The Starter Wife

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.

Actors always think they can go on beyond their most famous roles and have continued success. That the public will go with them and embrace the new challenges that they are striving for.

Debra Messing strikes me as being one of these people.

Unfortunately she falls flat on her face here, in a dire little show that doesn't prove to be half as smart, witty or charming as it thinks it is.

It's not much fun to watch, and while you can see that Messing is trying her best, you do wish she'd admit defeat, and just go and head up another studio based sitcom, as this is where her true talent lies.

It's better than that film 'The Wedding Date' she made.

I missed the Starter Wife when it debuted on USA in May. Then, in July, I became in all seriousness, obsessed with Judy Davis (she is really the best actress of her generation)and decided I had to see the Starter Wife just because she was in it. Truthfully, I didn't have very high expectations for it at the beginning because I thought it was just about some rich, stuck-up people who didn't give a crap about anyone but themselves. I had no idea why a genius like Judy Davis chose this project. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it was about rich stuck-up women, but some of them actually appeared human. And it wasn't JUST about the stuck up women. Neither Lavender, Nana, Mrs. Caldecott, or Sam seemed the least bit stuck up, and they added depth to the story. (I say Sam wasn't stuck up, but that doesn't mean that I liked him.). The acting was superb (other than whoever played Shoshanna, who was not that great. But I guess she didn't have much to work with), Debra Messing, Judy Davis, and Miranda Otto all NAILED their characters and I was sucked in the whole time, and I watched the whole four and half hour block, only stopping to go get a glass of wine. I would recommend this to anyone!

NOTE: It would probably be best to familiarize oneself with basic high-tier culture before watching this. Someone not familiar would not catch some of the jokes (like one in reference to the United Colors of Bennetton).

Okay, so this is technically a new series on USA, but it certainly doesn't feel like one. It has the look and feel of a well made motion picture. The writing is well done and the characters are fleshed out and seem believable. If I were a person living the Hollywood life, I would be ashamed of the way that people in that lifestyle are portrayed, even if this program seems like it is a caricature of real life, just judging from all of the media hype surrounding many real life celebrities makes this program all the more believable and real. I am not one to usually sit down and watch what is usually advertised as a "chick flick", however, I was actually drawn into this new series and look forward to see what happens next. Its more like a comedy/drama than any other way of describing it. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

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.