TV is the new reading

‘Starter Wife’ set to return

I see where USA is planning to re-imagine “The Starter Wife,” its miniseries from last summer, as a new series this fall.

I hope it has been re-imagined a lot.

Debra Messing is, yes, a joy as Molly Kagan, the incredibly well put-together, detail-oriented, wonderfully organized and suddenly ex-wife of a studio executive. Her quirky group of friends are delightful as well, and her misadventures with a dreamy homeless guy, an embattled security guard and a rival executive who is madly intrigued with her before he inexplicably commits suicide are just the story of her life all of a sudden.

But will it work as a series?

Well, it depends. Even in the six-part miniseries, with storylines balanced between a solid ensemble cast, there wasn’t a lot of “there” there. Molly got dumped and now what? Molly’s meandering plot seemed to be focused on her trying to maintain a life she just didn’t have access to anymore, and defining herself by whatever man she was with.

If USA is focused on characters, then Molly needs to be a lot more interesting to carry a show.

First, funny. Funny, funny, funny. Messing is hilarious, and putting her in front of a camera with a worthy script is not some effort to make “Will & Grace” lightning strike twice. It’s as reliable as flipping a switch.

That presupposes a couple of things, however. First, an intuitive cast for her to bounce her energy off of, and a strong script. Messing has a lot of great comic instincts, but there’s only so much even she can do with a snorkel in a reception area. Yes, it’s funny, but not really, because hyper-organized Molly Kagan wouldn’t arrive at a swanky restaurant in swimgear, even fresh from the surf, even with her daughter in tow, and she certainly wouldn’t expect to be seated.

That’s the other part of the problem. As Kenny Kagan’s wife, Molly had it going on. She was the perfect wife, running the perfect home and living the complete dream. When Kenny’s midlife crisis erupted in divorcing her in the middle of the night over the phone, she was suddenly a floppy, disorganized mess.

This indeed made her character more sympathetic and mirrored the kind of loop the divorce had thrown her for, but part of what was so cool about Molly was that she had it going on. If USA brings this back as a series, she should draw on that strength, have some clearly defined goals and while wacky hijinks can be going on all around her, she should at least be trying to remain hijinks-adjacent – certainly not the focus or the instigator of them.

Finally, the show needs some actual antagonists. In the miniseries, yes, the ex-husband was a jerk for divorcing her, and yes, yes, her fairweather friends were evil for turning their backs on her. But mostly the villains were in the subplots in the supporting characters and honestly that’s not going to carry a series.

People need to be invested in Molly’s downfall in order for something as otherwise transitory as “The Starter Wife” to carry forward with any steam. Be it stalker-y behavior on the part of the new wife or a identity thief who is ruining her life or a double-dealing divorce attorney, something has to be a roadblock for Molly Kagan, “The Starter Wife,” or she’s just going to become Molly Kagan, divorced woman getting on with her life.

But in the end, it shouldn’t be that difficult. A beautiful, funny woman with a strong character and a quirky disposition struggling to rebuild a life in the wake of a divorce with a little help from her friends has a lot of potential.
Let’s see if any of it translates to the screen.

“The Starter Wife” returns Oct. 10 on USA.