Review: The Starter Wife Literary Device Takes on Television

Today I stumbled on USA Network's The Starter Wife starring Deborah Messing. With nothing better to do I settled in to watch the two-hour premier episode. I hadn't read the book or any of the recent press. From the first commercial I thought it would be Lifetime-esque but then I saw another with a child and humor. I had no idea what I was in for.

It opens with Molly woken from a dream of her and her friends as the pilgrims in The Wizard Of Oz. She rolls over in the satin sheets and answers the phone. We cut to the caller; her husband Kenny, on the treadmill downstairs telling her there is poop. She says she will take care of it and makes a call, she tells the person on the other end; "There is poop." Downstairs the maid arrives. Absolutely everything in the opening sequence sets you up for the story. The characters the friends represent in the dream are the roles they play in Molly's life. The complete and utter disconnectedness of her marriage is cleverly portrayed with the use of the ultimate connection tool, the telephone. It's no accident that Kenny is OZ in the dream.

Being a slave to her Hollywood image Molly gets up and is immediately on the scale. When it registers 117.2 she removes her wedding and engagement rings. The enormity of this gesture is played off by focusing on the size of the rings and the movement of the scale down to 117.1. In fact it is the perfect analogy; her marriage is exactly the weight she needs lose, physically insignificant yet spiritually enormous.

She goes on to explain how she is the "great woman" behind the great man. She put in untold hours making him look effortless. He couldn't survive without her. She drops their daughter off at the private school where she parks her needlessly massive SUV in line with the others. Then it's off to yoga in the park, the club for general maintenance, and lunch with friends. We are introduced to the concept of the starter wife when one of their about to be divorced counterparts is denied a table at the swanky lunch venue. They comment on how she is such a poor thing not realizing her insignificance without her husband to define her. Molly declares to hate the way "this town" treats people. They stay seated consuming their food watching the scene rather than offering safe harbor to their once-upon-a-good-man friend.

A red carpet party is a stunning example of how Molly is not her husband's partner. She is left behind painting her face and drinking with friends while he goes off to have drinks with more high-powered important people. It is the final night of her life as one of the privileged. The phone call heard round Hollywood comes in the morning. The phone, that wormhole of disconnected humanity, its the perfect way to tell your mate you want a divorce.

The ripple is already in effect. Her club membership is revoked. Her charities drop her. Her so-called friends are talking about her behind her back. She is in tears as she drives home. Not because the love of her life is leaving her but because her life is leaving her. The friends from the Wizard of Oz dream meet her for a support group lunch. As she cries about her plight Cricket, the tin man character, asks is there anything she can do to get back with the husband so they can share a ski vacation in Aspen. The lion character, Rodney, insists Molly is still in love with Kenny and should do whatever it takes to stay in her comfort zone. Meanwhile, Joan, the scarecrow character, points out that there is no "in love" with Molly and Kenny and offers Molly the one thing she needs: distance.

This lunch scene also contains one of the humorous commercial lines. "Of course I'm cranky. I haven't eaten in 12 years!" Literally and figuratively this line characterizes Molly's life. She has slowly disappeared as an individual over the last 12 years. Obsessed with her weight and appearance she has become a slave to maintaining her physical self while her artistic, spiritual, and intellectual self have starved. In fact a flashback reveals a Pigmallion like transformation at the hands of Kenny who knew exactly what he wanted and how to get it, which included molding her to meet certain specifications. This flash back takes place at the beach as she does yoga and meditation in an attempt to focus on who she was, how she became who she is, and who she wants to be in the future. This is the crack in the seed necessary for all growth.

At each turn there is significance in the imagery on the screen and the plight of the characters Molly encounters. The security guard who could careless about Molly or her story is being evicted from her own home because the grandmother she lives with loves her dog too much to give it up. When she and Kenny end up at the same child's birthday party full of the usual Hollywood elite she walks the red carpet out instead of in. Kenny's boss, Lou, pays attention to her and then lets us in on the fact that he has had three "starter wives". He also saves her from the embarrassing situation of not being able to get a seat in the popular lunch spot something she wasn't able to do for her friend. Molly is saved from drowning by a man who is obviously going to become the love interest but as she thanks him for saving her life he questions if it is a life worth saving. And finally it may be the realization of what happens to his cast off wives that drives Lou to drink himself silly, leave a note, and plunge into the ocean rather than show up to dinner with Molly.

After two hours my head was reeling. I was pleasantly surprised with the balance of the piece and enthralled with the complexity and depth of the production. As it plays on the screen it is a masterpiece of literary device and thoroughly entertaining, something rarely seen these days. I will certainly be watching for the next episode at its regular time on its regular night: Thursdays at 9:00pm.