Why Donald Trump Does Not Appear in Part 1 of ‘The Comey Rule’

Billy Ray compares Trump’s presence to ‘Jaws’: “Let’s just make him the shark in the water”

Showtime

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Part 1 of “The Comey Rule”)

Showtime spent the entire first half of its two-part miniseries “The Comey Rule” replaying (and probably causing PTSD for some Hillary Clinton supporters) Donald Trump’s shocking victory in the 2016 presidential election. There was just one thing missing from the 90-minute episode Sunday night…

Donald Trump himself.

Outside of a blew shots of the back of his head, Brendan Gleeson’s Trump is nowhere to be found despite the FBI spending considerable time looking into whether or not his campaign colluded with Russia to get him elected. Billy Ray, who wrote and directed both parts of “The Comey Rule,” told TheWrap he preferred Trump to remain in the periphery of the first half. “Let’s just make him the shark in the water.”

Ray then compared Trump to one, very specific shark.

“You know, Steven Spielberg’s movie ‘Jaws,’ which is top 20 all the time for me, you don’t see the shark until you’re well into the story. I thought that was a pretty good model for us,” Ray explained. “So the idea was to hold him off until he actually came in contact with our hero, Jim Comey. That’s the time you need to meet him. You want to see him through Comey’s eyes.”

Much of the first part is also dedicated to the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State, including Comey’s (Jeff Daniels) own decision to notify Congress they were reopening the probe two weeks before the election, after previously recommending no criminal charges should be filed.

“This is a series about how heartbreaking it can be to be a public servant,” Ray said. “Donald Trump is not a part of the first part of that story. He has very little to do with it. He has a lot to do with the second half of that story.”

“The Comey Rule” concludes with Part 2 on Monday night at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT

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