‘Rebel’ Is an ABC Drama That Could Use More Rule-Breaking: TV Review

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Alexander Hodge will guest star in ABC’s drama pilot “Epic,” hailing from “Once Upon a Time” creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis. The actor joins previously announced lead cast members Eleanor Fanyinka (“Masters of Love,” “Holby City”) and Brittany O’Grady (“Little Voice,” “Star”) in the ABC Signature production.“Epic” is described as a romantic anthology series that reinvents fairytales for a new audience.

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Cuesta (Homeland) has been tapped to direct and executive produce ABC’s drama pilot Promised Land.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterCecilia Suárez and Augusto Aguilera have joined the ABC drama pilot “Promised Land,” Variety has learned.The show is described as an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley.

Cecilia Suárez (The House of Flowers) and Augusto Aguilera (Too Old To Die Young) are set as leads opposite John Ortiz in ABC’s drama pilot Promised Land.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticFrom its title, “Sasquatch” sounds like the story of Bigfoot — and at the start, it looks that way too. The three-part documentary series begins with journalist David Holthouse recounting the time he visited a cannabis farm and overheard the tale of three workers who had been devoured by the legendary beast.“Sasquatch” shares with its most prominent on-screen voice, Holthouse, an abiding interest in looking beneath the surface of the seemingly ordinary.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticWith the benefit of a decade of retrospect, what “Game of Thrones” was able to accomplish in its eight seasons looks even more surprising.The HBO fantasy drama series, which debuted April 17, 2011, was the beneficiary of good timing in at least two ways. For one thing, it slotted neatly within a span of time defined, in our offscreen lives, by the world sinking into chaotic authoritarianism.

Rafael Nadal was defeated in the quarter-finals of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters tournament, but we thankfully got to see him in those tight pink shorts one more time!

John Ortiz (HBO’s Togetherness) has been tapped as a main lead of ABC’s drama pilot Promised Land.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterJohn Ortiz has been cast in a leading role of the ABC drama pilot “Promised Land,” Variety has learned.The show is described as an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley. Ortiz joins previously announced cast members Christina Ochoa and Mariel Molino.Ortiz will star as Joe Sandoval, the patriarch of the Sandoval family, a wealthy vineyard-owning family in the Sonoma Valley.

Laura Dern is highlighting the shame that many women feel when talking about their finances.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Big Shot” doesn’t seem to fit among the most-heralded new series on Disney Plus. Unlike “The Mandalorian” or “WandaVision” or even another family-oriented sports series like “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” it is not attached to any existing intellectual property.But calling it original might be a stretch.

Mónica Marie Zorrilla Brittany O’Grady will headline ABC’s drama pilot “Epic,” hailing from “Once Upon a Time” creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis. The actor joins previously announced cast member Eleanor Fanyinka (“Masters of Love,” “Holby City,”) in the ABC Signature production.“Epic” is described as a romantic anthology series that reinvents fairy tales for a new audience.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Cruel Summer” has set up an intriguing challenge for itself. Each episode of the new Freeform drama series depicts a single day over the course of three years — 1993, 1994 and 1995 — in order to convey the long-tail effects of a kidnapping.

In loving memory. Prince Philip’s family shared heartfelt messages and memories of the late royal following his death on Friday, April 9.

EXCLUSIVE: Andres Velez (Coyote Lake) has been cast as a lead alongside Christina Ochoa and Mariel Molino in ABC’s drama pilot Promised Land.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe fissures racism has carved into American life, and American lives, are so surreally deep that to convey them, artists must use the tools of exaggeration that genre provides.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticRaoul Peck is a director who feels deep and evident comfort bringing together different manners of storytelling. His 2016 documentary about James Baldwin, “I Am Not Your Negro,” was notable not merely for the brilliance and insight of Baldwin but for its blending of the late author’s recollections with narration and explication of the times in which Baldwin lived and the figures who were his contemporaries.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticGreg Berlanti’s domination of the CW continues with “Kung Fu” — and the new drama he executive produces is proof positive that the super-producer is using his powers for good. The show is a revival of a drama starring David Carradine that aired on ABC from 1972 to 1975.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe 1990 robbery of Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains a part of that institution’s life to this day, as empty frames hang on the wall marking the spots from which paintings were removed. The case remains unsolved — vexingly so.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIn recent years, class has been the great unspoken element of TV family comedies.The genre that gave us the Bundys, the Conners and the Simpsons — all families who were whose neighborhoods lay an unbridgeable distance from great wealth — had moved, in the past decade, onto “Modern Family’s” Pritchetts and “Black-ish’s” Johnsons.