By Molly Freedenberg
I must admit, I was excited about . I like Debra Messing. I liked the First Wives Club. And I have some kind of strange, in-born affinity for the dumped, abandoned, lost, and unappreciated. (Charlie brown Christmas tree, anyone?) So I was primed and prepared to like the Will and Grace star’s new USA TV show (which premiered May 31). What’s more, the first time I saw it I was drunk, tired, and suffering the kind of insomnia born of too much wine and too much Diet Coke.
But.
Even so.
I found the show cheesy. And irrelevant. And overacted. I can’t look past the fact that it’s a navel-gazing premise about a Hollywood executive’s wife who’s left to suffer the indignities of not getting in the good restaurants (the horror!) or hanging out with the celebrities (even more horror!) after her high powered husband dumps her without warning ort explanation. Maybe this resonates with Beverly Hills first wives, but there’s nothing universal enough in this show to extend beyond that demographic. At least, not in the first episode. “And I’m not sure there’s enough here for me to give it a second shot.
Of course, I am a never-married journalist living on a salary that affords me the kind of luxury you can enjoy with three roommates and no in-house washing machine, so I might be biased. But still. There’s so much potential with this actress (I refuse to call her an “actor”) and with this premise. Why waste it on Hollywood clichés?
Sigh.
Back to DVDs of Buffy and reruns of Lost for me.