Man trouble? They know who to turn to
SEX and the City, Girls, Girlfriends, Cashmere Mafia and Lipstick Jungle share commonalities with Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. Yes, the premise may differ from show to show, but the issues faced by the female protagonists are universal.
It’s just that some gravitate towards the slice-of-life staple of honesty, while others are tapered to provide greater entertainment value.
So, where does Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce reside on the scale of truthfulness. Well, if truth be told, it keeps a foot in both camps. That said, it’s still highly entertaining, as viewers immerse themselves into the manic life of Abby McCarthy (Lisa Edelstein), as she bounces back from her gigolo scandal.
Born from the pages of Vicki Iovine’s Girlfriend’s Guide series, the show introduced Abby as the poster girl for every unhappy wife out there. The self-help author aged in her 40s wanted out of her marriage to Jake Novak (Paul Adelstein), an unsuccessful film director.
And so the two navigated their way through a series of emotional upsets and sexploits, and Abby’s fans lapped up her brutal honesty and cathartic advice...until her dalliance with a gigolo grabbed headlines.
The fans felt betrayed by her for writing one thing but doing another.
This brings us to Abby’s dire status quo at the start of season three.
She has gone from being the sexy, fun face of divorce to, basically, a hated hypocrite.
Hers isn’t the only life in shambles though. Jake’s new girlfriend Becca Riley, a successful actress who just gave birth to Taye Diggs’s baby (in the story not real life), has gone MIA. He’s saddled with a crying newborn baby, while a job interview looms.
And so Abby, having just awoken from the nightmare of being slated on national television as the “woman who made a colossal mess of her career”, finds herself duped into babysitting.
His pitiful look and puppy dog-face plea, “Look at me, I look like I’m in Vegas with a baby and Johnny Depp for three days,” sealed the deal.
Meanwhile, Delia Banai is having a meltdown following her ruined marriage. Let’s just say that her affair with her boss Albert wasn’t as no-strings-attached as she assumed.
He wasn’t ready to let her go.
Then there is recent divorcee Phoebe Conte, embracing her new love. The former model has this constantly sunny disposition that can be most nauseating, but she is blonde and lives in her happy bubble... and she likes it there.
While Delia wants to escape to New York City for six months until things blow over, Lyla’s romance with a toyboy gets even steamier. Although, it must be said, he isn’t happy about being her dirty little secret.
He tells her, “You have a unique way of making me feel like a dildo with a person attached.”
Back to Abby, she finally gets the final verdict on her job – Mitchell fires her and gets Barbara, Abby’s co-worker at SheShe to take over her column.
Abby’s day doesn’t get any better. While the news of her being officially unemployed still sinks in, the doctor makes her feel worse by advising her to go on oestrogen patches for her hot flushes.
The episode ends with the five friends purging themselves of the setbacks dragging them down in life and embracing a better future in a Goddess ceremony.
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce is blessed with some ridiculous scenarios to offset the funny lines.
There’s also plenty of drama and distinctly etched characters to reel the audience in.