I recently came across a fun series streaming on Disney+ that I somehow missed for the past few years, Renegade Nell. It’s a fantasy historical adventure show. A young woman who ran away with a soldier and followed him to the continent for a war in the early 1700s returns home after losing him, but she seems to have picked up something along the way. When she gets into a tough situation, she basically goes all Matrix. She can dodge or even catch bullets and has super strength, speed, and reflexes. This ability comes up when the son of the local lord is harassing her sister, but then it gets her in trouble when the son frames her for his murder of his own father (so he can get the title and estate). Now an outlaw, she goes on the run with her younger sisters, becomes a highwayman (briefly), and tries to clear her name, but everything she does to clear her name only seems to make matters worse, until she learns of a plot against Queen Anne that she feels obligated to stop. But she doesn’t realize just how sinister and powerful the forces against her really are.

I’m going to have to watch it again to pick up on everything because injustice can be hard for me to watch, and I had to watch this while I did other things, like knitting or crossword puzzles, to be able to tolerate it. It’s definitely “put your characters in a tree and throw rocks at them” writing, but now that I know how everything works out, I may be able to watch. I loved the main character, who manages to be a badass who’s very different from the girls around her without being “not like other girls.” She’s learned a lot in her adventures, and knowing what to do in a crisis means she can’t let herself turn her back on a crisis, even though getting involved may get her in even more trouble. A lot of her predicaments are self-inflicted, but mostly because she can’t seem to stop herself from doing the right thing, in spite of it being difficult and dangerous.

I don’t think we see a lot of things set in this particular time period, during the reign of Queen Anne, and the costuming is spectacular. It’s a time of highwaymen, broadsheets, and murder ballads. And yes, there is the Ballad of Renegade Nell, who becomes a notorious figure because of the rumors about her.

It’s a one-season series with a definitive ending, though it was left open enough that there was a possibility for more stories (and, unfortunately, it wasn’t picked up for another season). I’d call it a swashbuckling adventure with a lot of twists. But it does get pretty tense along the way, so if you’re a weenie like me you may be watching from behind a sofa cushion.