When I first started seeing commercials for Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, Bravo’s “first scripted series” (although the Housewives aren’t exactly raw footage), I was a bit wary. The acting looked forced and I couldn’t figure out what the premise was. Is it just about a woman getting a divorce that starts dating again? Is that the chick from House? OMG, it’s Heather Mooney from Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion!
Well, last night after RHOBH (which is pulling a RHONJ and starting to suck) the first episode of Girlfriends’ Guide premiered, and I was pleasantly surprised.
The show is about a writer named Abby (Lisa Edelstein), who writes self-help books even though her marriage and personal life are deteriorating. I think Edelstein’s character could be a subtle nod to the Bravolebrities who sell the image of a “perfect lifestyle” when many of them are complete messes themselves (Teresa Giudice, Luanne De Lesseps, Bethenny Frankel, etc. etc. etc. etc.). Abby’s best friends, who are the most entertaining parts of the show, are going through marital problems themselves. Janeane Garofalo (HEATHER MOONEY) is hilarious as a wealthy lawyer going through a brutal divorce, and Beau Garrett is a former model and free-spirited hippie who does things like smoke joints in department stores and flash her boobs in public. They all have children at the same uptight private school where the other mothers sip cappuccinos and judge them. It’s all very Gossip Girl meets Sex and the City meets the mothers you see on visiting day at sleep away camp.
I was shocked by three things in the first episode:
- How SUPER wealthy all of the characters are. I love watching shows about loaded women, don’t get me wrong, but Abby was basically crying about how she is going from insanely rich to kind of rich after the divorce and I played the world’s smallest violin.
- The women are the ones paying alimony and child support to their ex-husbands. Amazing.
- The sex scenes were very raunchy and it felt wrong watching them on Bravo.
Also, I have no idea where they film in LA but some of the scenic shots look like they are from a Nancy Meyers’ adaptation of the movie Mulholland Drive. Very pretty, but a tad eerie.
Give this guilty pleasure a shot! Tuesdays, 10 PM, Bravo.
Once Upon a Time Dating 