Cedar Junction in Walpole (June 17, 2019), Lowell by the UMass Lowell Tsongas Arena (June 19, 2019), Medford's River's Edge (June 21, 2019), Worcester (June 28, 2019), and Watertown (July 8, 2019), where the old Watertown Police Station facade served as the Newton Police Station. Filming also occurred at the Town Diner in Watertown on July 9, 2019, at C&M Pizza in Leominster on July 18, 2019, in Needham for neighborhood scenes, and in Mexico at the Grand Velas hotel in Nuevo Vallarta on September 25, 2019. Scenes were also filmed in Waltham on the property of Northgate Gardens Condominium.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 72% approval rating from 61 critics, with an average rating of 6.68/10; the critical consensus states that despite strong performances from Michelle Dockery and Chris Evans, the series stretches its source material too thin, undermining tension with melodramatic padding. Metacritic gives a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 from 23 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. The series reportedly became the second most popular Apple TV+ show.
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