One of the most tried-and-true TV formats is currently dominating the streaming landscape, in the form of Apple TV+’s buzzy new legal drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal.
Dramas set in and around courtrooms and delving into the private lives of lawyers feels like the kind of thing that’s been done to death at this point. But Apple’s Presumed Innocent — the #1 streaming TV show this week, according to Reelgood — is the kind of series that keeps me happily subscribed to the service, for a few different reasons. With just eight episodes, it doesn’t require a significant time investment. Gyllenhaal is also perfectly cast here, in a story that hooked even someone like me who almost never enjoys legal dramas because of the way they feel so dang formulaic.
The basic premise here is that the Chicago Prosecuting Attorney’s office is upended when, as Apple explains it, “one of its own is suspected of a crime. The series explores obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.” Gyllenhaal’s Rusty is soon enough arrested and on trial for murder. Meanwhile, the series also spends time on the office politics of Rusty’s employer as well as how the women in Rusty’s life are caught up in the devastating undertow of his choices.
The show, which as of this writing has a strong 85% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, comes from multi-Emmy Award winners David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams. And it’s not just the top-ranked show on Apple TV+ right now; Presumed Innocent is also the top show across every major streaming service this week — again, according to the streaming search engine Reelgood, which tracks the most popular TV shows from all of the major platforms, including Netflix, Max, Apple TV+, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Peacock, and more.
Reelgood monitors 20 million viewing decisions each month across every streaming platform in the US. For the 7-day period that ended on June 19, the 10 shows that topped Reelgood’s latest TV chart are as follows:
- Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+)
- The Boys (Prime Video)
- The Acolyte (Disney+)
- House of the Dragon (HBO/Max)
- Dark Matter (Apple TV+)
- Bridgerton (Netflix)
- Your Honor (Netflix)
- Eric (Netflix)
- Evil (Paramount+)
- The Bear (Hulu)
As for the rest of this week’s Top 10 from Reelgood, there are a mix of fan-favorite titles that keep hanging around — like Netflix’s Bridgerton, which has made hay out of the Venn diagram intersect between horndogs and fans of Regency drama. Other returning faves, like Prime Video’s The Boys and Max’s House of the Dragon, are likewise aimed at a sort of similar audience, albeit one that also doesn’t mind copious amounts of death and blood.
Meanwhile, what Apple’s Presumed Innocent is to legal thrillers, Apple’s Dark Matter is to top-tier sci-fi. The latter, one of the many word-of-mouth hits on Apple TV+, offers a mind-bending sci-fi narrative that plays around with quantum psychics, as well as throwing its main character into a head-spinning multiverse.
Adapted from Blake Crouch’s novel of the same, the protagonist of this story is a physicist and professor played by Joel Edgerton. One night, while walking home in Chicago, he’s abducted into an alternate timeline. In order to get back to his life, his home, and his true family, he has to defeat a brilliant enemy that knows all the moves he’ll make before he actually makes them: Himself.
