Cashmere Mafia

I don’t know if Cashmere Mafia executive producer Darren Star cares if people think of the new show as Sex and the City (another production of his) with more high-powered jobs and less nudity but in any case that’s what it is.

Mafia is fast-paced (sometimes the cuts are quick enough to give a guy whiplash), often amusing, soapy, and full of fabulous clothes being worn by consistently good looking folks who always ready with a sharp bon mot. The leads…Lucy Liu, Frances O’Connor, Miranda Otto, and Bonnie Somerville…are all in fine fettle in their roles.

Two episodes in (I think that ABC has seven in the can) and the subplots are flying fast and furiously (one of the principals has a cheating husband, another is exploring lesbianism, another has gotten the job of her dreams but lost her fiancée in the process, while the fourth is juggling a demanding career, demanding kids, demanding nannies, and a husband who feels neglected) but these ladies with their hectic, demanding work lives still manage to find time to lunch together (sort of like the way the Sex ladies always managed to find time to go clubbing together.)

And it’s all good. In these writing strike hobbled times, Mafia is frothy and fun…everything a good prime time soap should be…and a reasonably entertaining alternative to the glut of “reality” shows hurtling down the pike.