Peacock Officially Replaces 'Suits' With a Legal Drama That Can't Be Beat
Erin Konrad's love for everything entertainment dates back to elementary school when she became obsessed with classic Hollywood musicals. When she's not catching up on all her favorite television shows, she's advising her friends and family on what they should binge watch next.
She has her Bachelor's degree in Journalism and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Creating content for Collider gives her the opportunity to combine her writing skills with her passion for television and movies. She spends her free time trying to beat her personal record of reading 137 books in a year and cuddling with her dog, Gracie.
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The USA network has tried for years to come up with a worthy successor to their hit legal drama, Suits. The nine-season series, which ran from 2011 to 2019, managed to capture the cutthroat, yet fascinating world of high-powered lawyers in New York City. Suits became even more popular years later when the show gained a whole new following after becoming available to stream on Netflix in 2023. Since Suits, USA has never managed to come up with a truly entertaining series that matches the show's smart writing and fun storylines — until now, that is.
What Is 'The Rainmaker' About?
In 1995, John Grisham published a popular novel called The Rainmaker. The exciting story, about a young attorney named Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan), was eventually adapted as a film in 1997, starring Matt Damon. The television version of the story kicked off its first season in October 2025. Rudy and his girlfriend, Sarah Plankmore (Madison Iseman), have just passed the bar and are both hired to work at a prestigious law firm in Charleston. But on Rudy's first day, he's fired by head lawyer, Leo Drummond (John Slattery), after speaking his mind. Rudy ends up working for the much less fancy firm, J. Lyman Stone, which is run by Jocelyn "Bruiser" Stone (Lana Parrilla, in a gender-swapped role that Mickey Rourke originated in the film). Rudy teams up with Bruiser and her right-hand man, Deck Shifflet (P.J. Byrne), as they take on an intriguing case involving a woman named Dot Black (Karen Bryson), who believes that the hospital where her son died is covering up something suspicious. The rest of the season unfolds with an action-packed story that fits perfectly into 10 fast-paced episodes.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter.
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is.
- Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
- You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve is exactly the door he would knock on.
- The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence. It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
- He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
- The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
- He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool you would normally reach for.
- His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend the rest of your life proving him wrong.
- He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
- Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from: a mind the equal of the hero's, pointed the wrong way.
- You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he has already built the room.
- This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs the game to be worth playing.
- It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
- Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
- You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no interest in how capable you are.
- No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
- Call it. He will wait.
'The Rainmaker' Is a Fun, Twisty Legal Thriller That Demands a Binge-Watch
The Rainmaker, which just premiered its second season in October, manages to seamlessly blend several different genres. There are frightening, suspenseful twists in the storytelling one moment, and silly humor the next. No matter the tone of each scene, Rudy's story is that of a heroic underdog, and he serves as the perfect protagonist to highlight the many injustices in the legal system. He's also dealing with a painful past that continues to affect his life. The Rainmaker thrives with its unpredictable storytelling, but the series becomes a true standout because of its well-rounded characters. Even supporting characters end up providing valuable building blocks to the narrative. The relationships that form between the characters, especially the mentor connection between Bruiser and Rudy, or the buddy-cop feeling of Deck and Rudy's partnership, allow the series to offer both serious and lighthearted moments.
The Rainmaker could have fallen into second-rate television without its stellar cast. Callaghan offers a protagonist that is easy to root for, even when he's failing. It's also interesting to see the changes in Callaghan's delivery from Season 1 to 2, as he demonstrates the growth that Rudy has experienced. Parrilla is perfection as the tough-as-nails Bruiser, who is trying to forge her own path beyond that of her disgraced lawyer father. Slattery offers his sly, shark of a lawyer with aplomb, and Merle Dandridge takes over in Season 2 as his equally ruthless replacement. These lead actors help to create a solid framework for the series, but the supporting cast is every bit as impressive. Byrne provides much-needed comedic relief in the series as Deck, with a character that is constantly eating and making wise-cracks. Bryson also supplies the series with its quiet heart as the grieving Dot. Together, the entire cast elevates the series from a traditional legal drama.
Although the show has only aired a few episodes of Season 2 so far, The Rainmaker has set up an even more captivating story revolving around a young boy who seeks out Rudy's help after he's unfairly sentenced to a juvenile detention center. Rudy and Deck realize there's something nefarious going on, and decide to investigate. Bruiser has her own case to worry about this season, when her ex-husband, Tom Cassady (Austin Nichols), requests she defend him. There are several more episodes to go before we reach the end of the season, but it's clear that The Rainmaker is not holding back in its second outing. If you haven't watched this entertaining series yet, we order you to binge-watch it today.
The Rainmaker is available to stream on Peacock in the U.S., with new episodes dropping every Friday on USA.
The Rainmaker
- Release Date
- August 15, 2025
- Network
- USA Network
-
Milo Callaghan
Rudy Baylor
-
Lana Parrilla
Jocelyn 'Bruiser' Stone
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.