USA Network is stepping back into the scripted game after a several year pause, and they’re doing it with some serious déjà vu. The cable channel that once spawned the “blue sky” era (see: current Netflix powerhouse Suits, and also sun shiny light dramas like White Collar and Royal Pains) has tapped John Grisham’s The Rainmaker as its grand return to drama, nearly three decades after Francis Ford Coppola turned the novel into a film starring Matt Damon.
The new series features British actor Milo Callaghan (seen recently in Dune: Prophecy and The Spanish Princess) as Rudy Baylor, a freshly minted lawyer up against John Slattery’s corporate shark.
USA’s blue sky legacy: Suits, White Collar, Royal Pains, Monk
Here’s the thing: those shows weren’t prestige, but they were dependable comfort food – proudly middlebrow, you might say. They were law-adjacent, crime-adjacent, occasionally wacky (Monk, I’m looking at you especially). In other words, the exact opposite of a slow-burn Grisham thriller. Can USA really rebrand from “summer fluff that’s weirdly engaging” to “serious court grind”? It’s like trying to turn your vacation rental into a law library. Possible, but you’ll need more than fresh paint.
So what exactly was The Rainmaker again?
Full disclosure: I read the novel at some point and have seen the movie, but I barely remember what either are about except that was the Grisham one that Matt Damon was in.
To catch you up: the 1995 Grisham novel became a 1997 Francis Ford Coppola film starring the then fresh-faced Damon as Rudy Baylor, an earnest young lawyer who sues an insurance company into oblivion. It was… decent. Not top-tier Coppola, not top-tier Damon, but a solid rainy Sunday TNT rewatch. Or rewatchable, as they say over on The Ringer.
Milo Callaghan has Matt Damon-sized shoes to fill
The British kid is tasked with doing a Memphis accent, slinging legalese, and stepping into the large (polished) shoes of Damon’s former role. Callaghan admits he studied the movie and the book but eventually had to let it go. To be sure, ten hours of TV is a much windier road than two hours of movie. Still, every young actor stepping into Damon’s shadow has to sweat just a little: because Damon.
Grisham goes prestige (again)
Grisham adaptations are like cicadas: they vanish for years and then suddenly swarm. The Firm begat a Tom Cruise movie, then a TV show that nobody watched. A Time to Kill gave us peak McConaughey (see: The McConaissance). And now The Rainmaker is back to remind us that no one milks courtroom melodrama quite like Grisham.
Better Call Saul set the bar (too high?)
Well, almost no one.
The problem for The Rainmaker is that Better Call Saul exists. And Saul Goodman didn’t just raise the bar for legal dramas: he stole the bar and then smooth-talked the show’s path to being nominated for 46 Emmys.
How do you follow that? Every legal drama now feels like it has to measure itself against the Albuquerque standard. USA may want to be taken seriously again, but they’re playing in the same sandbox as Vince Gilligan & Peter Gould. Or at least at a lower rent one nearby.
That reminds us: check out Pop Thruster’s Best 100 TV Shows Ever, and behold Better Call Saul’s august placement.
Films that became tv shows (and didn’t totally embarrass themselves)
The history here is mixed. Fargo turned a Coen brothers classic into an anthology masterpiece. Friday Night Lights became one of the best teen dramas ever. Westworld… well, it started kind of strong. For every win, there are duds (see: Minority Report, Rush Hour, et al). Where will The Rainmaker land?
John Slattery makes everything better, full stop
John Slattery as Leo Drummond is inspired casting. Slattery as a lawyer in anything is inspired casting. For Mad Men fans, he’ll always be Roger Sterling, the chain-smoking ad exec who could charm and destroy in the same breath. If The Rainmaker goes sideways, Slattery alone may keep it watchable, especially as the heavy in Rudy Baylor’s David-vs-Goliath story.
Why this could actually work (or why it could flop hard)
Work: Callaghan nails his accent, Slattery chews scenery, and the show leans into Grisham’s tense underdog-vs-corporation vibe.
Flop: It’s a throwback courtroom procedural at a time when audiences are hooked on high-concept, twisty genre shows. Also, if it ends up looking like Suits without the fun, people may bail.
Or, it could commit the worst sin of all: it could just be boring.
Courtroom chaos never really goes out of style
Here’s one of the Commandments of Television: legal shows never die, they just resurface with new faces, new cases, and new accents. The Rainmaker may not redefine television, but it might scratch the itch for those missing the old USA magic. And hey, if all else fails, at least John Slattery will look great in a three-piece suit.
It also crosses an important bar for me: I may actually check it out. Verdict pending.
And that means something in this entertainment and information-soaked world we live in now.