The Rainmaker Review

Every time I begin watching a new series, I want it to be great. I want it to be so exceptional that I finish each episode and cannot wait to see just what is going to happen next. I went into watching the screeners for The Rainmaker, the new USA/Peacock series loosely based on John Grisham’s 1995 novel that was also adapted into a 2001 film starring Matt Damon, with that same goal. And you know what? For a solid episode and a half I thought that perhaps there was something here – that this series was going to be something special. After all, it has four really great performances at the heart of the story. But then things started getting strange. And over the top. And plot lines started emerging seemingly out of nowhere. And past connections between characters started showing up in a poor attempt to craft complex backstories for characters that absolutely didn’t need them. And I realized that this was not a good show at all.

The Rainmaker tells the story of Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan, giving a great performance, even if his American accent isn’t as good as it could be), a recent law graduate who – along with his rich and pretty smart girlfriend, Sarah (Madison Iseman, who does her best with a wholly underwritten character) – has secured a first-year associate position with the local Big Law firm Tinley Britt. Unfortunately for Rudy, he tangles with the firm’s partner, Leo Drummond (John Slattery, who is doing a heck of a lot to make a “villain” into a more interesting character than the show wants him to be) on day one and gets himself fired. Without a job, his former boss at the local bar introduces him to Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone (Lana Parrilla, for my money, the absolute best thing about the series), who hires him on and pairs him with her paralegal, Deck Shifflet (a great P.J. Byrne) to look for potential cases.

The case they land on – one Rudy was discouraged from getting involved when he was destined for Tinley Britt – involves the death of a young man at a hospital. His mother, asserting that her son, a former addict, was clean and sober for over a year when he went to the hospital with the flu, is convinced something happened that led to his death. Naturally, the case is opposite Tinley Britt, who represents the company who owns the hospital and isn’t above playing dirty to ensure that the truth – whatever that may be – stays hidden and the money remains in their pockets. So, between studying for the bar* and trying to check up on his lovely new neighbor who is clearly in a horrific domestically abusive relationship (a plot point I understand is in the book, but that feels entirely out of place in this version of the story), Rudy has to figure out not only how to win in court, but how to find all the necessary evidence and prove himself a champion for the downtrodden. Oh, and potentially stop a serial killer – which, yeah, another plot point that emerged and left me wondering just what kind of story the series wanted to tell.

*As a non-practicing lawyer, I usually try to stay away from criticizing legal shows too harshly when they go off the deep end in terms of what lawyers do in and out of court. After all, 95% of a litigator’s (those are the lawyers that actually go to court and argue cases) job is sitting in their office working on paperwork. And most cases settle before trial. Being a lawyer is usually pretty boring and that doesn’t make for good TV (See Better Call Saul for a great look at just how dull being a lawyer can be). But my god, you have to study for the bar exam. And most firms give you time to study for it. You study for two whole months. And the exam is two whole days (if you’re taking it for only one state – which most people do). And neither Sarah nor Rudy spends nearly enough time studying. Hell, they have Rudy running around chasing leads at night. And then they take the bar in a single day. Just…come on. If you’re only going to pay lip service to how they need to take the bar and pass, then just skip the bar taking and have them become barred lawyers right away.

So what does The Rainmaker have going for it? Well, that would be those four performances I mentioned. Parrilla and Slattery, seasoned pros, are incredibly engaging every moment they’re on screen. And when they’re working together? Man, I would love to watch the version of the series that is just those two clashing in court as Sarah and Rudy learn from their bosses. We don’t need all the excess surrounding both of their characters – just let us watch a legal drama about their characters fighting it out in court. And Byrne is an absolute delight as Deck, a paralegal who made it through law school before failing the bar six times. He’s the much needed bit of levity that elevates scenes that seem pretty out there. And his buddy chemistry with Callaghan is top notch. Again, when those two are working together, the show sings. It’s when Callaghan is asked to swerve into the domestic sphere of the story – Rudy fighting with Sarah, Rudy talking to that neighbor, Rudy dealing with his mother – that he can’t hold the story together. And a lot of that is the writing, which is often half-baked and lacking cohesive narrative through lines (or is telegraphing the through lines just a tad too obviously).

It’s clear that showrunner Michael Seitzman was trying to turn The Rainmaker into a classic USA drama series. Some dramatic intrigue, characters who have complex histories that you can tease out over time, enough excitement to keep people coming back for more. But in doing that, he and the writers drowned out what could have been a really great straight legal drama. We don’t need soapy elements. We don’t need a serial killer. We don’t need a young man desperately trying to be a white knight in a profession that will ask him to potentially sully himself to get the result that’s fair. We just needed a drama about two law firms – one with all the money and power and one scrappy but with its heart in the right place – duking it out to see justice done. That’s also a sustainable story that you can go back to again and again. The Rainmaker could have been simple and smart. Instead, it went for loud and unwieldy and lost the plot in the process.

The Rainmaker premieres August 15 on USA and one week later on Peacock. Five episodes were provided for review.