The Rainmaker, a new 10-part television adaptation of John Grisham's 1995 novel, has been criticized as a tedious and shallow legal drama. Critics have panned its hokey dialogue, simplistic storylines, and lack of depth, calling it a below-average series that fails to capture the complexity of the source material.
From Average Film to Below-Average Series
The Rainmaker was once merely an average film about lawyers starring Matt Damon. Now, thanks to television, it's a below-average series about lawyers starring Milo Callaghan, an actor whose jawline suggests mettle but whose acting suggests woe. Callaghan drifts around the adaptation with the air of a man who has forgotten what he came into the courtroom for, certain only that it was not a drama compelling him to say lines like: “Ah just wanna be a lawyer.”
Callaghan plays Rudy Baylor, an ambitious South Carolina law graduate with a social conscience and a thirst for justice. The huffing greenhorn is even late for his first day at prestigious law firm Tinley Britt, having spent the morning hurling his mom's boyfriend around the garden. Insouciant new boss Leo F Drummond, played by John Slattery, promptly fires him, drawling: “I am the punishment of God.”
A Show-and-Tell Affair Lacking Nuance
The series is a straightforwardly soapy affair, a glossy show-and-tell in which linear storytelling is soundtracked by incessant MOR country-rock. Characters are introduced with lines such as: “You're Wilfred Keeley, CEO of Great Benefit Hospital Systems, one of Tinley Britt's most important clients!” The plot, if one must, follows Baylor as he washes up at a one-horse personal injury firm operating out of an abandoned taco joint, where he finds sassy maverick Joceyln “Bruiser” Stone, played by Lana Parrilla.
His first case is an unlawful death suit that pits him against both his former boss and his lawyer girlfriend. The series is startlingly uncomplicated, unlike other legal dramas such as The Good Fight, Suits, or Damages. It features tea-towel quotations with gravitas and lines like “This kid's got balls.”
A Tedious Watch with Spelled-Out Motivations
It's peculiar to find a series so wilfully devoid of depth, authenticity, and nuance. Baylor's backstory is revealed in the first few minutes, with his brother's death spelled out as motivation. Everything from motivation to the identity of the baddies is presented in an overly explicit manner. The series has been described as tedious, with critics noting that squinting for interesting things to appear is futile.
The Rainmaker is available on ITVX in the UK, Peacock in the US, and Stan in Australia. The series ultimately fails to deliver a compelling legal drama, leaving viewers with a yawn-inducing experience that lacks the depth of its source material.
