Mistresses US

Series one, episode one
This, surely, is where the transatlantic remake bonanza must pause and take a good, long look at itself. The original UK ‘Mistresses’ felt, in the first place, like a provincial British rejoinder to ‘Sex and the City’. The show’s US transfer feels even more pitifully attenuated as the Chinese whisper returns to source.

The result is a show composed almost entirely of symbols without substance: consequence-free sex, consumer freedom, high-status careers etc. What it entirely fails to do is suggest any dimensions to its characters besides the ones we’re shown. Savi, April, Karen and Joss are all high-flyers, fascinated with primped, tanned, central casting uber-hunks.

They’re all vaguely dissatisfied with their careers and beset by a panoply of first world problems. Essentially, they need to pull themselves together. And so do you if you find yourself even vaguely interested in their banal doings.