MISTRESSES Goes Between the Sheets

Article first published as MISTRESSES Review on Seat42F.

Grade: 88%

ABC is delivering a fresh, new series this summer beginning tonight at 10 p.m. ET called MISTRESSES. Based on the British series of the same name, MISTRESSES follows four female friends (two of them sisters) and their love lives, both with steady partners and while having affairs.

The title can be a bit misleading, since not all four ladies are mistresses at this time. Presumably, should the show go past the thirteen episodes scheduled for this summer, other affairs could happen that would earn them the moniker. But as the “Pilot” starts, only one of the central quartet is a mistress.

The woman I refer to is Dr. Karen Rhodes (Yunjin Kim, Lost), a successful mental health professional who sleeps with her dying patient, Thomas Grey (John Schneider, Smallville). After Thomas’s death, however, she learns that Thomas chooses to spend his final moments with his wife (Penelope Ann Miller, Men of a Certain Age), which hurts her deeply, since she assumes she is his soul mate, causing her to go to her friends for support.

Not all of Karen’s friends, whom she has abandoned during the affair, are all that supportive. They care about her, but don’t necessarily approve of her actions. This is the central issue with MISTRESSES, and why it may have difficulty being accessible to an audience. Is it ever really OK to cheat? Can you judge the act without judging the person? How many people out there will take Karen’s tryst personally, having been betrayed, and consider a turn off they can’t stomach?

Karen’s situation is further complicated when Thomas’s son, Sam (Erik Stocklin, First Day), seeks her counsel. He knows his father was having an affair, but when Karen denies the culprit was her, Sam begins to pursue her romantically. Is he really in love with this much older woman, who he seemingly thinks took good care of his father, or is this a ruse to trap Karen and cost her her license? Karen doesn’t seem ready to fall for him in either instance, but she’s in a very dangerous position.

I’m not sure whether to root for Karen or Sam to win. Both characters are sympathetic, somehow, but also not completely so, as Sam has a dark edge to him.

This type of drama seems along the vein of Desperate Housewives, a previously popular ABC drama which also centered on four women and their various romantic entanglements. It’s interesting that ABC chooses to air it in the summer, considering MISTRESSES follows along the lines of a series that ran so many years with quite a large following on the same network. However, there are some differences, and perhaps ABC worried this new show either wouldn’t land as well, or would be viewed as a copy.

It’s not a copy, and it does make for a very entertaining experience. The other drama in the “Pilot,” Savi (Alyssa Milano, Charmed) facing marital problems at home when her husband, Harry (Brett Tucker, Neighbours), can’t give her kids, a flirtatious co-worker (Jason George, Grey’s Anatomy) hitting on Savi, and April (Rochelle Aytes, Work It) trying to escape the ghost of her dead husband, is as enticing as Karen’s tale. While not completely original, these are human stories that viewers should be able to connect with on some level.

There are a couple of twists at the end of the “Pilot,” some obviously foreshadowed, some not, that set up an interesting rest of the season, and prove that the series has driving power past the first installment. I won’t spoil those surprises for you, but suffice it to say, if you like soapy drama, MISTRESSES has what you are looking for.

Given the excellent cast and the time-proven premise, I’m a little sad that MISTRESSES has been pushed to summer. But should it gain some popularity, perhaps ABC will keep it on in the fall or, better yet, make a serious attempt at good summer programming.

Besides the performers listed above, MISTRESSES also stars Jes Macallan (The Football Fairy) as the fourth member of the titular group.

Lost wows, saddens, as things wrap up

    Last night's episode of ABC's Lost, "The Candidate", like most this season, blew my socks off.  Or it would have, had I been wearing socks.  The story is winding down with just two more installments before the series finale, which airs on a Sunday, mind you, instead of the usual Tuesday, so don't miss it.  Also, it was announced today that the finale will be TWO AND A HALF HOURS long!!!  Gone are the single-character stories, though a large part of the flash sideways this week was Jack (Matthew Fox) attempting to help Locke (Terry O'Quinn).  But on the island, everyone is gearing up for a big showdown, and more than couple of characters left the island for good.

     The biggest, most emotionally moving death scene that Lost has delivered in years concerned that Kwons, Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim, no relation).  Hours after being reunited, the two having been separated in the world and the time line for over three years, Jin refused to leave Sun to die.  And so he stayed in the sinking submarine with her, allowing them to pass from the world together.  It was incredibly sad, a fitting ending to two of the original cast.  Sure, moments later we saw sideways Jin alive and well walking down the hall of a hospital.  But in the story of the show as we know it, he's gone.

