Watching Barbara Sabich in Apple TV’s Presumed Innocent is like watching a punching bag make its way through an infinite circle of BattleBots.
After the release of Presumed Innocent, most of the talk covers the various aspects of Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of Rusty Sabich, mainly in a bad light.
It’s easy enough to peg Rusty as the antagonist throughout the series. The guy is just awful in so many ways, from his predilection toward narcissism at every turn to his full-blown embrace of serial infidelity.
“Presumed Innocent” is misleading. Sure, that’s the nexus around which a fair justice system in a free country revolves, but Rusty is anything but.
His actions catalyze everything, bringing me back to Presumed Innocent’s worst, immersion-breaking character: Barbara Sabich.
Unshakeable
The question of the day is: How in the world did Rusty Sabich make it through all eight episodes of Presumed Innocent without getting the fire poker treatment via Barbara?
The fact that Rusty didn’t go the way of Edward II is difficult to accept.
It’s one thing for a spouse to catch the other engaging in infidelity. Having your face rubbed in it for an entire season is quite another.
Nevertheless, Barbara Sabich stoically continues forward, with occasional tears but mostly with dry, sullen eyes. No anger. No vitriol.
If you’ve ever seen the movie with Harrison Ford in Rusty’s role, then it’s not difficult to hone in on the murderous side of Barbara.
A Litany of Insults
Rusty is, in many ways, a narcissistic personality. He imbibes the procurator version of a doctor’s god-complex. He’s also a serial cheater, in the way that ants can’t stay away from open food containers.
He cheats. He’s caught. He cheats again. When we learn how obsessive Rusty is over his lover, Barbara…wrings her hands some.
While we’re busy waiting for a rock to come flying across the screen, a gun to go off, or a downward swing of another fire poker, we get hand-wringing instead.
Barbara Sabich has one lone moment of defiance when she insists Rusty tell the kids this time.
This has the effect of diminishing Rusty, truly diminishing, to a degree. But, the overall development has no lasting impact.
Sure, it’s easy to say that Barbara is not a violent woman. Most people aren’t. But Rusty never comes home to an empty house. There is no sound of squealing tires as Barbara heads out over the horizon, kids in tow.
There is such a thing as “stand by your man,” and then there’s the obstinance of the weak.
Compounding the Situation
If everything that Barbara goes through isn’t enough, she discovers that her daughter, Jaden Sabich, is the one who brained poor Carolyn with a fire poker.
Moments later, Barabara and Jaden are all smiles. They’re wearing oven mitts and baking a turkey, grinning and laughing their way through what appears to be a Thanksgiving dinner.
Rusty, who so heartachingly spelled out his undying love, devotion, and obsession with Carolyn (with Barbara looking on), shares a deep and loving look with his wife.
Most husbands would spend a day in cold silence for glancing at a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition while in line at the convenience store.
Rusty would hump a fire hydrant if Carolyn told him to and set off a murderous, family-shattering scenario with no lasting repercussions from Barb.
This is not to mention opening the door for Jaden to become a murderer and live with it for the rest of her life. But Rusty is lucky. He’s married to Barbara Sabich, the unmoved monument.
At the end of the day, facilitated murder, narcissism, lust, infidelity, and lies are nothing to a warm Thanksgiving dinner full of love, laughter, joy, and…trust.
What do you think? A bit harsh, maybe? Let us know in the comments!
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