The original First Wives Club back in ’96 had a strong revenge motive as its plot. Three divorced women reunite, have each others back, and decide to get back at the husbands who dumped them for younger models. The TV series has some of that same premise in the pilot, with three friends getting together when one has a very public meltdown against her husband and the video goes viral.

Ryan Michelle Bathe plays Friend #1, Ari, who in the pilot is married to an up and coming Senatorial candidate. She has left her law practice to run his campaign, and is doing her best to make it happen, an equal partner to his movement forward, despite being totally bored with him. She’s decent, but hard to get a handle on who she is or what she wants as a character.

Michelle Buteau plays Friend #2, Bree, who is separated from her husband Gary after finding out that he cheated on her. Gary is still chasing after her, wanting to get back together, go to therapy, etc. but she’s having none of it. In the opener, she matches a Sex in the City-like plot and gets a new man to rock her world for a night. Bree is okay, but not a lot going on with her in the episode — she’s struggling to balance her family life as a single mom but it seems more plot device than realistic.

Jill Scott plays Friend #3, Hazel, who is married to a record producer husband Derek. Derek and Hazel are tussling because Hazel is working on a comeback album, and she gets her release date bumped for a young artist that Derek is trying to sleep with too. Hazel and Ari work out a bit of revenge, and the Ep ends with it escalating badly against Hazel. War has begun.

As an aside, of the males running around the show, the only one with any presence is Malik Yoba as husband #3, Derek. I loved him on Defying Gravity and he was good on Designated Survivor, and I even liked him way back on Alphas.

So, at the end of Ep 1, you have Ari supposedly solidly but unhappily married, Bree separated and moving on, and Hazel feuding with her husband. It didn’t exactly ring “organized revenge” to me, and I have no idea where this could go after Season 1. I didn’t get a good feel for any of them and while I’m not the intended demographic, I’m going to keep with my original cancellation prediction. I know, it’s on BET+, and they’ll likely renew everything this year, but hey, for now, I’m saying cancellation.