''Rake'' is an American comedy-drama television series and an adaptation of the Australian series of the same name, both of which are created by Peter Duncan. Duncan served as series producer with, among others, star

Greg Kinnear Gregory Buck Kinnear (born June 17, 1963) is an American actor and former talk show host. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' As Good as It Gets'' (1997). Kinnear has appeared in many popular films, ...

Peter Tolan Peter James Tolan III (born July 5, 1958) is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter. Early life and career Tolan was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, where he was a perennial favorite in the high school's dramatic production ...

, and

Richard Roxburgh Richard Roxburgh (born 23 January 1962) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of a number of accolades across film, television, and theatre, including several AFI and AACTA Awards, Logie Awards, and Helpmann Awards. He bega ...

, on this version for Fedora Entertainment, Essential Media, and

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production company, production and broadcast syndication, distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division o ...

. On May 8, 2013, the series was added to the

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

network's 2013–14 schedule as a mid-season entry. The series premiered on January 23, 2014, originally airing Thursdays on the network, before moving to Fridays late in the first season and eventually to Saturdays for the final two episodes. On May 7, 2014, Fox canceled the series after one season, but ultimately aired the produced episodes.

Premise

The series follows Keegan Deane, a criminal defense lawyer whose personal problems and self-destructive behavior have him battling wits and owing money to everyone around him, including his ex-wife, judges, an assistant district attorney, his bookie, a brothel owner, and the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

Cast and characters

Main cast

as Keegan Deane, the titular

rake Rake may refer to: Common meanings * Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game ...

Miranda Otto Miranda Otto (born 16 December 1967) is an Australian actress. She is the daughter of actors Barry Otto, Barry and Lindsay Otto and the paternal half-sister of actress Gracie Otto. Otto began her acting career in 1986 at age 18 and appeared in a ...

as Maddy Deane, Keegan's ex-wife and a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

John Ortiz John Augustin Ortiz (born May 23, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his antagonist role as Arturo Braga in '' Fast & Furious'' (2009) and ''Fast & Furious 6'' (2013), and Clyde in '' Jack Goes Boating'' (2010), which earned him a nom ...

as Ben Leon, Keegan's best friend from law school *

Necar Zadegan Necar Zadegan ( ; born June 20, 1982) is a German-born actress. Zadegan made her Broadway debut alongside Robin Williams in the Pulitzer Prize–nominated production ''Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo'' in 2011. She is known for playing First Lady ...

as Scarlet Leon, Ben's wife and an

ADA Ada may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle'', a novel by Vladimir Nabokov Film and television * Ada, a character in 1991 movie '' Armour of God II: Operation Condor'' * '' Ada... A Way of Life'', a 2008 Bollywo ...

for

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Bojana Novakovic Bojana Novakovic (, sr-Latn, Bojana Novaković) is an Australian actress. She is known for starring in the police procedural television series ''Instinct'' (2018–2019). In film, she has appeared in '' Drag Me to Hell'' (2009), ''Edge of Dark ...

as Michaela "Mikki" Partridge, a $500-an-hour prostitute, with whom Keegan develops a romantic interest, who disappears and then turns up as a law student. *

Tara Summers Tara Summers (born 19 December 1979) is an English actress. Summers was educated at Heathfield St Mary's School, in Berkshire. She later attended Brown University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in history in 2001. Her grandm ...

as Leanne Zander, Keegan's

personal assistant A personal assistant, also referred to as personal aide (PA) or personal secretary (PS), is a job title describing a person who assists a specific person with their daily business or personal task. It is a subspecialty of secretarial duties ...

Jeffrey Nordling Jeffrey Richard Nordling (born March 11, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jake Manning in ''Once and Again'', Larry Moss in '' 24'', Nick Bolen in ''Desperate Housewives'', and Gordon Klein in '' Big Little Lies'', as wel ...

as Bruce Mangan, Maddy Deane's new boyfriend *

Ian Colletti Ian Colletti (born March 3, 1997) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as List_of_Preacher_characters#Arseface, Eugene "Arseface" Root in the AMC television series Preacher (TV series), Preacher. He also played the teenage son of ...

as Finn Deane, Keegan's teenage son

Recurring cast

* Omar Dorsey as Roy, Keegan's creditor who routinely beats him on behalf of the

loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at Usury, extremely high or illegal interest rates, has strict terms of debt collection, collection, and generally operates criminal, outside the law, often using the threat of violence or other illegal, ...

to whom Deane owes a considerable amount of money. Keegan holds no grudges and the two men are otherwise friendly. * Anne Gee Byrd as Frances Leon, Ben's mother, who despises Deane *

Cedric Yarbrough Cedric Yarbrough (; born March 20, 1973) is an American actor and comedian. He has starred in the series ''Reno 911!'' as Deputy S. Jones and as Kenneth on the ABC sitcom '' Speechless'', as well as voicing Gerald Fitzgerald on the Netflix comedy ...

as Jules, Mikki's flamboyant former

pimp Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term "pimp" ...

