‘Rebel’ is an extraordinary take on the seminal police drama that portrays the unique and conflicted relationship officers of color have with their jobs – at a time when police forces are rife with brutality and misconduct.
According to The New York Times, the series as a straightforward attempt to mix a little Black Lives Matter seriousness with a lot of nostalgic blaxploitation entertainment value.
While BET describes the series as hard-hitting, gritty, complicated and morally ambiguous, featuring many issues ripped from the headlines.
The series follows Rebel (Danielle Moné Truitt), a police officer who leaves the force after being under intense internal affairs/criminal investigation for shooting her partner in the hopes of stopping him from gunning down her little brother. Continuing to fight crime as a P.I. (private investigator), Rebel struggles with her brother’s murder while defending herself from the dirty cops who are out for revenge.
Earlier this week the GSU alum told Rollingout how proud he was to be apart of this production and that the only reason he became a writer was because of his experience at his alma mater Grambling State University.
During his time at the university he took theatre courses as electives and one of his classmates, Erica Wright, now known as singer and entertainer, Erykah Badu, told him he should start writing down his thoughts and ideas because she’d never heard such crazy stories.
“Twenty-five years later, here I am,” Huggins said. “She was the first person to encourage me to write.”
Huggins is a native of Detroit, where he attended St. Martin DePorres High School and later went on to receive his B.A. in History from GSU. After graduating he taught third grade and fifth grade in the Detroit public school system prior to relocating to Los Angeles, where he currently lives with his wife, Korin.
He has had the opportunity to write and produce for hit shows such as “The Shield”, “Crash”, “The Unit”, “Trauma”, “Criminal Minds”, and “Prime Suspect” before landing on STARZ hit drama series “Power,” starring Omari Hardwick.
“How I became a part of ‘Rebel’ was, during a business meeting I was asked to pitch my idea of the series, which meant I had to come up with a story on the fly,” Huggins said. “I did and they approved me, then we all walked into BET to do the same. We were blessed to get the green light.”
Huggins is now the executive producer for the new BET series “Rebel” which made it’s debut March 28 at 9 p.m. EST. Along with Huggins, Dallas Jackson is also an executive producer with music for the pilot composed by soulful artist Jill Scott.
Rebel is a John Singleton drama series, (his first-ever TV series) which stars Danielle Moné Truitt as Rebecca “Rebel” Cole, Brandon Quinn as Michael “Mack” McIntyre, Angela Ko as Cheena Lin, Mykelti Williamson as Mr. Rene Knight, Cliff “Method Man” Smith as Terrance “TJ” Jenkins, Giancarlo Esposito as Charles Gold, Mikelen Walker as Malik Knight, LaTanya Richardson as Detective Jones, Lauren London as Kim, and Tamala Jones as Jackie.
Rebel discusses a relevant subject matter right now in our country that is constantly being addressed. The subject matter is police brutality, the killing of unarmed men.
The infamous Wall of Blue is all over the news and the backdrop for the main character’s daily life.
Rebel joins the conversation along with shows like Shots Fired, which recently premiered and seemed to be very well received.
Do you think Rebel will do well and get the same response? Let us know and leave your comments below.
