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The Starter Wife
Season One
SERIES: USA, Friday 9:00p (60 minutes)

The Starter Wife
Critic Score
Metascore: 72 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
10.0 out of 10
based on 13 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?
based on 1 vote
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Starring Debra Messing, Judy Davis, Hart Bochner, Chris Diamantopoulos, Danielle Nicolet, Reggie Austin, James Black, and David Alan Bascnohe

The miniseries becomes a series, as Molly (Debra Messing) continues to juggle life in Hollywood.

GENRE(S): Comedy, Drama
CREATED BY: Gigi Levangie Grazer (Book)
FIRST AIR DATE: October 10, 2008

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83
Entertainment Weekly
This Wife is well worth committing to.
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80
Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron
While it is far from apparent that Friday night is the best place for this smart and stylish show, one can assume USA will move it elsewhere, if necessary, to give it the chance it deserves.
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80
Variety Laura Fries
While the characters here haven't yet had the chance to become as interesting as Carrie Bradshaw and company, this great adaptation of Gigi Levangie Grazer's story should help fill the void left by "Sex and the City."
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80
Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker
The Starter Wife isn't seamless or groundbreaking, but Messing and her colleagues deliver stylish goods in a threadbare era for comedy. Good show!
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80
Salon Heather Havrilesky
The Starter Wife is fun and clever, but it’s witty dialogue and a great cast, not thoughtful storytelling, that keep this rich-divorcée gaffe-fest rolling along.
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75
USA Today Robert Bianco
The series does what it was designed to do: It stays true to its roots while allowing fans to spend more time with Molly and her friends and the actors who play them.
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70
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen
Disposable as it may be, Starter Wife still has more to recommend about it than, say, NBC's "Lipstick Jungle."
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70
Los Angeles Times Robert Lloyd
The new series, to judge by the two opening hours, is better balanced and plays more to the players' strengths.
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70
Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray
Messing, who, happily, shed most of her "Will & Grace" tics and mannerisms for the miniseries, is as appealing as ever as Molly, whose maneuvering of the shark-infested waters of the entertainment industry remains voyeuristic fun.
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67
Time James Poniewozik
Predictable but pithy, Wife takes itself no more seriously than the Hollywood-haves it skewers.
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60
TV Guide Matt Roush
As a weekly series, this predictable but agreeable comedy-soap about spurned Hollywood wife Molly (Debra Messing, her neurotic sitcom mojo intact) is less heavy-handed than the starter miniseries.
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60
PopMatters Michael Abernethy
Molly and her friends spend so much time name-dropping and worrying about reputations, we never feel connected to their pain or joy. The show’s foundational preoccupation with Hollywood does produce some humor, most often in film-based fantasy sequences.
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50
Chicago Tribune Maureen Ryan
Messing is an appealing actress, and Starter Wife isn't really a bad show, just a victim of bad timing, and of possibly overstaying its welcome.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this tv show is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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