Stellar work in title role keeps multilayered ‘Rebel’ on course
BET’s new high-powered drama “Rebel” isn’t always sure what it wants to be, but several performances, especially that of Danielle Moné Truitt in the title role, serve as the glue that holds all the mismatched concept pieces together. Truitt plays a rule-breaking Oakland police detective whose career gets T-boned when she shoots her partner in the leg to keep him from shooting her unarmed younger brother. Instead of making nice, “Rebel” Truitt makes war over internal affairs’ refusal to accept the shooting as justifiable. The first third of the series, created by Amani Walker and director John Singleton, is a gritty, multilayered exploration of attitudes about race within a contemporary urban police department. It’s far more complicated than just a wariness between white and black cops: There is wariness and outright divisiveness within each group as well. The pressures of being a city cop only seem to exacerbate tension between and within racial and ethnic groups.
The two-hour premiere on Tuesday, March 28, then takes a sharp turn and becomes a private eye
procedural as Rebel, mulling becoming a private investigator, offers to help an old friend (Bree Williamson) who fears her husband is going to kill her. The case is more complex than that, but complex doesn’t always mean credible. Oh, and Rebel is also a poet, which offers the writers a chance to craft didactic oration for the character.
Fortunately, Truitt’s performance keeps viewers on course even when the script meanders. She more than makes her character live up to her nickname. Rebel is tough, always the smartest person in the room, passionate, vulnerable and willing to take chances even if the odds are against her. The series is graced by solid performances from “Breaking Bad’s” Giancarlo Esposito as Lt. Charles Gold, an old friend of Rebel’s dad (Mykelti Williamson) and also Rebel’s superior in the OPD; Angela Ko as Rebel’s best friend, Cheena; Method Man as Rebel’s former husband and sometimes current bed partner, TJ; and Derek Ray as the racist brother of Rebel’s wounded partner. No matter which course “Rebel” eventually settles on, it’s worth the ride-along.
David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle and co-host of “The Do List” every Friday morning at 6:22 and 8:22 on KQED-FM, 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV