Pilot Review: Lipstick Jungle

Lipstick Jungle
NBC. Midseason
Cast: Brooke Shields, Kim Raver, Lindsay Price

And so my pilot hot streak ends. Lipstick Jungle is actually, believe it or not, an interesting show, but not for any sort of good reason. No, it’s interesting because it’s from Candace Bushnell, one of the major forces behind Sex and the City, a show that was pretty darn good and feminist in it’s portrayal of successful woman who are in (mostly) full control of both their personal lives and their careers. Now, just being a Candace Bushnell show isn’t what makes it interesting. What’s interesting about Lipstick Jungle is the fact that it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It is clearly trying to be Sex and the City-lite, and it is advertising itself as such, when, in reality, it is such a misogynistic show that I actually said aloud while watching it “This is aimed at women?”

Lipstick Jungle is about 3 women, Nico (Kim Raver), Wendy (Brooke Shields), and Victory (Lindsay Price), who are all incredibly powerful business women with vaguely preposterous names (Well, not Wendy and Nico is kind of mildly common in an Velvet Underground homage kind of way, but really, who names their child Victory? No offense to any Victorys out there). Wendy is a movie executive, Nico is a magazine publisher, and Victory (Seriously, her character’s parents must have hated her) is a fashion designer. The show is about these women being successful women. Only, and this is the funny misogynistic part, NONE OF THESE WOMEN SEEM TO BE ABLE TO BALANCE BEING POWERFUL WITH MAINTAINING A NORMAL HOME LIFE. Hell, some of these women don’t even seem to be good businesswomen (I’m looking at you person whose parents must have hated her).

But it’s not just that these women can’t seem to balance the two well. It’s that she show flaunts their failure at it. Some spoilers are coming, so watch out. Right as Wendy actually shows some business acumen and closes a necessary deal, she receives a text message from her husband saying that he wants a divorce. So, basically, right as she achieves business success, her family falls apart. Nico, who seems to be the strongest businesswoman and the most sensible about home life and is also, interestingly enough, the one who the others say is the biggest bitch of the three, basically starts an extramarital affair at her big launch party (Granted, this does show her as being in control of her own sexuality, but she breaks down crying over it later, because it shows she’s a bad wife). Oh, and when Victory botches a business deal in Japan, her new billionaire boyfriend comes to her rescue and sends her a private jet to fly her back to the US and into his arms. So basically, when these women are successful at their jobs, they botch their home lives, and when these women botch their jobs, they seem to have success in romance. Because, apparently, the show doesn’t believe women can achieve both.

The performances here seem slapdash at best, which is disappointing to me because I’ve always thought Kim Raver is a decent enough actress and I actually like Lindsay Price. But no one here shines, partially because they all seem to be caricatures of the archetypal woman who can achieve success at work or success at home but not both. This may also just be because the writing and dialogue is so poor as well. Really, there’s no element of this show that comes across as particularly good. The only compliment I have for it is that it’s better than Cavemen, which is really not saying much. All of this comes together to garner…

Rating: Not Worth Your Time