‘Defending Jacob’: Chris Evans’s Eyes Have Never Looked Bluer

Apple TV+’s latest original crime drama, Defending Jacob, follows a father as he finds himself torn between his devotion to the law and his increasing suspicion that his beloved teen son might be a murderer. The show looks at the lengths parents will go to protect their children and how parents can never truly understand their children as people and oh my god Chris Evans looks great in this show and his eyes are so blue!

Okay, real talk: Defending Jacob is in many ways your standard crime drama about how one brutal crime can expose the cracks in an otherwise picture perfect small town. Hidden secrets get dredged to the surface and families must confront the evil lurking in their own homes. However, as I settled in and watched the first few episodes this week, I couldn’t stop thinking, “Damn, Chris Evans’s eyes are popping in this show.”

Chris Evans has been painted as a stud before. He’s been a superhero with tremendous biceps, a charming romantic lead with a rapscallion edge, and even a cocky jock. But Defending Jacob may be the first project that really digs into how blue Chris Evans’s eyes are.

Defending Jacob is based on William Landay’s novel of the same name. Andy Barber (Chris Evans) is a district attorney living in the affluent Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts who finds his world rocked when a 14-year-old boy is found murdered in the woods by his home. Andy’s thoughts immediately go to the safety of his own 14-year-old son Jacob (Jaeden Martell), who seems a little shaken by the incident, but not nearly as upset as you might think. As Andy digs into the case, it soon becomes clear that the kids at the local high school think Jacob had something to do with the murder. Catty Instagram comments aside, Andy not only discovers that Jacob has been hiding a knife from him and his wife Laurie (Michelle Dockery), but it is later revealed that Jacob’s fingerprint was on the dead boy’s body.

While Andy and Laurie want to fight for their son’s innocence, it puts them in conflict with the community. Other parents assume Jacob is guilty and Andy is pushed off his cases for the time being. Even though Andy believes a local sex offender is to blame, he can’t help but wrestle with the worry that his son might be guilty. Even if he is, Andy is compelled to protect his son.

So Defending Jacob is dark, gritty stuff. There’s a murdered kid, another kid who might be a murderer, and trauma permeating almost every scene. Even Andy is beset by memories of his own childhood, which were darkened by the violent actions of his criminal father. Because of the tone of the piece, director Morten Tyldum tints everything in a murky blue shadow. Shades of grey saturate every frame and there’s a distinctly dark color scheme at play.

The upshot of this artistic choice? Chris Evans’s eyes look insanely blue! No, I’m not joking. Sure, Chris Evans has always been a handsome man with piercing blue eyes, but in Defending Jacob, those eyes look downright cerulean. There’s a hint of indigo there, and the vibe of a stormy sea. To be completely honest, I found it downright distracting. There are scenes where Andy is trying to bond with his son, contemplate some grisly piece of evidence, or open up to his wife, and all I could think was, “Wow, Chris Evans has really, really, really blue eyes, and I’ve never noticed that before. Huh.”

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I found myself distracted by Captain America’s baby blues while watching Defending Jacob? Well, that depends. On the one hand, I probably should have been clued more into the mystery than nailing down which Sherwin-Williams paint color blend matched Chris Evans’s eyes. (I’m thinking it’s “Blue Blood” or “Honorable Blue.”) On the other hand, I’ve already made the snap judgment that the creepy Nazi kid from Knives Out did it, so… you tell me.

The first three episodes of Defending Jacob are now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes will premiere weekly.

Where to stream Defending Jacob