This powerful thriller only has eight episodes and is one of the best trial series in recent years

Faced with the possibility that their 14-year-old son may have been capable of murdering someone, what will his parents do, do everything possible to discover the truth or protect him from the consequences at all costs? This is the question that arises Defend Jacobthe exciting miniseries Apple TV+ who star Chris Evans and Michelle Dockery.

In this eight-episode legal thriller, the protagonists of Captain America and Downton Abbey They play Andy and Laurie Barber, the parents of Jacob, a teenager who becomes the main suspect in the murder of one of his classmatesa case that shocks the small town in which they live, forcing Andy to decide between fulfilling his duty as an assistant district attorney and unconditional love for his son.

Jaeden Martellactor we saw in Item and Daggers in the backis in charge of giving life to Jacob and is up to the task of a role that requires ambiguity to seem at times like a sociopathin others a shy teenager who can explain his mistakes with inexperience, and in the rest a simple victim.

The rest of the cast is made up of actors of recognized solvency, among which stand out Cherry Jones (The Handmaid’s Tale), in the role of defense lawyer, and who stars in one of the best scenes of the entire series during Jacob’s preparation for the trial.

Mark Bomback (logan) adapts William Landay’s novel of the same name for the screen and all episodes are directed by the Oscar nominee Morten Tyldum (Deciphering Enigma).

Legal thriller and family drama

In Defending Jacob, The interrogation questions in the trial scenes are used as a resource to advance the plot of the present and go revealing details about Jacob’s life and the doubts that fall on him.

But the real success is that the mystery that interests the series is not so much discovering who the real culprit is, but rather making a psychological study of how these parents react faced with that situation with the information they have at all times.

As a parent, what do you do when your child’s honor is questioned? As a lawyer, what do you do when you think your client may be guilty? These are the dilemmas facing Andy, for whom Your future is as much at stake as your son’s.. He is constantly being judged as a father, husband, and lawyer for whatever actions Jacob may have committed.

The series too examines the collapse of marriage between lawyer Andy Barber and his wife Laurie when the evidence against their son begins to pile up against him, as she begins to doubt while he fights to defend Jacob’s honor.

Andy is the father willing to do anything to protect his son, regardless of the consequences, and Chris Evans gives here one of the best performances of his career, but the star who steals every scene is Michelle Dockerywhose character stars with his doubts in a parallel series, which at times recalls the magnificent We need to talk about Kevinshowing a much more complex, murky and less conventional story.

With the twists that the genre requires to keep the viewer interested, a permanent shadow of doubt about the innocence of the young suspect and a closed story of only eight episodes, Defending Jacob It is a perfect series to discover this summer.