November 24, 2024
Review

‘Cashmere’ works as ‘Sex and the City’ wannabe; let’s hope it wears well

There must still be many fans jonesing for more “Sex and the City.”

Sanitized versions of the beloved HBO series, which wrapped up in 2004, run daily on TBS, and a movie based on it comes out this spring.

Now there’s two new network series that want to be the reincarnation of “Sex and the City.” The first of these is “Cashmere Mafia,” which debuts at 10 p.m. Sunday on ABC before moving to its regular 10 p.m. Wednesday time slot on Jan. 9. (The other imitator, NBC’s “Lipstick Jungle,” is scheduled for February.)

“Cashmere Mafia” has a stamp of authenticity, as it’s created by “SITC” creator Darren Star. It also has the requisite quartet of disparate career women, who met in business school.

There’s Mia (played by Lucy Liu), who has the perfect boyfriend until she runs roughshod over him on the way to a top position at the firm where they both work.

There’s Zoe (Frances O’Connor), the ice queen whose husband is not too discreetly fooling around on her.

There’s Juliet (Miranda Otto), who’s trying to balance a career, a marriage and motherhood.

Finally, there’s Caitlin (Bonnie Somerville), who’s unlucky at love and is struggling with her sexual identity.

Since “Cashmere Mafia” is Star’s baby, it can’t help but suffer by comparison to the original. It too has powerful yet unhappy career women and their emasculated men.

Maybe it can evolve into something else. But what would be the point of that? At least it’s fresh scripted programming, so that viewers will have to suffer through one less hour of reality TV.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like