'The Comey Rule' Trailer: Jeff Daniels And Brendan Gleeson Face Off In Showtime's 2016 Election Drama

They say hindsight is 20/20, but we really don't need hindsight — or a prestigious Showtime limited series — to know what went wrong with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It was documented in the string of increasingly depressing headlines that followed the election of Donald Trump and showed how broken our nation and electoral system really is. But maybe The Comey Rule could give us more insight by presenting it as a thrilling House of Cards-style political drama! Watch The Comey Rule trailer below.

Maybe it's just me, but the trailer for The Comey Rule comes off as unintentionally hilarious because it tries so hard to paint Donald Trump as a shadowy puppet master when in reality he's a blundering narcissist surrounded by a group of yes men. But no, Showtime thinks we all want a House of Cards-style takedown of Trump, in a limited series that honestly gives him far too much credit for his rise to power to sit in the Oval Office. Brendan Gleeson, for all his talents, can only do an impression of Trump that feels like a glorified Saturday Night Live impression, while Daniels paints a far more sympathetic picture of former FBI Director Comey than he deserves.

Holly Hunter also stars as former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, while actual House of Cards alum Michael Kelly takes on the role of former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Jennifer Ehle plays Patrice Comey, Jonathan Banks is former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, Kingsley Ben-Adir portrays President Obama, and Peter Coyote is Robert Mueller.

Based on Comey's bestselling book A Higher Loyalty as well as additional interviews with several "major players," The Comey Rule is a two-part limited series that charts the rise of Trump through the 2016 presidential election, with a major focus on the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and its examination of Russian interference in the election. The trailer paints Comey's struggle with Trump as an intense political character drama between a president who demands loyalty and an American who struggles with the "truth."

The Comey Rule was originally scheduled for release after the general election on November 3, but after director Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) publicly protested the decision, Showtime rescheduled the series to air on September 27 and September 28.

Here is the synopsis for The Comey Rule:

Jeff Daniels and Brendan Gleeson star as former FBI Director James Comey and President Donald J. Trump in this two-part event series that tells the story of two powerful men, whose strikingly different ethics and loyalties put them on a collision course.

The Comey Rule premieres on Showtime on September 27, 2020.