- Network: USA
- Series Premiere Date: Aug 15, 2025
Critic Reviews
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While the material mostly shines once it gets going, The Rainmaker greatly benefits from having a great cast carrying the proceedings forward.
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Callaghan gives off a scintilla of Matt Damon vibes, but is his own Rudy, keeping his naive idealist free from leading-man tics. Parrilla finds the balance between Bruiser’s sauciness and seriousness; Byrne plays the clown adeptly; and Slattery, a boss again after “Mad Men,” softens his villainy with some Roger Sterling insouciance. Developed by Michael Seitzman and Jason Richman, it’s a very watchable show.
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It’s safe, a little bit cowardly, and yet still entertaining enough, carried by Grisham’s thriller mechanics and a strong supporting cast led by John Slattery and Lana Parrilla.
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The series is at its best when we are introduced to Pritcher and watch in horror as his character is exposed to the outside world. However, the story isn’t as fluid or solid in scenes involving Rudy and Sarah, which should evoke emotional resonance that doesn’t memorably materialize.
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The Rainmaker may yet end up a fairly solid legal drama by the time the final credits roll, but at best it will prove an uneven one. In the meantime, the jury's still out.
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What’s strange and ultimately damning about this adaptation is that, despite the broadly detailed but engaging roster of lawyer characters, there’s very little courtroom drama in the first half of the series, and instead quite a lot of kidnapping, murder, and extraneous conspiracy.
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None of this is halfway interesting, and when the show cuts away from the central trio of Rudy, Bruiser and Deck, the series loses whatever snap it has, largely because the other characters are bland and undeveloped. Even Rudy is dull. That’s a matter of the writing but also the casting.
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It’s going for a politics-free world, and it achieves it. There’s nothing objectionable, but nothing much to chew on either.
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There’s a noticeable lack of fire behind it. Which sums up The Rainmaker in a nutshell: It’s a likeable enough soap opera that’s only worth half of your attention.
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It’s depressingly pedestrian as it tells the story of recent law school grad Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) who fights for the underdog in court against jerky legal lion Leo Drummond (John Slattery, chewing scenery with wild abandon)
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USA’s The Rainmaker is a tepid, muddled retelling of the classic John Grisham legal thriller that falls short, despite John Slattery’s charms.
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It’s remarkable how much the older generation of lawyers ends up outshining their mentees. .... “The Rainmaker” labors mightily to give its protagonist some dimension, from a backstory about a death in his family to a subplot about intervening in his neighbor’s abusive marriage. None of it works.
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Maybe the final five episodes will flesh that out amid its conspiratorial rabbit hole, but the initial run certainly doesn’t. What’s left is a jumbled cross between a legal drama, a soap, and a true crime series that ultimately doesn’t manage to say much at all.
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While everyone does a good job in their roles, the story at the center of The Rainmaker feels like something we’d see in a CBS law procedural, not a Grisham-based legal drama.
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“The Rainmaker” is more like a drizzle, tapping out a tiring, repetitive beat.
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Much of “The Rainmaker” is overwritten, underwritten or just clichéd (Ms. Bryson’s character, for instance). Sometimes a small directorial touch catches one off-guard.
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The biggest impediment to enjoying a show that’s made to be nothing more than enjoyable is Rudy himself. Without more motivation than a boilerplate tragic backstory (his brother, who wanted to be a lawyer, died before he could realize that dream) and a general desire to be successful on his lost loved one’s behalf, there’s very little reason to invest in Rudy’s struggle, especially when compared to his easy-to-root-for past iterations.