For anyone missingHow to Get Away with Murder, an upcoming legal thriller is the perfect show to watch next. Debuting on ABC in September 2014 and running until May 2020,How to Get Away with Murderwas led by Oscar winner Viola Davis as Annalise Keating. A defense attorney and a law professor at a prestigious university, Keating routinely ended up having to cover up the messes of her students, who areknown as the Keating Five, and their associates.
How to Get Away with Murderended after six seasons, with creator Peter Nowalk and producer Shonda Rhimes stating it felt like the right time to end the story. The legal thriller was still a top-rated show for ABC by the time it bowed out, albeit Keating’s journey concluded with a sense of overall closure. A new courtroom drama, which is debuting in just a few months, looks well-positioned to fill the void left byHTGAWM’s absence.
USA’s The Rainmaker Series Is A Legal Thriller & Courtroom Drama
It Debuts In August
An adaptation of thepopular John Grisham book, which was previously made into Francis Ford Coppola’s 1997 movie starring Matt Damon,The Rainmakeris getting a TV offshoot from executive producer Michael Seitzman and Blumhouse Television. It focuses on Rudy Baylor, who is played byRivalsactor Milo Callaghan. Fresh out of law school, Rudy has to face off against a legendary lawyer and his ex-girlfriend from law school.
The Rainmakerwill debut on August 15 at 10 p.m. ET on USA Network, with episodes available to stream on Peacock a week later.
As shown inThe Rainmakertrailer, Rudy is familiar with his adversary, Leo Drummond (Mad Men’s John Slattery), in more ways than one. Before their face-off in the courtroom,Rudy used to work under Drummond for a short time before getting fired. Now, still stinging from that professional setback, he’s on the opposite side of Drummond and his ex, Sarah Plankmore (Jumanji: The Next Level’sMadison Iseman), in court.
While that part of the USA Network series is pure legal drama, with the personal stakes to boot,The Rainmakeralso teases its thriller elements when Rudy, working alongside his boss Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone (played byThe Lincoln Lawyeralum Lana Parrilla) and her disheveled paralegal,discover two connected conspiracies that add to the mystery surrounding the death of their client’s son. The second half of the story links up nicely with the sense of paranoia and dread thatHow to Get Away with Murderoften evoked during its six-season stretch.
How To Get Away With Murder Leaned Heavily Into The Thriller Genre
Those Flashforwards Were Intense
How to Get Away with Murderhad a structure that helped to sustain it through several iterations, with the guest cast shifting almost entirely from one season to the next. It would begin putting viewers right in the middle of a frantic and brutal flash-forward, then flashing back to reveal how the season’s central murder unfolded and the part that Annalise plays in helping her favored students cover it all up.
While the ABC showdid have case-of-the-week elements, with Annalise taking on some new clients and the students using their various skills to help, these largely contained stories fell under an overall heading of an increasingly dark thriller. With each death, the relationship between Annalise and the Keating Five grew more frayed and destructive.
This may dovetail, to a point, with howThe Rainmakerpresents itself as a light legal dramedy at first blush.HTGAWMwas like that as well, with Davis' viral line reading of “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?” But as the episodes progressed and the losses mounted, the hit series from Shonda Rhimes' Shondalandembraced its grim thriller tendencies more fulsomely.
Both Shows Also Deal With Brand-New Lawyers Learning The Job
The Show Provided Several Young Actors With Breakout Roles
The Rainmakerhighlights two young lawyers during a very high-stakes case. That is reminiscent ofHow to Get Away with Murder, which showed the Keating Five learning on the job. Despite their complicated dynamic with Annalise, they did glean a lot of wisdom from her.That looks to be replicated in the USA Network adaptation, as Rudy is paired with his boss, and Sarah learns from none other than Leo Drummond.
Callaghan plays Seb Burrows in the Hulu hitRivalsand Orry Atreides in HBO Max’sDune: Prophecy.Iseman, meanwhile, is known for her role as Bethany Walker in the recentJumanjimovies and for playing the main protagonist in the short-livedI Know What You Did Last Summerseries.
In terms ofThe Rainmakercast,although Callaghan and Iseman have several credits to their name before even taking on the roles of Rudy and Sarah, the legal thriller could be the breakout. This, too, is another echo of howHow to Get Away with Murderserved as a launching pad for young actors like Alfred Enoch, Jack Falahee, Aja Naomi King, Matt McGorry, Karla Souza, Conrad Ricamora, and Rome Flynn, partly by putting them on-screen with veteran performers.
