When I talk about fifty shades of grey, I’m not talking about the book by EL James or the movie adaptation. I’m talking about Apple TV+’s Defending Jacob. The shades of grey and blue perfectly accentuate the aesthetic of the show – setting up the dreariness and unsettling mood of the series. . The trailers for this show told us that Chris Evans’ character would have to defend his son tooth and nail, who is being accused of killing another kid in town. The problems are that Evans’ Andrew Barber is the town’s ADA and every piece of evidence points towards his son being the killer.
Review of The First Three Episodes
As it is stated in the beginning of the pilot episode (by Pablo Schreiber – I was pleasantly surprised seeing him in this series), the Barbers were a happy family. Andy and his wife Laurie (Michelle Dockery) worked hard to provide a loving home for Jacob (Jaeden Martell) with all of the resources to ensure a good upbringing. When the news of a kid, who shared a class with Jacob; being killed hits the town, the Barbers do, what I’m sure; most parents would. Breathe a sigh of relief that that wasn’t their child dead in a park.
Andy now has to investigate the murder, but things get tricky when a clue alludes that perhaps his son is the murderer. How does a parent cope with that? How do they begin to even fathom the possibility? Things begin to unravel from there. Suddenly, this happy family is slowly being pulled apart and things that weren’t revealed are rearing their ugly heads. Perhaps everything in this family wasn’t what it seemed and there’s more skeletons in their closets than they’d like to admit.
Is Jacob Guilty?
The evidence begins mounting against Jacob in the second episode. The suspense is palpable and I truly was on the edge of my seat. A dark secret is then revealed in the third episode. While clues point towards Jacob’s guilt, there also may be another possibility. That doesn’t matter to the public though. There’s repercussions all around. A happy marriage gets plucked apart. A child retreats within himself. Classmates gossip. Andy and Laurie get laid off. The Barber family is shunned by its community and those they thought were friends.
Rating: 4.5/5
While I’m happy that Apple TV+ released three full episodes, I wish all of Defending Jacob was available to watch. I need to know what happens next. Defending Jacob can go in any which direction. There’s so many layers and secrets to unravel. Evans is a great series lead and I have a feeling there’s more unraveling to be done. Based on the beginning of the series, I have a feeling Andy does something truly irreversible throughout the course of the season. Dockery compliments Evans well and Schreiber has a small part, but I can tell his tense rivalry with Evans’ character maybe Andy’s downfall.
Defending Jacob stars Chris Evans, Michelle Dockery, Jaeden Martell, Cherry Jones, Pablo Schreiber, Betty Gabriel, and Sakina Jaffrey.
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
