Chris Evans goes from defending the world to Defending Jacob, whoever that is

Apple TV+ didn’t have the most auspicious start, but Little America was solid and Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet a promising new comedy. Next month, the nascent streamer will return with two new dramas, the teen spy series Home Before Dark and Defending Jacob, a legal thriller that compensates for its bland name with a cast that includes Chris Evans, J.K. Simmons, Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, and It’s Jaeden Martell.

Based on William Landay’s 2012 novel, the series stars Evans as a small town assistant district attorney whose teenage son gets swept up in the murder case of a classmate. Morten Tyldum, who directed the Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game (and 2016's uber-dud Passengers), helms all eight episodes of the series, which looks to explore the ways in which a public investigation can turn both the core suspect and that suspect’s family into local pariahs.

Defending Jacob, which also counts Evans as an executive producer, premieres with its first three episodes on April 24, with subsequent episodes dropping weekly through May 29.