The Starter Wife

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've only seen two episodes - and hadn't seen any that aired last summer - but this is really a charming, funny series. Messing and Davis are the reasons to watch - and they really get to show a stunning variety of emotions. The plot is clear, fast-moving, and great fun. I've mixed feelings about the use of the dream sequences to indicate how she feels at particular moments - but I'm sure there are many who love them.

This is really a fine series - it seems the female counterpart to the male-oriented Californication - the quality is similar - and they're very much the same kind of series - very modern, witty, well-designed continuing comedy (each program's dilemmas, new characters, very much lead into the next). They're both programs about very superficial, selfish and materialistic people, set in contemporary Los Angeles obsessed with fame and fleeting success.

I'm a conservative Catholic man living in the East, clearly not the intended audience for the series - but I enjoy it. And I'm surprised there aren't more comments. (The series was heavily promoted in New York City -- and Messing and Davis are both famously talented).

It's hard to imagine that people who decide to tune in - won't be caught up in it.

I must say that this summer I was really entertained by this USA cable network mini-series. "The Starter Wife" had a touch of many themes and elements starting from spoiled richness, hopelessness, love, problems, drama, and funny wit. Debra Messing was perfect and great as a sexy Hollywood trophy wife Molly who's world comes crashing down when she's suddenly divorced from her studio executive husband. So it's off to sorrow and pity, yet thank god she had a strong friend like Joan(Judy Davis) who gave a tough and commanding performance as a strong alcoholic friend. Yet romance and love went back and fourth with Lou a Hollywood big wheel in the movie business, and Sam a beach bum. Yet in the end Molly seems happy and content with herself showing that freedom and independence is important and that many are happy to be alone that's what this series taught us. The series was very witty and funny too often having dream parodies and comparisons to many Hollywood classics like "The Wizard of Oz", "Chinatown", and "Titantic". Really a pretty good series that was well written and it was nice to see a woman finally become an independence champ.

Grazer is a spoiled self-centered Hollywood wife recently dumped by her producer husband...Her characters resemble her..shallow, too light-weight to be interesting. In Sex and the City, the female characters were actually struggling to understand life, but here...it's sophomoric and silly... A disappointment

I've read her other two books, Rescue Me and Maneater and as much as I wanted to enjoy them...with both books, I stopped in the middle...because she couldn't sustain my interest. And the "potty" jokes are embarrassing for a woman of Grazer's age....It's as Stephen King says a quality writer doesn't have to resort to shock tactics...he/she has enough skill to ensnare the reader's attention in better ways.. Only the inept/starter/unskilled writers go for the sophomoric "toilet humor"...her main problem is the conflict is not deep or important enough....a silly airhead spoiled self-indulgent pampered wife gets dumped....for a younger version of same...where's the gravitas..the searing soul-deep conflict? a wrong that needs to be righted...she got what she deserved...end of story....It gets sillier and stupider as it goes along. Grazer, get a day job you can handle.

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.