Defending Jacob: Testing Family Ties

I don't think I've ever seen a mini-series like Defending Jacob, up on AppleTV+ where it's been for nearly a year, based on a novel of the same name by William Landay which I didn't read.  It oscillates back and forth between two possible truths or endings, and manages to end without resolving that pendulum, in a way that makes you feel that you've confronted some profound mystery or reality of human life, because likely you have.

[Some spoilers follow ...]

The question is whether not Jacob, in his mid-teens, killed his schoolmate Ben.  He says he didn't, but he's a strange kid who gives off strange vibes.  He's highly intelligent and has an above-it-all ambience.  A shrink says he lacks empathy.  His father is not sure, but pretty much believes his son.  His mother is not sure, either, but believes Jacob less than does his father.

On Jacob's side of the story, there's child predator named Patz who is in the area, has pictures of Ben on his phone, and erases them.   But Jacob wrote a short story after Ben's murder, which gives a psychological take on the crime that seems autobiographical.  Twist after twist makes Jacob seem a victim, and then a killer, then a victim, then a killer.  It's the kind of thing that can drive his parents crazy, and almost does, especially Jacob's mother.

In the last series of twists, Patz leaves a suicide note of confession, but Jacob's father Andy learns that his father (Jacob's grandfather) had someone put a gun to Patz's head and made him write the note, right before the gunman made it look that Patz had hung himself.  Jacob's family goes to Mexico to celebrate, but Jacob and a girl go off walking on a beach, he returns with a different shirt, and the girl is missing.  Did Jacob kill her? It seems so -- until the girl shows up the next day.  She'd been drugged at a party.

So you get the picture.  There's a lot more that happens, both before and after those scenes, but the series ends without us knowing whether Jacob is a killer or just one unlucky kid.   And there's something that Adam was calling his wife Laurie (Jacob's mother) to tell her, and we don't know what that is, either (or maybe I missed it).

All of this is delivered by outstanding acting at every turn, but especially Jaeden Martell as Jacob, Michelle Dockery as Laurie, Chris Evans as Adam, J. K. Simmons as the grandfather, and Cherry Jones as Jacob's lawyer.  If you want a roller-coaster ride in an amusement park dedicated to the proposition that we don't know anything for sure in life, especially about the people who are closest to us, see Defending Jacob.  You won't forget it.