The Watch With Us team is always intrigued when John Slattery joins a new project — the Mad Men alum is one of the most entertaining actors in the biz. When his new series, The Rainmaker, dropped a trailer, we were hooked.
The USA Network legal drama, which also streams on Peacock, blends humor and poignant character arcs, making it an exciting new entry on the NBCUniversal streamer.
With a stacked cast and a story from one of the world’s best legal thriller writers, The Rainmaker has all the makings of a hit. Here’s why you should watch it this weekend.
It’s Based on a John Grisham Novel
Peacock’s The Rainmaker is the second adaptation of John Grisham’s 1995 novel — it was previously adapted into a movie starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight and Danny Glover. The story follows Rudy, played in the TV version by Milo Callaghan (The Spanish Princess), a hotshot lawyer who is let go from a prestigious law firm and instead joins a low-rent personal injury firm — only to end up facing off against the firm that fired him and uncovering a legal conspiracy.
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Slattery plays Leo F. Drummond, an experienced and ruthless lawyer, while Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time) plays Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone, an “ambulance chaser” and Rudy’s new boss at the personal injury firm.
Grisham’s books have a history of creating great entertainment — the movies based on his novels The Firm, The Pelican Brief and The Client were all major box office successes.
The Cast Has a History of Making Great TV
As we mentioned above, Slattery is one of our favorite actors — as Roger Sterling in Mad Men, he infused the role with humor, charm and pathos that added a perfect counterpoint to Jon Hamm’s sometimes dour Don Draper. In The Rainmaker, he steps into a villainous role as a sleazy and immoral adversary for Rudy.
Parrilla, for her part, was the best part of Once Upon a Time. As Regina, the Evil Queen, she displayed her tremendous emotional range. Her character was constantly torn between good and evil, but she balanced genuine conflict with hilariously deadpan line deliveries. As “Bruiser,” she gets to step into a much more brassy and unrefined role. Parrilla is endlessly entertaining, especially when playing off the somewhat wide-eyed and innocent Rudy.
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While The Rainmaker uses Grisham’s novel for inspiration, it creates new storylines and updates the characters for 2025. The Rainmaker series focuses more on legal conspiracies and melodrama than on a complete indictment of the legal system — which is better suited for the longer arcs of episodic storytelling.
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One of the biggest changes in the series version is the gender swap of the “Bruiser” character. By making Rudy’s boss a woman, the series adds a wider range of perspectives to the cases that Rudy and his colleagues take on. Another interesting change is the addition of a new character, Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman), Rudy’s law school girlfriend who continues to work at the firm that Rudy was fired from. Their positions on opposite sides of the legal system add interesting conflict to Rudy’s story, showing how values and professional ambition can come between two people in love.
If you’re a fan of legal dramas that marry great performances with humor and thought-provoking stories, check out The Rainmaker on Peacock.
