Money. Sex. Death. Lies. Love. Betrayal. Affairs. Marriage. Scandal. Mistresses.
There’s good television. There’s bad television. And then there’s Mistresses. In general, soap operas and reality shows are considered to be bad TV. It’s not that you don’t ever watch it; it’s just that you recognize a certain badness and lack of insight and any genuine storytelling. At every turn they’re out to create drama, keep you hooked, and basically keep you semi-zoned out as the hours pass during a long day of Days of Our Lives or an afternoon marathon of America’s Next Top Model (boy, has that show slumped over the seasons). Oppositely, good television shows are ones like the HBO gold, The Sopranos, or a highly rated cop or hospital drama. These shows are expensive to produce and play with the quality of a movie.
Then there are shows like BBC America’s Mistresses. A show that falls somewhere in the middle, and knowing this full well it tries to land somewhere on the top half of the spectrum. Its first two seasons bounce back and forth across the center line with some of its hour-long episodes intriguing and weighty, but with others completely sensational and over-the-top. The flip-flop is the formula for the guilty pleasure.
The show is a semi-copycat of Sex and the City—in theory, not in practice. Mistresses is about four women who are best friends. Similar to the New York series, the four women in Britain have nothing in common but each other and their tight friendships. Over a few bottles of wine or a home cooked meal, the girls get together regularly and spend the hours discussing the men in their lives.
There’s Katie (Sarah Parish), a doctor, who starts the series having an affair with a patient. She struggles to find happiness and keep it, constantly questioning whether she deserves it. There’s Trudi (Sharon Small), a mother of two daughters who lost her husband due to the 9/11 attacks. She’s lost the ability to trust, and closes herself off to the possibility of something new. She meets a single father at her daughters’ school, but has trouble trusting him and they find it hard to keep it afloat. Next there’s Siobhan (Orla Brady) who’s trying for a baby with her loving husband Hari (Raza Jaffrey). She’s a barrister (a lawyer to you Americans) who gets down in her marriage and finds it hard to remain faithful. Lastly there’s Jessica (Shelley Conn) who is the most Sex and the City-like character, a Samantha Jones knock-off. Jess is an event planner, who is content in playing the field, even dabbling with the fairer sex.
Sound familiar? Sam’s in public relations and also plays the field, pausing briefly in a relationship with a woman named Maria. Even though the character is similar, the drama in Mistresses is like a deep ocean with all of its webs woven by the characters. Layer after layer. The characters are very interesting and set out to entertain from the first moments of the show, but unfortunately it’s nothing more than a bubbling soap opera. A show like Sex and the City was so successful because it cut drama with humor. It’s witty writing kept audiences from drowning in soapy water. The BBC series has a few humorous moments, but its certainly not laugh out loud funny. Its subject matter is much too serious to squeeze in a little levity. In fact, the characters on Mistresses are basically masochists who have no self control and constantly ruin relationships through their own indiscretions. Serious enough for you?
That said, this is what makes the show such a pleasure, albeit a guilty one. At times it's so frustrating you want to yell obscenities at the screen so these ladies will do something right for once—but this is the way it is with soaps. Nothing goes right. Everything is hard. But this misery is why we come back week after week. Perhaps the guilty who derive pleasure from a show like Mistresses are simply secret masochists, living vicariously through these fictional characters. Sometimes that’s all the audience is looking for. Money. Sex. Death. Lies. Love. Betrayal. Affairs. Marriage. Scandal. Guilt. Pleasure. Mistresses.
DVD Bonus Features
The Volume One DVD carries two extra features in its four discs. As is essentially the norm in DVD land, Mistresses comes with a “making of” section that is a fun little featurette for the fans to see behind the scenes, stripped away from a script and perfect lighting. And the second is an interview with the four main characters called “Sex, Lies & Infidelity.” It asks the actors to comment on those three aspects of real life and the lives of their characters. The interview sections are always a great chance for fans to get to know the real actors. While the four aren’t experts on these topics, just actors, it still makes for entertainment. And it’s actually good for a few laughs, whereas the show is too dramatic for much humor.
"Mistresses: Volume One" is on sale June 9, 2009 and is rated NR. Drama, Romance, Television. Directed by Francesca Joseph, Peter Hoar, Peter Lydon, Philip John, SJ Clarkson. Written by Rachel Anthony, S.J. Clarkson, Lowri Glain. Starring Orla Brady, Patrick Baladi, Raza Jaffrey, Sarah Parish, Sharon Small, Shelley Conn.
