For weeks now, I have been thinking about how O-T Fagbenle says the word issue in Presumed Innocent’s penultimate season-one episode “The Witness.” As prosecuting attorney Nico Della Guardia, Fagbenle is a delightfully wicked presence, all smug dandyism when navigating the case against Rusty Sabich for the murder of Carolyn Polhemus. And when he talks, whew. That accent is slippery, a melodic rollercoaster that puts the emphasis on random syllables, adds unanticipated inflection points, and ends sentences so abruptly that you’re left feeling like you just flew by your exit. Fagbenle is the series’s wildcard, giving a performance that is mannered and odd and divisive. And you can grasp all of its sublime texture in the way he slides around issue.
In “The Witness,” we finally see newly…
