Wednesday May 20, 2009
The Starter Wife moves from miniseries to full-fledged TV series
By S. INDRAMALAR
The Starter Wife graduates from a miniseries to a full-fledged series, with more to offer.
I WASN’T a fan of the six-hour miniseries and when I heard that The Starter Wife was going to be made into a full-fledged TV series I was enraged ... ok, irritated, especially after learning that several of my new favourite series were axed after just one season (Reaper, Eli Stone, etc).
Having to review the series, I caught a few episodes (which is based on the book by Gigi Levangie Grazer) with an open mind. Thankfully, I am happy to report that the series is a lot better than the aforementioned miniseries.
The plot is more or less the same – Molly (Debra Messing) has come to terms with the fact that her 10-year marriage to movie producer Kenny Kagan is over. She’s divorced and alleges to be a happy single gal.
The handsome homeless guy she hooked up with in the miniseries is a relic of the past and she’s sworn off men in the same futile way smokers promise to swear off cigarettes every new year.
Also, the children’s books she wrote is not flying off the shelves and, as she did not get a comfortable divorce settelment, she’s in a little bit of a tight spot.
But she’s got her own place and is focused on publishing another book, this time she’s focusing on an area she knows well – starter wives. She’s also happy to focus her attention on her seven-year-old daughter Jaden (Brielle Barbusca), who she shares custody of with ex-husband Kenny (David Alan Basche who replaces Peter Jacobson).
Incidentally, the Kenny in the TV series is a lot less obnoxious than the character was in the miniseries – for whatever reason, the change is for the better.
Molly gets herself a writing coach and keeps a journal in which she notes down juicy details about the lives of the various starter wives and trophy wives who exist around her.
She may be out of the social circle, but Molly still gets her dose of gossip from her best friends Joan and Rodney (Judy Davis and Chris Diamantopoulos reprising their roles) and new found friend Liz Marsh (Danielle Nicolet) who is the wife of a LA pro-baseball player.
However, when her journal goes missing and her entries find their way to the Internet on a Perez Hilton-like celebrity blogsite, Molly finds herself in hot water.
The women she’s written about are furious and want revenge – in starter wife circles revenge equals a drive-by muffin attack and a handbag assault outside the school grounds.
Meanwhile, her resolve to stay away from men is seriously tested by the presence of her writing coach Zach (Hart Bochner) who is (conveniently) a single father himself. Now, seeing that The Starter Wife is not some brilliant new series looking to push the boundaries of TV, you know where this will end up or at least where it’s heading.
In the show’s subplot, Joan is on the path of sobriety and has taken a job at a rehabilitation centre. Trying to ressusitate a dysfunctional marriage, she has caught the eye of a recovering drug addict, David Shea (Daniel Gerroll), who goes out of his way to exasperate Joan.
While the premise of the TV series remains true to the original, it’s somehow a lot more palatable. The writing is fresher, Messing is a lot less hysterical and the jokes are actually quite funny.
And then there is Davis, who in the very few scenes she has, almost steals the show from Messing (well, you wish she would).
One thing the series could do without are the fantasy sequences that don’t really lend weight to the series and they aren’t particularly clever, like in episodes where Molly imagines herself to be Snow White or Cinderella or some fairytale princess ... or, the Mission: Impossible sequence.
Overall, the series is entertaining although, if rumours ring true, the series will most likely not see a second season so catch this limited edition now.
The Starter Wife airs on Hallmark Channel (Astro channel 702) on Thursdays (10pm) with repeat on Fridays (3pm).
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