Girlfriends Guide to Divorce if You Cant Stand the Heat Review

"Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" gets off to an exceedingly cringe-inducing starting time before showing glimmers of dramatic potential.

Those moments don't exactly save Bravo's new scripted offer just they help explain why Lisa Edelstein is starring on it. The "House" veteran is a fine actress only hardly known for her light comedic touch, and the role needs lots of that in add-on to dramatic chops.

Edelstein plays Abby McCarthy, a successful mommy writer in 50.A. who turns to divorced pals Lyla (Janeane Garofalo) and Phoebe (Beau Garrett, no relation) for support as her marriage to wannabe director Jake ("Private Practice" and "Scandal" star Paul Adelstein) falls apart. The pals practice anticipated things like have her out to clubs and discover her an ambitious divorce attorney. Designer labels and celebrity names are dropped; Abby must run the gauntlet of fellow moms at her kids' progressive school.

It'south all very "Clueless" meets "The Starter Wife."

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But, the dramatic moments are far more potent than the satire in Marti Noxon's new show. The hour-long dramedy, inspired past Vicki Iovine'due south "Girlfriends' Guide" books, is most affecting when it shows why Abby and Jake are splitting. Yes, he has a pretty CW actress girlfriend now, but Abby wasn't exactly a saint in their wedlock, which didn't come apart overnight.

Their arguments have a ring of truth and genuine emotion. And they help make up for painfully awkward moments when Abby hooks upwards with a much younger man at a club.

Noxon, a veteran of shows including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," has more latitude to poke gentle fun at the affluent women in this series than counterparts on the network's popular "Real Housewives" franchise. But in this case, truth is amend than fiction. Finding the proper balance for dramedy isn't like shooting fish in a barrel and "Girlfriends' Guide" fails miserably at that task.

The satire doesn't play nearly as well equally intended.

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Even Garofalo, a veteran of comedies including "Larry Sanders Show" and "Reality Bites," struggles with the material, and is exiting the evidence mid-season. Her Lyla is an exceedingly ambitious attorney intent on cutting off her celebrity chef ex-husband, who spends her money on a dominatrix. Garrett does a better task navigating her character's open up sexuality, and unusual arrangement with her ex.

In one of the recurring jokes early, Phoebe keeps talking about starting her own business.

"You and Lyla are these 'Lean In' women," she says to Abby, referring to Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg's book. "I want that."

Abby'due south success is threatened, however, when she can no longer pretend to be the happily married author of the popular parenting guidebook, "Girlfriends' Guide to Getting Your Groove Back." Her suddenly rocky future exacerbates financial tensions in her marriage.

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The testify addresses what it means when a adult female is the earner and decides to go divorced; it also presents the male side of view.

"Girlfriends' Guide" has some nice dialogue: Carrie Fisher shows upwardly early as Abby's pragmatic editor and tells Abby, "Information technology's not that I don't care. It's that I don't care right now."

And Garofalo manages some nice one-liners, although not almost enough to aid brand upward for her graphic symbol'southward nasty need for vengeance.

One of the prove's big issues is that Edelstein's Abby doesn't seem overly convincing in that moneyed milieu, or as pals with those women. The evidence tries to address that past having Abby's gay brother Max (Patrick Heusinger) betoken out that the ii of them used to make fun of Lyla and Phoebe, but it doesn't actually solve the problem. An argument between Jake and Abby over raising their children in the Jewish faith seems more convincing.

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The kid actors do their office, merely they can't aid the project shake its obnoxious, consumerist core. "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" may amend in subsequent episodes past plumbing more dramatic depths and relying less on L.A. namedropping (Howdy, Gwyneth!), but I'm not property my breath.

After 2 episodes, I'thousand gear up to finish my human relationship with "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce."

"Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce" debuts at 10 p.g. Tuesday on Bravo.

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