The Bold Type

It’s fun, if this type of fun is your cup of tea. ... Kat especially makes for a charming, bold character--and the chemistry between the girls is neither saccharine nor unbelievable. It doesn’t have the streak of darkness that Freeform’s flagship “Pretty Little Liars” does. But The Bold Type makes up for it with a lot of go-girl vim that would make Helen Gurley Brown proud.

That’s the part that The Bold Type excels at, offering modern takes that the young women of The Best Of Everything’s Pendant Publishing could never have imagined. (Anvil-like, Scarlet’s publishing corporation is called Steinem.) They’re almost enough to surpass the sometimes cloyingly sweet nature of the unrealistic trio at the show’s center.

The series hikes through that strange territory where objectification and empowerment meet and are rebranded as modern feminism. ... The charm of The Bold Type is in the way it illustrates the role that these magazines play in the modern woman’s life, for better or worse.

It feels less bold than familiar, and thus, in its own way, perhaps too quickly comfortable.

The Bold Type in fact seems to have one type in mind--and it isn’t anyone with even a remotely plain face or a few extra pounds. Whatever points it labors to make are blunted by all its beautiful people.

There is a lot here--no question. But if Watson can put a little more distance between Scarlet magazine and Sleeping Beauty’s castle, the show would more effectively reach its potential. As it is, The Bold Type isn’t, but it could be.