Rebel (2021)

The cast of Rebel is the biggest reason to tune in (and we do mean tune in, because it’s on ABC). With Vernoff at the helm, the show should even out its rapid-fire pace and become an entertainingly rollicking and sprawling network drama.

Krista Vernoff's series tells you what it's thinking and feeling to an exhausting degree, barks out its iconoclastic ideology at every turn and still somehow ends up feeling like an entertaining broadcast TV throwback. Credit there goes to Vernoff's smart structuring of the story and an outrageously good cast led by Katey Sagal.

“Rebel” is an OK broadcast network soap thanks to snappy dialogue and dramatic scenes that should earn the show the nickname “10 Ways to Get Disbarred.”

All the pieces are there to get “Rebel” to a place of real interest — genuinely appealing issues, the inherent conflict of the legal profession, a complicated protagonist and a showrunner who knows a bit about writing such women. The show simply needs to do better at getting out of its own way, and to exhibit less risk aversion and more of a rebel heart.

The second episode settles into itself and moves away some of the premiere's more egregious flaws, but it’s still a misfire, more content with being atrociously manipulative than using its characters and concept in a manner that feels remotely genuine or nuanced. Subtlety may not be the hallmark of Thursday night dramas, but there’s still a breaking point and “Rebel” hits it.