If you still think of Lifetime as the network of Golden Girls reruns and weepy TV movies about women in peril ... well, you’re pretty much right, but that doesn’t mean that the network isn’t trying to change its image at least a little, capitalizing on the new reputation of basic cable as the hot place for risk-taking, serious drama. Of course, the semblance of risk-taking is really all that’s going on here, and despite snagging the producers of The Closer and Nip/Tuck for one of its new shows, the network has produced original programming that’s nearly as insipid as the Tori Spelling-starring TV movies it repeats.
Okay, so maybe it’s not quite that bad, but there’s certainly little that’s remarkable about Side Order of Life (Sundays, 8 p.m.) and State of Mind (Sundays, 9 p.m.), which join the successful Army Wives to fill out an evening of original programming. Mind is the better of the two, thanks mostly to star Lili Taylor, a dependable character actress who’s bounced between indie movies and supporting roles in mainstream fare for years, and here finally gets a deserved spotlight as psychiatrist Ann Bellowes.
Coughlan (right) does some dress-burning on Side Order of Life
Unfortunately, Ann is the typical TV therapist who’s got as many problems as her patients do; in the first episode, she catches her husband sleeping with their marriage counselor and engages in so much unprofessional behavior that it’s hard to believe the show was created by an actual psychotherapist. This being Lifetime, Ann is also set to become a neurotic single woman searching for love, with her colleagues as her suitably quirky support system. Their plotlines are as gloomy and heavy-handed as Ann’s, and the occasional bits of strained levity don’t exactly balance things out.
Taylor nearly salvages the whole thing with her sympathetic, raw performance, and Devon Gummersall has some nice moments as a young lawyer who occupies Ann’s soon-to-be-ex-husband’s vacated office. A couple of basic-cable curse words aside, though, this show is as square as any forgettable CBS drama, and after her years in the trenches, Taylor really deserves better.
Even perky Marisa Coughlan, last seen in a recurring role on ABC’s Boston Legal, deserves better than the treacly, cutesy Side Order, which has no edgy curse words but does feature one of the worst titles of all time. Coughlan is likeable in the right role, but everything about Side Order is irritating and overbearing, and its twee sense of humor makes the stale comedy on Mind seem positively refreshing. Coughlan plays magazine photographer Jenny McIntyre, yet another harried career woman who hasn’t bothered to stop and appreciate what she has.
Rather than catching her husband sleeping with the marriage counselor (Jenny only has a fiancé, played dully by Jason Priestley), Jenny starts seeing signs that she should reassess her life, from actual signs telling her what to do to a mysterious man on her cell phone who answers when she tries to dial her fiancé. She may be going crazy, or she may just be like Ally McBeal with her dancing baby, but either way Jenny takes the chance to finally embrace life and go after her dreams. She’s also inspired by her sassy friend who’s just been diagnosed with cancer.
“Sassy friend who’s just been diagnosed with cancer” is not a phrase you want to read in any description of any show, ever, and with its ultimately conventional and maudlin message, Side Order reveals itself as the same kind of trite pseudo-empowerment that Lifetime has been pushing for years. If Mind comes off a little better, it’s only thanks to being judged against a pretty low standard.
Side Order of Life **
State of Mind ** 1/2