SummaryA remake of the Australian series of the same name, Keegan Deane (Greg Kinnear) is a self-destructive defense attorney who butts heads with his ex-wife (Miranda Otto), his friends Ben (John Ortiz) and Scarlett (Necar Zadegan), as well as his bookie and even the IRS.
SummaryA remake of the Australian series of the same name, Keegan Deane (Greg Kinnear) is a self-destructive defense attorney who butts heads with his ex-wife (Miranda Otto), his friends Ben (John Ortiz) and Scarlett (Necar Zadegan), as well as his bookie and even the IRS.
Rake has enough varied story elements to not fall into the procedural courtroom drama. Kinnear is a natural in the starring role, effortlessly making the shambles of his character's life seem not only plausible, but also sympathetic.
If you can’t love the rake in Keegan, then you sure can’t love the lawyer in him either (since it’s barely developed in the pilot). That leaves Rake as an overly familiar character study and an under-developed law procedural.
Fox originally provided a different pilot for Rake, one that wasn't so lighthearted. (Really.) That episode will air later, after, the network hopes, we've come to love this bad boy despite his foibles.
Rake is a little bit like the bad Sundance movie version of a procedural, a sturdy genre project tricked out with twee and antic detailing, in the hopes you will find all the appended doohickeys sharp and adorable and not notice how predictably the story is chugging along.