Showtime Reveals “The Comey Rule” Trailer

And there you have it, our first look at Brendan Gleeson channeling Donald Trump in Showtime‘s The Comey Rule. The miniseries is based on former FBI Director James Comey‘s best-selling book “A Higher Loyalty,” adapted and directed by Billy Ray. The new trailer not only reveals our first good look at Ray’s new series but also that, per his request, it will be premiering before election day, over two days on September 27 and 28.

All eyes will of course be on Gleeson’s Trump. Physically, the imposing Gleeson embodies Trump with ease, but boy does he do impressive work getting Trump’s specific, outer-borough accent down pat. Gleeson’s Trump is pitted against Jeff Daniels’ James Comey, and if nothing else, this series will be a joy to watch because we’ll get to watch these two excellent actors squaring off against each other.

Gleeson and Daniels are hardly the only great performers who Ray assembled to recreate Comey’s tumultuous, brief run as the director of the FBI during the Trump administration. The always welcome Holly Hunter is on board, along with top-flight character actors like Scoot McNairy, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Jonathan Banks, Amy Seimetz, Brian d’Arcy James, T.R. Knight, and Joe Lo Truglio.

Probably the biggest question surrounding The Comey Rule is timing; both Ray’s desire to see the miniseries air before the election and the fact we’re already trying to make sense of a president and his administration before he’s even left office. Political dramas often benefit from distance from the events they describe, but we’re living in very different times and one doesn’t want to knock the team behind The Comey Rule for feeling like this was a story that needed to be adapted for the screen now. As many folks have pointed out, All the President’s Men, one of the best political dramas ever made, came out a mere two years after Nixon’s resignation, so you don’t have to have distance from the events to make something meaningful.

The bottom line is this; based on the trailer alone, The Comey Rule sure looks engaging. The excellent cast only increases the likelihood that Showtime’s miniseries will be must-watch TV.

Here’s the synopsis from Showtime:

Based on Comey’s No. 1 New York Times bestselling book A Higher Loyalty and more than a year of additional interviews with a number of key principals, THE COMEY RULE is an immersive, behind-the-headlines account of the historically turbulent events surrounding the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath, which divided a nation. THE COMEY RULE is not a biopic of one man, but is instead the story of two powerful figures, Comey and Trump, whose strikingly different personalities, ethics and loyalties put them on a collision course.

Featured image: Brendan Gleeson as President Donald J. Trump in THE COMEY RULE. Photo Credit: Courtesy of CBS Television Studios/SHOWTIME.