Elizabeth Ho Elizabeth Ho is an American actress. Early life and career Ho was born and raised in San Francisco, California. Her mother is actress and dancer Jennifer Ann Lee, who appeared in a number of Broadway productions including ''A Chorus Line'' and ...

as Debbie Lee, daughter of a creditor to whom Deane owed money. She has inherited the family business and forces Keegan to rent an apartment her aunt owns in Echo Park and has threatened to have her cousins break his legs if he doesn't pay up. *

Damon Gupton Damon Jamal Gupton (born January 4, 1973) is an American actor and orchestral conductor, best known for his series regular roles as Charles Foster on '' Deadline'', Evrard Velerio on ''Prime Suspect'', Adam Page on '' The Divide'', Detective Cal ...

Mayor of Los Angeles The mayor of Los Angeles is the head of the executive branch of the government of Los Angeles and the chief executive of Los Angeles. The office is officially Non-partisan democracy, nonpartisan, a change made in the 1909 charter; previously, ...

Marcus Barzmann *

Kim Hawthorne Kimberly Hawthorne is an American actress. She began her career appearing on Broadway and daytime soap operas, before landing supporting roles on the prime time dramas. From 2000 to 2005, Hawthorne was regular cast member in the CBC Television po ...

as Gloria Barzmann

Production

The early episodes were aired out of order, as the original pilot, written by Peter Duncan and directed by

Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the first three films in the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present) and the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the super ...

, had "an overload of not drama ... but maybe a little sadness," according to producer

. He added, " tworked against the episode. And so we refigured it, sort of toning that down". The episode originally portrays Keegan Deane (

) in an unhealthy mental and physical state. Episode 13, "Mammophile", should be viewed after episode 5, "Bigamist", to maintain continuity.

Critical reception

''Rake'' scored 62 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives the show a rating of 66%, based on 38 reviews, with the site's consensus stating: "''Rakes smart blend of comedy and drama makes it the perfect vehicle for Greg Kinnear's offbeat charm and dry humor".

Hank Stuever Hank Stuever (born 1968) is an American journalist who writes about popular culture for the Style section of ''The Washington Post''. Early life and education Stuever was born and raised in Oklahoma City, where he attended Bishop McGuinness ...

(''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'') gave it a B+ grade, positing that "''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

'' comparisons will surely abound, but ''Rake'' is easily one of the more confident network dramas to come our way of late. It's a procedural ... but it's just unorthodox enough to make me eager to see more." The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' Mary McNamara stated "''Rake'' owes more to the increasingly humane tone of family and female-based comedies like ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American television sitcom, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The series follows the lives of three diverse but interrelated fa ...

'' and '' Parks and Recreation'' than '' Rescue Me'', which could (fingers crossed) indicate a similar journey to the light for the ever-popular tortured white male." Jeff Jensen from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

'' awarded the series a B grade, stating "''Rake'' is yet another show that tries to entertain us with a boorish, morally sketchy protagonist. Comparisons have been made to ''House'' or cable drama cads like

Don Draper Donald Francis "Don" Draper, born Richard "Dick" Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the AMC television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), portrayed by Jon Hamm. At the beginning of the series, Draper is the charismatic yet en ...

, but it's the differences from the 'Unlikeable Antihero' archetypes of current TV that define the show." Not all reviews were favorable: James Poniewozik of ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' stated "You get the sense that the show ... is vacillating. Maybe it wants to be the kind of raw indictment/worship of reckless masculinity we've seen on cable. Or maybe it wants to be a more picaresque version of ''House'', with a little less genius and a little more self-degradation." ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

''s Maureen Ryan said "Part of the problem is ''Rake's'' diffidence about how bad a guy Keane is supposed to be. He's clearly a raging narcissist, yet the show deflects that aspect of his personality and tries to make him seem a little bit adorable. If we're supposed to fear that the worst aspects of his personality will land him in serious trouble, the tidy resolutions of various story points in the pilot seem to preclude that possibility ... ''Rake'' isn't a bad show, it just doesn't appear to have the courage of its convictions."

Episodes

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Television, California, Greater Los Angeles, United States 2010s American black comedy television series 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2010s American legal television series 2014 American television series debuts 2014 American television series endings American television series based on Australian television series American English-language television shows Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Los Angeles Fox Broadcasting Company comedy-dramas