Office Blog

It's a jungle out there

Cleo Tools

Print

Send to friend

Comments

Archive

Even the ads gave it away. Ads for Tonka trucks? Baby voice-overs on a Betty Crocker ad? Come on. We've seen Samantha's bush, Charlotte's boob and Miranda in every position. Now all of a sudden we have to settle for cat puke and cake recipes?

Another month, another new TV series. And this week it was Lipstick Jungle. Brooke Shields and two no-names in Candice Bushnell's attempt to reclaim the viewers and cult following of a TV show. But really — the main character has kids? Another character is bored with her marriage to a grey-haired dude. The other is a fashion designer with not much fashion sense. Are they trying to attract housewives? I thought that was what Desperate Housewives was for.

We don't want desperate, we don't want private schools, we want the sex and the city and the witty characters and the clothes … the list goes on.

The girls in SATC have money — they work hard in high-paying jobs but they don't flaunt it. From our view Carrie "gets to thinking" a 10-word rhetorical question and she's done. Cue shopping spree. But it doesn't matter (I'm just jealous!) that realistically she couldn't afford her cute outfits. We don't care, we would rather see them on her and forget the price tag.

Here is where Cashmere Mafia and now Lipstick Jungle get it wrong — they flaunt it. So the saying goes "if you've got it flaunt it" but not at the expense of viewers who simply can't relate to this kind of lifestyle. 

In Lipstick Jungle's defence, we can't forget the first series of SATC. I'm not going to lie, if it had stayed like that — with the documentary and 'look to the camera' monologue — I'm not sure I would have become the devotee I am today. So is there hope for Lipstick Jungle?