There’s life after split decisions
“Cuddy” gets her groove back in – the latest guilty pleasure on television, writes
THE current buzz on TV is Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce – the first original scripted series for Bravo TV, the network behind The Real Housewives franchise. So what’s the verdict? It’s addictive viewing akin to Mistresses and Devious Maids. You want to shove your man into the closet (for those who do have one) for an hour, cuddle up on the couch and get lost in the lives of these well-heeled characters paradoxically dealing with common life issues. Let’s just say chaos, confusion and the sheer mortification of exploring the “real dating world” have never resulted in a headier concoction of riotous and cheeky entertainment.
Lisa Edelstein (Abby McCarthy) – best known as Dr Lisa Cuddy in House – and Paul Edelstein (Cooper Freedman in Private Practice and Leo Bergen in The Fixer), as Jake Novak, make for a fascinating pair as the unhappily married couple navigating their way through emotional and verbal minefields as they brace themselves for their impending divorce.
“You smell of sex,” Abby’s jibe to Jake as he – in the blissful throes of his rekindled youth (aka midlife crisis) sneaks into bed in the early hours of the morning.
They wake to a house of boisterous and demanding kids. Of course, in between toast, cereal and coffee, they still find the time to slip in a different kind of quickie – text wars.
Abby is riled up about Jake’s teenybopper-ish actress girlfriend and the fact that she is funding his testosterone-charged shenanigans. Meanwhile, there is also the issue of breaking the news about their divorce to the kids and her camp brother who is a traditionalist about marriage.
Oh, and there is her major book launch in the pipeline about her gospel truths to keeping your man happy, marriage, family… blah, blah, blah.
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce isn’t a male-bashing exploit of lofty ideas. Rather, it is a fly-on-the-wall perspective of how infidelity (on the female’s part, however) becomes the elephant in the home, so to speak.
The actions of the characters are relatable; from Jake seeking his pleasure in a tinseltown starlet to Abby relying on her girlfriends (who have their own warped baggage on husbands and divorce) to soothe her ruffled feathers. And a toy boy-shag certainly helps.
The scenes of her having her How Stella Got Her Groove Back moment are uproarious, to say the least. Especially when she, in the heat of horniness, squeals: “I’m a bit more natural for you guys down there”.
Then she calls her girlfriend to say: “Good news, my vagina is not dead… it’s just been in a coma.”
This dramedy, based on Vicki Iovine’s novels, doesn’t tread new ground as far as relationshipcentric storytelling goes. It’s been covered before in Sex and the City, The Starter Wife, Cougar Town, Cashmere Mafia and Men in Trees.
Where it gains an advantage, though, is in the treatment. The writing is crisp, razor-sharp and pulls no punches.
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce flirts with domestic drama, friendships, family, self-righteousness and stroking narcissistic feelings, too. It purges itself of any mendacity with its slice-of-life realism – albeit set in a more affluent world.
Nonetheless, the observational study of human behaviour in all its languishing glory makes for indulgent viewing.
In peeling back the cover on suburban bliss, this becomes an effortless sell of inconvenient truths on life, marriage and happiness.
Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce airs on M-Net Edge (DStv channel 102) on Wednesdays at 8pm.