The Starter Wife

I sat through the whole first episode just to see if something good might be embedded in this story about some talent-free, self-absorbed, pathetic person who had been sponging off her equally obnoxious and worthless husband while raising her mouthy spoiled brat. Sorry folks, but there just wasn't anything there other than a bunch of catty, narcissistic, cutthroat losers with the usual assortment of tedious neuroses that, for some unfathomable reason, are supposed to be entertaining.

I suspected something was wrong when USA Network began to frantically run their continuous promos for over two months. I've noticed that they will do this whenever they're trying to convince viewers that some piece of cr@p they've spent a lot of money on is actually worth watching. They even ran the promo for the episode that was in progress while it was airing. Pretty sad!

My biggest regret is that my TiVo can't give this awful program more than three "thumbs down". There should be an infinite-number-button for shows like this.

I must say that this summer I was really entertained by this USA cable network mini-series. "The Starter Wife" had a touch of many themes and elements starting from spoiled richness, hopelessness, love, problems, drama, and funny wit. Debra Messing was perfect and great as a sexy Hollywood trophy wife Molly who's world comes crashing down when she's suddenly divorced from her studio executive husband. So it's off to sorrow and pity, yet thank god she had a strong friend like Joan(Judy Davis) who gave a tough and commanding performance as a strong alcoholic friend. Yet romance and love went back and fourth with Lou a Hollywood big wheel in the movie business, and Sam a beach bum. Yet in the end Molly seems happy and content with herself showing that freedom and independence is important and that many are happy to be alone that's what this series taught us. The series was very witty and funny too often having dream parodies and comparisons to many Hollywood classics like "The Wizard of Oz", "Chinatown", and "Titantic". Really a pretty good series that was well written and it was nice to see a woman finally become an independence champ.

Story lines terrible. Dialogue horrific. Cute people, well, check, but that's about it. Like so many 'chic flick' shows, it starts off with a flawed premise that men choose wives based on being able to show them off to their friends and brag about 'what he's caught' as a mate. Unfortunately, that's a female specific behavior, such as how women automatically ask each other 'what does he do' for a job when a friend brings up a new boyfriend.

Men don't care what a woman does for a living (or even if she works at all) as long as she doesn't spend all his money. Men also don't care what others think about their mates; men choose the women they do, because they want to have sex with them, that's it. He doesn't care what other people think, as long as he get turned on just by the sight of her.

The rest of the show revolves around how women interpret the world around them, and so about half the population will find it appealing for the eye candy, but not much else. Doesn't seem to be very realistic either. But turn the sound off, and watch the pretty people.

I love Hollywood insider satires, and this is a great one, with convincing atmosphere and characters. Messing is delicious as a high-functioning Hollywood wife who is dumped by her narcissistic and spoiled movie executive husband after catering to his every need and whim efficiently for years. Needless to say, he's dumping her for a bimbo -- a Britney Spears-ish singer/starlet. In a self-imposed exile in the Malibu home of her oldest friend (Judy Davis), she meets an enigmatic surfer (Stephen Moyer) and has an ambiguous flirtation with her husband's boss, studio head Joe Mantegna. The triangle is very, very satisfying -- you're not quite sure which of these men you want her to end up with, and you like them both.

Dropped instantly by all the grasping, climbing manipulators and their wives, non-person Molly ends up falling back on her core of friends -- the wife of a director whose husband wants her to to drop Molly for tactical reasons, her wealthy dipso friend, and her gay decorator friend (Chris Diamantopoulos, who is broke after having to eat the cost of 12 hideous custom chairs a client insisted upon and then wouldn't pay for). She also becomes friends with the young black woman who works as the Malibu compound's security guard, and her mother. At one point, they all end up holed up in Judy Davis's house, like the treehouse crew in "The Grass Harp." The series is very well directed (by Jon Avnet) and the characters are very sharply drawn. Messing's husband is a monster of selfishness, but not consistently so, and he can't let go his habit of calling on Molly for (now inappropriate) favors. There isn't a line or a bit of business that Messing doesn't play to the hilt. Again and again Molly demonstrates the resourcefulness and elan that makes her husband such a fool for ditching her. There's a scene where she catches a cricket her husband has assigned his executive assistant to remove from the house (until she locates the annoying insect, she can't attend her grandfather's 80th birthday party) in no time flat that was particularly piquant.

This is a woman's story, but I think a lot of men will appreciate the sardonic portrait of a materialistic and phony Hollywood milieu, and I don't know how anybody could not want to look at all these gorgeous residences.

I've only seen two episodes - and hadn't seen any that aired last summer - but this is really a charming, funny series. Messing and Davis are the reasons to watch - and they really get to show a stunning variety of emotions. The plot is clear, fast-moving, and great fun. I've mixed feelings about the use of the dream sequences to indicate how she feels at particular moments - but I'm sure there are many who love them.

This is really a fine series - it seems the female counterpart to the male-oriented Californication - the quality is similar - and they're very much the same kind of series - very modern, witty, well-designed continuing comedy (each program's dilemmas, new characters, very much lead into the next). They're both programs about very superficial, selfish and materialistic people, set in contemporary Los Angeles obsessed with fame and fleeting success.

I'm a conservative Catholic man living in the East, clearly not the intended audience for the series - but I enjoy it. And I'm surprised there aren't more comments. (The series was heavily promoted in New York City -- and Messing and Davis are both famously talented).

It's hard to imagine that people who decide to tune in - won't be caught up in it.