The Starter Wife
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Friday, Oct. 10, 9PM, USA
Debra Messing turns last spring's miniseries hit into a full-time series gig about starting over after divorce in Beverly Hills. She plays Molly Kagan, who has gone from being the wife of a Hollywood studio head to an ex-wife trying to reinvent herself as a writer. This series tries to blend "Desperate Housewives" and "Entourage," mixing domestic intrigue with show-biz-insider plots. Casting David Alan Basche as Molly's ex doesn't help, because the guy is a zero. And a "Gossip Girl"-style subplot - in which Molly's journal is stolen and serialized on the Internet in all its catty glory - seems tired. Still, this one has a certain soapy entertainment value, particularly because actress Judy Davis - as Molly's rehabbed and snarly best friend - is still in the cast. The movie-spoof dream sequences - casting Messing as everything from Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth" to Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible" - are clever, but you start to wish they'd put that much energy into the rest of the script.
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