Satisfaction

USA would like you to believe that this is their Thursday night sexy and erotic soft-core porno about marriage dissatisfaction. The commercials made me (an early 20s male) not want to see the show at all. If not for a friend's recommendation I would not have watched one of the best pilots I have seen this year.

Satisfaction is not afraid to ask the hard questions. What is the point of the American Dream? What is living a worthwhile life? Neil Truman has reached the pinnacle of the working mans dream. He has everything a man could want and yet he still can't see the point. Why work so hard making money, when you don't get to spend any of it with the ones you love? His wife is living the "perfect woman's life". She has nice things, a daughter, and a job. The one thing she wants is more attention from her husband. Their daughter Anika, goes to a great school, has a family with money, and everything society says will make her happy. And she too is dissatisfied. It is sad that all three just want each other and instead go elsewhere for satisfaction. Funny enough the highly paid male escort is the only person who seems happy. The pilot goes on to be full of twists and turns as each character fights to find satisfaction in their own way.

I connected with satisfaction because I too ask the question, am I content with the "perfect" life society sells us. Why am I going to college? I am getting in debt just so that I can get a piece of paper, which allows me to get a job. So that one day I will make money, have a family, retire, and die. What is the point?

Are you satisfied with the life you are "supposed" to live?

Matt Passmore, Blair Redford, and Michelle Deshon were fantastic. Each had several scenes that I enjoyed. Matt Passmore plays a strong lead character; Blair Redford played a male escort that I found myself rooting for on more then one occasion. Michelle Deshon had a brilliant scene at her school talent show. I unfortunately cannot say the same for Stephanie Szostak. For some reason she never seemed believable to me, and her performance annoyed me.

Writing 8/10 Cast 8/10 Directing 10/10 Production 10/10

I look forward to seeing if they can keep as high a production value for the following episodes.

First few episodes were entertaining and ten it tapered off. The wife is the weak link. She is sex on legs. You can see with her every encounter that she is on the make. The wide eyed innocent look is not convincing. The poor daughter is caught in the crossfire. She has virtually zero parental input as the parents both have their own agendas the husband is good and I totally get him. The wife is totally self absorbed. Having said that it is entertaining enough viewing about the self indulgent and self absorbed lives of a few people. There is nothing of any substance I. This series. The daughter is well acted. Adriana is totally unbelievable. Not well acted, manipulative and a piece of work. It is unbelievable that these people get suckered in by her. There is nothing about her persona that I like.

"Satisfaction" begins with Neil Truman (Matt Passmore) having a terrible day. To top it off, he happens upon his wife, Grace (Stephanie Szostak) getting it on with another guy. Neil discovers that the other man is a paid escort, Simon (Blair Redford).

Neil comes into possession of Simon's phone, including all his contacts. On a whim, Neil takes a call and manages to fill in for Simon with a client.

Neil's heart belongs to his wife and his daughter, Anika (Michelle DeShon), who is having her own issues. But he has dipped a toe into forbidden waters and he is fascinated. He meets a modern day madam, Adrianna, played strikingly by Katherine LaNasa. She offers him a job working for her, which he declines.

As Neil juggles the various aspects of his life--and dabbles in Zen meditation to cope--things get more complicated. He knows Grace is lying to him. He is lying to her too, but she doesn't know it. The web of deception allows them to seek answers outside the marriage while they try to save it. Can that approach work? "You never really know where enlightenment will come from," he says in a voice over.

I find the story, after two episodes, to be well written. This is a sexy show. And there is an air of mystery surrounding the entire storyline. The acting is good.

On message boards, I have seen comments about the characters not being likable, but I disagree. Though they may be confused, they truly care about each other. The dilemmas they face are real and not uncommon. They are living in a world that is recognizable to many who work in high-pressure jobs, who lose sight of what their family needs, who wish to find a balance that promotes happiness for themselves and those they love.

So far, the story is in a state of imbalance. It is difficult to know what will develop and how Neil and Grace will achieve some equilibrium in their relationship. At this early stage in the story, I am interested in watching to find out.

Update 8/22/14: As the story lines expand to include other characters, the show is getting more interesting.

The pilot of Satisfaction was very good. In its 65' feels more like a movie than an episode of a series.

Neil, a successful investment banker and a family man, has an epiphany and thinks he's living a life without meaning. He decides to do something about that, to speak the truth, to take matters in his own hand, but... the results are far from what he might expected! After the end of the pilot everything seems completed though. Most of the characters did their circle and any farther reference to them anymore seems futile. But it's a show, not a movie! So these characters keep coming back. Their story didn't end but now they seem totally unnecessary.

Just finished watching the second (42' this time) episode and now my initial good review is changing to the worst. The editing is now avoiding crucial parts of what is happening. The script is making the characters more wooden and predictable. I, as a viewer, now care less about them.

The show unfortunately turns into a sitcom. There are even some elements of comic relief, like with a Buddhist "Monk" (another character who completed his circle in the pilot, but he is still present in the 2nd episode) who's pickpocketing a cellphone to send a SMS.

Also in the second episode we get to see the title sequence, with a nip-tuck version of Satisfaction (by the Rolling stones), that I really truly wished not to be the music theme of series, but in vain.

Overall: See the pilot. If you question yourself after, "Where the show goes from here?" skip the rest of the series.

Sure there are tons of shows in prime time and elsewhere where adultery happens, but a show whose very premise is based on something that most of us, in our personal lives, find ugly goes a bit too far. And tit-for-tat infidelity is just wrong. To walk open-eyed into extra-marital relationships just because a marriage is unsatisfying is easy but at heart, lazy. Either work on the marriage or get a divorce. But as my mother used to say, "Don't land another plane until you've cleared the runway." The funny thing about us humans is that even though we are 21st century hip, we still, thank God, cannot jettison our morality and our emotions when we are on the "victim" end of violations of that morality. Wrongness wrapped in beautiful sets, rocking bodies, and decent acting is still wrongness. So low marks to a show that tries to make us forgot our moral compasses in exchange for cool.