Defending Jacob (TV Mini Series) Pilot (2020) User Reviews

Interesting character driven slow burn!

[joshculusbruh · 8/10 · 29 January 2022]

Chris Evans in this role is a little weird but the show itself so far is interesting and I really like the characters. It keeps you interested and it moves slowly but it always feels like it's moving. The set up and mystery is a little derivative but its good enough and honestly not the quality I was expecting when I got Apple TV+

Brilliant writing by the author excellent screenplay

[bgzvfdnpvq · 9/10 · 14 January 2022]

Thriller and riveting series. I think all actors played their part perfectly. But the credit goes to the fictional writer. A very good plot to work on.

The best part is that it has only 8!episoee.

Great Pilot

[OblanskHiggs · 10/10 · 30 May 2020]

A fantastic first episode for this series, great characters and cast, and a very interesting plot that is a very nice whodunit, Great performance from Chris Evans, you can really forget how great an actor he is, he always will have the shadow of Captain America... This episode was great, I loved it and it's a very promising start for a great tv show.

Awesome Pilot episode

[moviesfilmsreviewsinc · 10/10 · 25 September 2022]

Apple+'s latest addition Defending Jacob starts its season with a decent but slow first episode. While the plot is intriguing, it doesn't feel very original and adopts many of the same sort of tropes inherent with this genre without much in the way of originality or uniqueness. Episode 1 of Defending Jacob starts with a man walking in court as we hear a lawyer talking to the jury who will decide if an indictment can be granted. If it is, it means that the case will be taken to the supreme court. We then see a man taking his place on the stand, Andrew Stephen Barber, who's the former district attorney. The lawyer starts reading a newspaper article describing the Barber family as perfect and asks if it's an accurate description of them on the day that Ben Rifkin was murdered. We then cut to 10 months earlier as Andrew wakes his son, Jacob, up. His wife, Laurie, comes back from a run and they spend a normal family morning together. As they all leave to go about their days, Andrew arrives in court where he gets busy dealing with his different tasks. In school, an announcement from the head tells everyone that the school is in lockdown as we see Jacob and the rest of the students kneeling down in a corner of the class. We then cut to the scene of the crime, which is swarming with police. Lieutenant Duffy meets Andrew and tells him that a 14 year old boy, Benjamin Rifkin has been found stabbed. This shocks Andrew as he is in the same year as his son. As they reach the body, Andrew gets a call from Jacob wanting to know what is happening but his father tells him he can't talk about it. Jacob looks like he wants to say something but stops himself. The news then reaches his mum, who happens to work in a school for neglected and abused children. With no other leads, Andrew calls Duffy and tells her to bring Leonard in. He then receives an attachment leading him to Ben's Facebook pages full of messages and one from his son : "Ben is dead, Why are you writing him messages? Acting like his best friend." His friend Derek then replies: "Everyone knows you did it as you have a knife". This prompts him to look through his son's things where he ends up finding a knife, which is where the episode ends. Defending Jacob's main point of interest is that the murderer could be a 14 year old child who may have done it because he was being bullied. While this plot line isn't wholly original, it's still intriguing enough to keep you sticking around to find out what happens next and just who is responsible.

Pilot

[bobcobb301 · 6/10 · 26 April 2020]

It looks like murder and whodunnit will be the theme as this is three straight Apple TV shows where that is the case. That's fine, because it is always an interesting topic.

An okay start, but we need something different to happen. So far this felt stilted and generic.

I do like the authenticity of the dialogue for the kids, but other than that, a pretty standard show.

Seriously! How did he get to be an ADA?

[kanyid · 3/10 · 27 December 2020]

The show was going great until the ADA touched possible EVIDENCE! Seriously. That just about ruins it for me. I'm going to try another episode but that is very disappointing. If he doesn't immediately recuse himself and turn in potential evidence in the next episode then it is just a dirty ADA trying to cover things up. How is that going to make a good show?