     Which begs the question.  Is the flash sideways our happy ending?  Most of the main characters of Lost have died over the years, but almost every single one has been revealed to be alive and well, usually happier, in the sideways universe.  With only nine main characters left on the island, perhaps this odd parallel is as close to satisfying closure as we are going to get for many.

     Speaking of the nine, Jack, Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) crawled out of the watery death trap and onto the beach.  These four, along with Locke, who has been recast as the big villain, have always been the core of the series.  They seem unlikely to die, at least not until the finale.  The other four did not star in all six seasons, although Desmond appeared in all six, and only one was in this week's episode.  Ben (Michael Emerson) and Richard (Nestor Carbonell) seem likely to simply pop up and get a little icing before disappearing.  Claire (Emilie de Ravin) could go either way, as she seems to be the henchwoman of Locke.  And Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), perhaps my favorite character, surely figures very prominently into the end, but even his use will probably be up an hour or two before the curtain.  It's sad to see these important, but not quite essential, characters in their swan songs, but in a show as sweeping as Lost, it's time to lose them so we can wind it all down.

     Original cast member Sayid (Naveen Andrews) also bowed out in heroic self-sacrifice, although not much was said about it afterwards.  My biggest regret was the quick, apparent death of Frank (Jeff Fahey), who had more to do in previous seasons, when he wasn't a main character, and then all we saw of his demise was a door slam into him.  He has to be dead, or he would have attempted to help our heroes, but it was a sad, dismissive way to go.  I wish he had gone out earlier, in some better fashion.

     The final season of Lost will continue for two more Tuesdays at 9pm, and then conclude on Sunday, May 23th on ABC.

Lost leaving viewers more... well, lost

     Four hours of the final season of ABC's Lost have already been aired in the last three weeks, which is about a quarter of the season.  Despite being promised many answers as the season progresses, so far there is much more confusion than explanation.  We saw the island on the bottom of the sea, and as many expected, Oceanic 815 landed without problem at LAX in 2004.  However, our favorite castaways are also still on the island, clearly not at the bottom of the ocean, and I have no idea why.  Gone are the flashbacks, flash forwards, and time jumps, but here to stay is presumably either alternate realities or parallel dimensions.

     The people that landed in Los Angeles are clearly not the same ones we met throughout the series.  There are a number of differences in their lives from the ones we previously saw.  Hurley (Jorge Garcia) is lucky, not unlucky.  John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is planning a wedding to his fiance, Helen (Katey Sagal, Married With Children, Sons of Anarchy, Futurama) and seemingly getting along with his father.  And the paths of our beloved characters keep crossing uncontrollably.  Kate (Evangeline Lilly) unwittingly kidnaps Claire (Emilie de Ravin) during her escape from the police.  Locke talks to Jack (Matthew Fox) at baggage claim, then after seeking work from Hurley and Rose (L. Scott Caldwell), he runs into Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson) while substitute teaching.  Seemingly it is destiny that they meet.

     Also curious is that the episodes featuring certain characters are airing in the same order as in the first season.  First we had a hodge podge in the two hour premiere, then Kate was the first standard episode, and Locke was second.  Following that logic, Jack and then the Kwans (Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim) should be next.  Of course, not every character from the first season is still starring, and there are plenty of new ones, so it seems doubtful this pattern will last.

    Back on the island in 2007, the Smoke Monster posing as Locke showed Sawyer (Josh Holloway) a list of names of the survivors that Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) had written on a rock, and most were crossed out.  All the names left were people Jacob was shown visiting throughout their lives in last season's finale. Except he visited Kate, and she wasn't on the list.  And all six of Hurley's lottery numbers were taken, so it must be significant that she isn't there, not just a simple edit mistake.  Is she something special and different, or did Jacob just not find her worthy when he visited her?  And does Kwon refer to Sun or Jin, and if it is Jin, is that why Sun wasn't tossed back to the 70's with everyone else?  Not only that, Jacob had a thing for J names, as the numbers in question name Jack, John, James, Jin (maybe), and Jarrah (Naveen Andrews).  But that leaves out Hurley, though Hugo can be spelled with a J for Spanish names.  All are male, too.  Also, screen caps reveal Claire's last name as #313, Charlie's (Dominic Monaghan) as #195, and other last names from island characters, including Linus and Goodspeed, which could refer to several people.  Why?  Weird.

     Lots more questions and answers await, and Lost will continue to air Tuesdays at 9pm on ABC.