The Starter Wife

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 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.

Definitely watch this one!

I've already watched it two times. Great acting, great storyline. Just sit down and enjoy it! It's more than just a comedy. I couldn't help but feel empathy towards the characters.

Already, after the first episode, I am hooked. Counting down happily to Thursday nights! It is grade-A quality and has the feel of a movie, not a mini-series. At the end of the episode, you'll be hungry for more.

Debra Messing sheds her Grace persona and takes on Molly Kagan, a Hollywood cast-off wife. She really shines and proves herself as a well-rounded, talented actor.

Don't miss 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 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).