Cashmere Mafia

Since Sex and the City went off the air three years ago there have been questions about what could replace it. So far there hasn't been anything that's even come close to the funny, smart, and sexy dialog, the style, and the connection you made with the characters. Now, finally, there are two new shows that are trying really hard to pick up where Sex and the City left off. The first show is called Lipstick Jungle. It's based on a book written by Candace Bushnell, the same woman who wrote Sex and the City. It's the same kind of idea but there are three women instead of four and they are a little bit older than the SATC gals, in their 40's rather than in their 30's. The other show is called Cashmere Mafia. This show is being produced by one of the guys who produced Sex and the City. There has been a lot of discussion about which one will be best and will, ultimately, survive on TV. Cashmere Mafia is the first of the two shows to actually make it on TV. It premiered on Sunday evening so, of course, I had my DVR set and ready. It's on ABC so obviously they can't get away with the same stuff that HBO can but I was still very excited to see what the show had to offer.

The show revolves around four women in their mid-to-late thirties and early forties. They are all very successful and very well-off. I can't remember their names yet but there is a red head with a tween-age daughter who knows her husband fools around behind her back, a brunette who has two young kids and is married to a man who can't keep a steady job, a blond who thinks she may be gay, and an Asian girl (played by Lucy Liu) who got engaged and broke off her engagement in the first episode. Like Sex and the City, the ladies meet often for lunch and to discuss all the goings-on in their lives.

The show, for me, was just ok. I know I'm holding it up to extremely high standards but it was just ok. The thing that really stood out to me was how crazy the show has made the lives of these women. By about 20 minutes into the show I was asking myself, who are these women that lead these lives? They are all very competitive business women who are on their blackberries constantly. In one scene, three of the women are all consulting their blackberries to see when they can all get together to tell the fourth that her husband is cheating on her. They are running from work to meetings with clients to school to see a kid in a play, to an engagement dinner... all in $700 Christian Louboutin heels.

One of the main story lines of the show revolved around Lucy Liu's character becoming engaged to a man that she works with. I guess they had been dating a year. Well, the day they got engaged they went into work and found out they are going up against each other for a promotion. Who ever makes the most sales by the end of the week gets a huge promotion, the other gets fired. So throughout the course of the show we see Lucy Liu and her fiance competing over the same clients. Surprise, surprise, Lucy Liu wins and gets the promotion. Her fiance then dumps her because he wants a wife, not a business woman who will never be home. But instead of being upset, Lucy Liu goes to lunch with her girlfriends to celebrate her promotion. Huh?! It just seemed a little far-fetched.

One thing this show had that rivaled Sex and the City were the clothes. All of the women are very well dressed and very well accessorized. The men are also very hot, but disposable. I think one thing it lacked is likability of the characters. There were no moments that made any of the women seem vulnerable or "real". They just seemed like very high-powered, unemotional fembots. If there are women out there like that, I haven't met very many.

I guess until the Sex and the City movie comes out in May, this half-assed stand-in will have to do. I am very anxious now to see what Lipstick Jungle has to offer. I hope it's a little better than Cashmere Mafia. My recommendation to you though, watch it. It's fluff but at least you get to look at some really cute shoes.