With networks  premiering a plethora of new pilots, it can be hard to decide what’s worth the study break. Hatchet reporter Eric Robinson takes a look at some of the season’s most promising shows.

“Rake”

Airtime: Thursdays at 9 p.m., FOX

Names you’ll know: Greg Kinnear (The Kennedys)

Premise: Keagan Deane (Kinnear), a self-destructive criminal defense lawyer who knowingly defends guilty people.

Watch if you liked: “House”

Overall Grade: C-

Rake wants to be a ground-breaking anti-hero show. Its central character is a criminal defense lawyer, Keagan Deane, who knowingly defends guilty people for the sake of profit. He even battles directly with institutions such as the Los Angeles Police Department and the local government.

These kinds of show can make for some interesting comedic farce or social commentary, but it ends up completely flat. The show whitewashes its premise by making Deane boringly likable and the alleged goods guys villainous. Deane refuses to do anything truly morally ambiguous or shocking.

But this is a network drama. In reality, Rake was doomed from the start, as no real network executive would allow the creative team to produce the racy content that characterizes cable networks nowadays. All we were going to get was a watered-down cable wanna-be.

That isn’t to say that Rake is a complete disaster. Greg Kinnear gives a generally charming performance as the slimy lawyer. The case-of-the-week, while bland, is at least competent.

Overall, it’s all competent. Unfortunately, there are many competent police procedurals out there already. The biggest failure of Rake is that, despite an interesting premise, it completely fails to distinguish itself from the cop show genre.