TV - Lipstick Jungle pilot

It’s difficult to give anything away about Lipstick Jungle because if anyone has seen the previews, it’s pretty evident what the show is about. The pilot opens with a sweeping shot of the New York City skyline, followed by three sets of heels walking down the sidewalk, followed by a store-window television showing a news spot on the 50 most powerful women in New York. Wait, is this Sex and the City? Sort of. Writer Candance Bushnell wrote the novel that spawned the hit HBO series, so it’s natural that Lipstick Jungle shares some common themes… ok… a lot of common themes.

Lipstick Jungle has a primary cast of three. There is Victory (Lindsay Price), a fashion designer whose latest show was a flop among the critics. She is single and therefore is defined by her work and one of the first scenes of the show is her mini-meltdown with the other two trying to console her. This will probably be a scene repeated quite often in different manifestations.

There is also Niko (Kim Raver), a magazine executive who sniffs out sexism wherever she can find it. Trapped in a sexless marriage with her husband who hails from academia, Niko is drawn to the temptation of younger, attractive men who can touch her in a way she hasn’t known in awhile. This makes Niko probably the most complex character out of the three since she resents female stereotypes, but finds herself in the role of the promiscuous wife.

Rounding out the ménage-a-power-women is Brooke Shields (trying to recapture her television success she found in Suddenly Susan) as Wendy, a movie studio executive. Wendy is painted to be the delicate type with a hectic family life who tries to keep an image of power and stability in the office. Her husband appears to resent her success at times and takes it personally when she is busy and he has to take care of family matters. Also, he reacts negatively when Wendy gets mad because he can’t make it to an important meeting regarding their son’s school.

The pilot of Lipstick Jungle tries to cram as much drama and underlying plot and character development as possible into an hour. It felt like a more affluent version of Sex and the City on speed. Does a world really exist in which a billionaire sends his private jet to Japan to pick up a woman that he’s only had one date with? Apparently so, and Lipstick Jungle forces the believability of this in the first episode. There’s no easing in here. It’s full-throttle from the get-go about the trials and tribulations of people who have more money than the rest of us.
Again, no giveaways or surprises here, but the pilot ends with the women crying over and discussing what happened that week. Then there’s hugging and chugging of champagne and then a still-frame fade to black and white. Nauseating.

Hopefully Lipstick Jungle won’t continue to try to pack too much into its episodes but rather focus on what can be some interesting themes. The pilot lays the framework for a dramatic and at-times amusing look at the institutionalized patriarchy that exists among the rich and successful in New York City. There’s a lot of attempted reconciliation of being a powerful woman but balancing a personal in family life in the pilot, but it doesn’t quite get there. Another problem that Lipstick Jungle faces is crawling out of the shadow of Sex and the City and overcoming the challenge of being on a network rather than cable. You won’t find much sex or any explicit one-liners that oftentimes gave SATC its appeal. Still, it’s likely that women and gay men everywhere will fall in love with the women of Lipstick Jungle and make it a success for NBC.

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