“Mistresses” is a sexy new series about four women friends and their complicated relationships with men. It’s been referenced as a newer version of “Sex in the City,” with a different premise, so of course I was curious to see it. The show, based on a British series, was adapted and created by K. J. Steinberg for ABC, and premieres Monday, June 3, 2013 at 10/9c.
In the opening scene of the pilot, they start right off with some very sexy scenes. Woo! Cut to Savannah a.k.a. “Savi” (Alyssa Milano, though we don’t know who she is yet), walking up to a bar and seating herself. She sees a handsome man and says, “Meeting someone?” He replies, “I was, but I think I just changed my plans.”
It turns out that Harry (Brett Tucker), a restaurant owner (very cute, by the way), is Savi’s husband. They proceed to get some afternoon delight, if you know what I mean. That’s the way to start a show!
We find out later that Savannah is an attorney who is hoping to make partner, while at the same time start a family. She and Harry are having fertility issues (okay that’s real), so they go to have some tests done, and find out that Harry is the one with the problem. He takes it very hard. He also takes his anger out on her (why are we always to blame?), saying that she wants to be a partner, and having a baby would be a burden for her. That’s a low blow.
She’s hurt by this and ends up giving in to temptation (ugh) to a fellow attorney (Dominic) with whom, during the course of the episode, she’d been playing that “sexual tension” game. His persistence pays off. That was a little unbelievable to me, because she was very cool and had warded him off the entire show, then boom! I don’t really buy it.
Jossyln (Jes Macallan) is the total opposite of big sister Savannah. She’s single, loves to party, and loves men. She’s a real estate agent who just had an affair with her boss. Way to go! Just kidding! But she’s fun and doesn’t care what people think. A younger version of Samantha maybe? Hum. We’ll see.
April (Rochelle Aytes), who is good friends with both Savi and Jossyln, recently lost her husband and is raising their 10-year-old daughter solo. She also just received a big life insurance check, and that’s when she starts getting crank calls – with nobody on the other end.
I wondered where they were going with this, and my guess was right! The big moment comes at the end of the episode when a woman comes to her door (we had met her earlier) and says she knew her husband. April looks confused, and the woman says she had a relationship with April’s husband and was pregnant when he died. Oh look, there’s the kid to prove it. It’s obvious the boy is their son. Poor April!
Now for the therapist, Karen (Yunjin Kim, who played Sun Kwon on “Lost”). Ok, you knew all of these women were going to have a story, and so does Karen. She succumbs to advances from a dying client, Thomas Grey (John Schneider), who professes his love for her. After he dies, his widow hires Savannah’s firm. Nobody knows that Karen had an affair with him (until later), but they do know she was prescribing him morphine.
Oh yeah, and Tom’s son (Erik Stocklin) meets with her and asks about his dad’s affair. He asks Karen point blank if she was the one he was having an affair with. She tells him no, of course. But then, he comes back to her office the next day bringing flowers, and asks her to coffee. What the heck?
“Mistresses” is going to be full of drama, deception, secrets, etc, but it is also about friends supporting each other. I do like the cast, but I think it will mostly appeal to younger ladies or maybe women who watch “The Real Housewives” shows.
Are you looking forward to “Mistresses”? If you’re reading this after watching the pilot, did you like it? Will you watch it again? Please leave comments below – we love hearing from you!
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