The Rainmaker channels How To Get Away With Murder’s energy without copying its playbook

For six seasons, How To Get Away With Murder rewrote the patterns of legal drama. The show blended courtroom spectacles with psychological thrills and captivating mysteries. Viola Davis's commanding performance as Annalise Keating carried the show. It wasn’t just a whodunnit; it was tautly written and full of multi-occuring plotlines and a complex web of violence. Fans, ever since its finale in 2020, have been unable to find anything that matches the marvelous chaos of the series.

The series did not just depend on murder and suspense. It depended on watching smart people collapse under the pressure of their secrets. That mixture of legal background and moral rot is unusual.

Now comes The Rainmaker. Slated to premiere on the USA Network this August, the show is based on John Grisham's bestselling novel, which was originally adapted into a film in 1997 starring Matt Damon.

But this time, the version for the small screen promises something darker and deeper beyond just contract law and courthouses. With a compelling cast, buried conspiracies, and characters burdened with deep personal connections, The Rainmaker might just have the right amount of trauma and tension to pick up How To Get Away With Murder's torch.

A legal show that dares to go deeper

The Rainmaker, at first glance, might give off the impression of a traditional court-drama. It features Milo Callaghan as Rudy Baylor, a young lawyer who gets pitted against an enormous insurance company in what seems like a David-and-Goliath story. But the series is quick to show its more dramatic details.

Rudy isn’t simply battling an inequitable system—he is coming face-to-face with a former mentor-turned-rival and an ex-girlfriend who finds herself on the other side of the courtroom. This narrative has all the ingredients needed for familial drama, but the themes are much more intense than your average legal drama.

The trailer hints at a story that develops quickly. The central case might shift from a legal battle to a deeply personal confrontation—exposing hidden truths, unresolved conflict, and a rot at the corporate core.

Just like How To Get Away With Murder, The Rainmaker indulges in paranoia and moral ambiguity. Rudy desperately trying to prove himself in court, and to himself, evokes the earlier days of the Keating Five. He is a novice, but he is already in too deep.

The Rainmaker echoes How To Get Away With Murder, without feeling like a copy

While How To Get Away With Murder utilized flash-forwards and a nonlinear narrative, The Rainmaker plods through mounting conspiracies with interpersonal drama. Bruiser Stone, played by Lana Parrilla, mentors Rudy while also dragging him into deeper waters, adding grit and experience to the ensemble.

Alongside, there are a secretive paralegal, a courtroom adversary with personal vendetta, and a mourning client whose son’s death might not have been an accident. These are not mere side-plots; they are intricate, multi-faceted entanglements that deepen and intensify with startling speed.

The Rainmaker, while not following in the footsteps of How To Get Away With Murder, still manages to redefine the boundaries between personal crises and legal procedures. There is no clean resolution to be found—only a tangled web of moral conflict, ruthless strategy, and a lead character coming to the crushing realization that the reality he seeks to combat is far grander, more hostile, and intimate than he ever envisioned.

For those who wonder where the audacious and dark undertones of How To Get Away With Murder can be found, this may very well be the next series to keep an eye out for.

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