“It's hard to imagine better warm-weather fun.” (Philadelphia inquirer) “Never deep enough to seriously address, well, anything, the show is meant to showcase the comic talents of star Debra Messing.” (Christian Science Moniter) “It has moments of very clever writing.” (Entertainment Weekly) "Wife" is entertaining and bitingly irreverent, at once sweet and sour. It ropes you in because Messing is so adept at making us like her neurotic personage.”, and she keeps stepping lightly even as the indignities and implausibilities pile up. (Hollywood Reporter) “Cast within an inch of its life and full of terrific Hollywood tear-downs, "The Starter Wife" tries to be good clean mean-spirited fun. For the most part it succeeds, but the chick-lit trend of really sticking it to rich women remains disturbing in its sexism and classism.” (Los Angeles Times)"The Starter Wife" isn't likely to get mentioned in the same breath as "The Sopranos" (unless you read this paragraph out loud), but it's not going to make your trigger finger itchy, either.”(Philidelphia Daily News)“It’s the TV equivalent to a satisfying, entirely inconsequential beach read.” (Chicago Tribune)“A diverting if obvious trifle of chick-lit escapism, Wife rarely becomes as captivating or as hilarious as it thinks it is.” (TV Guide)“It's pure fluff.” (Wall Street Journal)“The trouble with "Starter Wife" isn't Messing or money. The show just kind of lies there, like the bird poop that fell on our president's face at a press conference the other day. Oh, I mean, his shirt. Sorry. Wishful thinking.”(Chicago Sun Times)"Essentially, it's "Desperate Housewives" with "Entourage"-style namedropping, and not nearly as compelling as either." (Variety) "We've seen these movie-business cut-out characters and foolish plot turn many, many times before." (Boston Globe)"A few days is all it takes to plow through Levangie Grazer's book, and it's easy to feel fine about that. Watching six hours of TV spread out over a few weeks is a lot to ask, especially given how disappointing, disorganized and disposable those installments shape up to be." (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)"The problem is that there just aren't enough characters here for real people to really care about." (New York Post) "Messing is superb in making Molly vulnerable without letting her come off as a victim." (Baltimore Sun)
Compiled by Bryon Rudd
