Being occasionally unlikeable but really good at his job worked well enough for Gregory House, which may be why Fox took a liking to Rake and ordered it to series, as the same description might apply to Greg Kinnear’s Keegan Deane, a brilliant lawyer, who’s also described as “frustratingly charming with zero filter.” Fox just announced the series’ official premiere date, which is set for January, and this week we have a look at the first official trailer for the series.
Brilliant, frustratingly charming and with zero filter, Keegan is one of life’s great addicts. His staggering lack of discretion and inability to self-censor land him the cases that nobody else will touch, but behind that lies a resolute optimism and belief in justice that fuel his dogged determination to defend those who seem beyond redemption. He always tries to do the right thing,but at the same time struggles to save himself from the many self-destructive elements that plague his own life, such as his overindulgence of various excesses, including women and gambling.
Rake is created and written by Peter Duncan, who created the original Australian series on which this one is based. As the trailer indicates, Keegan’s an attorney, and the series will follow him as he deals with his cases, as well as handling his own personal trials and tribulations. That includes a sizable debt to his bookie, not to mention more than a few liaisons with various women. Melissa “Mikki” Partridge is one of them. Played by Bojana Novakovic, Mikki is Keegan’s favorite prostitute, and his go-to girl. Keegan also has some ongoing issues with the IRS. Would his IRS issues tie into his gambling issues? Quite possibly. David Harbour plays David Potter, the IRS tax attorney breathing down Keegan’s neck. And Tara Summers plays Leanne Zander, Keegan’s no-nonsense assistant. Given everything we know about Kinnear’s character already, it sounds like Leanne has her hands full with her job.
Admittedly, I don’t love the above trailer. But that's less an issue with the show as it is with everything that's packed into the preview. At least, hopefully. Maybe it’s still a little too close to morning for me, but it moved a bit too fast and I had to replay the line about the TV movie sequel twice just to catch it. With that said, I like Greg Kinnear, and I like the idea of him playing a brilliant lawyer with an easy smile and a messy personal life. So I’m going into this one optimistically, trailer aside. And hopefully the show gets off to a solid start. Fox has Rake set to premiere Sunday, January 18 at 10:00 p.m., following the NFC Championship Game. The second episode will air that Thursday (January 23). Check out Fox’s January schedule here.
And below is a look at the cast photo for the drama:
Watch the extended preview that was released during the upfronts last spring here.
