Melrose Place
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 9PM, CW
A hit show of the '90s - about the tangled lives of residents of a hip LA apartment building - gets a reboot for the 21st century. It includes a couple of familiar faces from the past cast, along with a lot of cute, hard-bodied newbies (and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz). The pilot puts all the pieces in play, by having veteran Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton) return as the landlady who has given virtually every tenant a reason to kill her. So - no surprise - the show kicks off with her dead body being found in the swimming pool. As you meet the various tenants - the hunky chef wannabe, the would-be filmmaker, the gorgeous medical student - you also learn their weakness and grudges. And you'll find out why they all wanted Sydney dead. No pretensions here: This is soapy good fun (except, of course, that Simpson-Wentz can't act).
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