By Jennifer Larson

Well the holiday season is officially over, and with the New Year comes a bumper crop of new TV shows. Personally, I’m always a little weary of the “mid-season” replacements, (are they even calling them that anymore)? If there wasn’t enough excitement surrounding them to roll them out in the beginning of the fall season, than why should I waste my time on them now? That being said, this season is a little different, thanks to the continuing writer’s strike. Don’t get me wrong, I love my reality TV, but the fate of my favorite scripted shows are hanging in the balance and in many cases they won’t be back until next Fall. For that reason, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some of these late comers.

My first thought when I heard about CASHMERE MAFIA was how great it was that SEX AND THE CITY was coming back to TV. Let’s face it, a show that is created and produced by Darren Star, who was the genius behind the venerable HBO series, and centers around four best girl friends that all happen to have high-powered, successful careers, and live in New York City sounds more than a little familiar. However, upon further reflection I realized there was no way it could ever be as good as the original since the copy is on network TV. A big part of the success for SEX AND THE CITY was based on the fact that they could get down, and dirty and as raunchy as they wanted because it was on cable. This was the first show that made it ok for women to enjoy, talk about and use sex just as much as their male counterparts did. Without that component, much of the charm is lost.


That doesn’t mean, however, that CAHSMERE MAFIA is squeaky clean. For example, Caitlin (Bonnie Somerville) dabbles in lesbianism, during the first few episodes. Of course, Samantha (Kim Cattrel) beat her to that bit of sexual exploration several years back. But it’s really the dynamic between the four best friends that made SEX AND THE CITY, and CASHMERE MAFIA is hoping for much of the same with their group of women, which centers on Mia (Lucy Liu), the aforementioned Caitlin (Bonnie Somerville), Zoe (Frances O’Connor), and Juliet (Miranda Otto). After meeting in business school, these four kept up their tight bond, and in fact, somehow manage to spend what seems like every spare moment with each other. Considering the fact that two of them have husbands and children, I am a little less than impressed with their passion for each other. Not to mention the fact that I can’t for the life of me understand how they find that much time in every day.

After watching five minutes of this show, I felt like I was in some type of parallel universe, one where Darren Star believed that this rehashed piece of fluff would actually fool the public into believing that SEX AND THE CITY could really be remade with different actors. But if it was just the character outline that was being blatantly copied, I might not have such a hard time swallowing the fact that ABC green lit this project. The fact of the matter is that this show is identical in everyway, including cinematography, story lines, music and anything else that goes into making a TV show come to life. Well, there is one way CASHMERE MAFIA is different; it isn’t nearly as good as its predecessor. First of all there’s the predictable infidelity of Zoe’s husband, who by all outwardly appearances has the perfect life. Next we have Juliet who is married to a gorgeous successful husband, has two adorable children and spends the whole show frantically searching and bargaining for a new nanny. It seems Juliet already has a job and can’t seem to find the time to raise her own children, so she has to delve into the nasty world of nanny negotiating to get the best one in town.


Sadly, the tired clichés don’t stop there. Next we have Caitlin, who didn’t realize she was a lesbian until a Latina goddess walked into her office, and I swear I’m not joking about this; angelic music begins to play when their eyes meet! Don’t even get me started on Mia and the way she bounces around the office after getting engaged only to turn into a lioness when she realizes her beloved really intends to fight hard to win that coveted promotion right out from under her. I guess she thought true love would cause him to graciously hand it over to her.

I’m supposed to review this piece of schlock for its entire run, fortunately for me I don’t expect that to be much longer than a couple of painful episodes. But what do I know; I’m the girl who said ALF would never make it.