Lipstick Jungle is no Sex in the City

The new show Lipstick Jungle, from the famed author Candace Bushnell who brought us Sex in the City, premiered this past Thursday on NBC. I was very excited about it too bad my excitement was short lived. I will not say it was a complete disappointment but it was not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be. Usually the pilot episode of a show tells me right off hit or miss but this one was rather lukewarm. My first thought about this show was that it was a mediocre knock off of Cashmere Mafia which comes on ABC and is so brilliant. The shows are very similar in that they are about strong women making things happen in New York City but the similarities end there. Lipstick Jungle set a mood of struggle and failure for the characters right from the first scene and while that might be good for some shows I feel the audience was expecting a more triumphant resilience from the characters. Brooke Shields who plays movie exec Wendy was a wash out. She did not have her usual Brooke flair of making us want to see more and I was truly bored with her character and her look. Kim Raver who plays Niko the editor of a fashion magazine is stunning to look at and while I am not thrilled with her story line yet I see a lot of potential. All I have to say about Kim Raver is watch out Kim Cattrall! Our third main character is Victory played by Lindsay Price. Victory is a struggling fashion designer which is acceptable but what makes her story line pop is the budding romance between her and a zillionaire played by Andrew McCarthy. These two characters and their brief but entertaining story line was by far the best part of this show. I will watch again for no other reason but these two characters have me intrigued. I found myself wanting more of the romance aspect of this show and less of the dreary struggles of Wendy and Niko with the inevitable marriage and career dilemmas. The truth is while I enjoy a drama we live in a world with enough drama and at the end of the night I want to sit down and be entertained and while this show did that to an extent it better shape up or it is off the viewing list. Thursday nights are prime time watching and if and when this writers strike ever comes to an end Lipstick Jungle will definitely not make the cut!