In the first summer since 2012 without the scandalous world of Devious Maids to escape to, one (me) might feel like they have a void to fill. There may not be a murder-mystery hook but it doesn't mean it's not a guilty pleasure. In the golden age of television, it's still nice to have a completely absurd program come along and sink it's teeth right into your neck. If VH1's Daytime Divas doesn't fill that void I'm not sure what will. It's not riveting television that will make you sit around and think about life and become a better person because of it but it's a fabulous, over the top, dramatic show that makes you want to to take a shower after watching it -- in the good way. The shows starts off fairly wobbly but begins to find it's groove in the third episode.
The show revolves around a daytime talk show, obviously parodying The View, and the antics that go on behind the scenes. The ensemble cast is led with expertise by Vanessa Williams, who plays the devious creator of the show, Maxine. Williams is no stranger to scandalous television. Her credits include Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives and the unfortunately short-lived 666 Park Avenue, nailing every one of these roles. Rounding out the main cast is Chloe Bridges, Camille Guaty, Fiona Gubelmann, McKinley Freeman and Tichina Arnold who play Kibby, Nina, Heather, Shawn and Mo. The show also features a revolving door of guest stars. Tamera Mowry and Kelly Osbourne have both had hilarious cameos. A big shout out has to go to Kristen Johnson, playing Maxine's former assistant who looks to be trying to take her down. She is fabulous fun in that role!
Kibby, a former child start trying to recover from a drug and alcohol addiction, is the weak link in the cast. Her storyline isn't nearly as interesting as the others and you could take her out and replace her with a new girl without even noticing. There's Nina, a married journalist having an affair with Shawn, a producer on the show and Maxine's son. I initially groaned at the introduction of their storyline. An affair is a given on a show like this, but the way it was executed found me waiting for the next scene to pop up. The chains really start to move when Nina winds up pregnant with his baby, while trying to get pregnant with her husband. They hook up in the office again, Kibby spots it and blabs at one of her AA meetings and someone tweets out that there's an affair happening on set. Nina's husband's running for office and since he has to keep his back clean of any scandals, he finds out Nina's pregnant having an affair and blackmails her into staying with him. I have to say that I've seen a lot of blackmail on television but I still clutched my pearls when he stopped that elevator and got up in her face.
Heather is clearly the Elizabeth Hasselbeck of the group. She's described as an "outspoken conservative," meant to give the girls some conflict on camera during the talk show. She's initially a bit of a one dimensional character until we're introduced to her kids, one of which is transgender. In a particularly touching scene, Heather tells her husband, who's firmly against his son identifying as a girl, tells him to shut up and just accept it, as it's God's plan. I don't think that's something I've ever seen on television -- a conservative Christian woman going so hard for her trans kid, and it's pretty nice to see. It's an especially good feeling when she kicks him out of their bed and forces him to sleep in the basement.
Without a question the standout of the cast isTichina Arnold as the obnoxious, hilarious Mo Evans. She's the foil for Maxine's character, but so much more than that. She gives us the most laughs, her schemes are outrageous (at one point in the pilot she steals Maxine's medical chart) but has some depth to her. Her story is that she's sleeping with the head production assistant, Leon, which we find out about in a puzzling sex scene in a car that is best forgotten. The best part is that he wants more and she reminds him he's just an assistant that dicks her down when she wants. In the most recent episode, Maxine discovers her mug is missing and when reviewing the security footage discovers that Mo and Leon were sleeping together, on her chair, and fires her. Luckily for us, Mo seems to have a revenge plot brewing inside of her and this doesn't mean she's off the show. Arnold is by far the breakout actor on the show and losing her would be throwing away the show's biggest asset.
What I'm getting at here is that if you're looking for a fun, campy show to watch for the summer, this is it. There's nothing remarkably new or groundbreaking here, but it doesn't mean you won't have a good time watching it. Thank you to VH1 for the images!
EPISODE 1 GRADE: C+
EPISODE 2 GRADE: B
EPISODE 3 GRADE: B+
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