Mistresses is an American drama series based on the 2008–10 British series of the same name about the lives of four female friends and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships.
I decided to start watching it because some people that I follow on Twitter are always saying how great it is and then when I recently saw it advertising I thought why not I will give it a go.
It begins with Savannah "Savi" Davis (Alyssa Milano) meeting a man at a hotel bar. After a few minutes of flirting, the two of them end up in a hotel room. This was no chance meeting. It was just some role playing to help Savi and her hubby, Harry (Brett Tucker), get in the mood. The two of them are trying to make a baby. They’ve been trying for some time now.
This first scene already caused me to doubt watching the program for two reasons. First of all I wasn't keen on Alyssa Milano, sorry Alyssa. I have never seen her in anything else before so I am not really sure if it is just the character of Savi I don't like or whether it is Alyssa Milano. If I can't get over this then I guess I wont be able to stick it out until the end of the series since she is the main character. But I will persevere for a bit longer and see what happens.
Secondly, the husband and wife role playing act has been done so many times before it was just completely obviously that they were married and not strangers but moving on.
You then get introduced to Josslyn Carver (Jes Macallan) who is Savi’s free spirit younger sister, although this wasn't made clear until near the end of the episode and by then I had to check on wikipedia to see if they were sisters or whether it was just a turn of phrase. She’s a real estate agent who is sleeping with her married boss. Well, they don’t really sleep. It’s all sex. That’s the way Joss likes it. Why else would she order her illicit lover to never leave his wife? Josslyn is trying to sell a house to a lesbian couple, who get really annoying by always changing their minds, if I was Josslyn I would have ended up saying something to them, but then I guess that's why I am not a real estate agent. Her bossman lover offers to make the home she’s trying to sell their own personal love nest. The place is gorgeous, but the lesbian couple won’t be moving in any time soon. Neither will Josslyn out of fear of becoming a kept woman. She, instead, moves in to big sis Savi’s pool house. I personally would have taken the house from the boss.
The third character we are introduced to is Karen Kim (Yunjin Kim) who is a psychiatrist who has fallen for one of her patients, Thomas Grey (guest star John Schneider). Completely wrong casting here. Yes John Schneider was great in Smallville, loved him as Jonathan Kent but he really didn't suit the character of Thomas Grey. However, this didn't matter for long because, he tells Karen that he has feelings for her (which are returned) and that he is dying. The episode then jumps forward 6 weeks and Thomas is dead and it is now his funeral funeral. Savi’s law firm had ties with the guy, so she hitches a ride to the ceremony with her flirty colleague Dominic Taylor (Jason George). She runs into her good friend, Karen, at the church. It’s been awhile since these two have seen each other. Karen had been spending lots of time with Thomas, who asked her to help him die when the time came.
Thomas’s wife, Elizabeth (guest star Penelope Ann Miller), introduces Karen to her son, Sam (Erik Stocklin). The young man wants to know if his dad’s therapist knows anything about the woman his father was having an affair with. Karen avoids the issue by attending the birthday party for the daughter of their other close friend, April Malloy (Rochelle Aytes), who is still dealing with the passing of her husband. She believes that prank phone calls she’s been getting are from her long-dead love. It makes it seem that her husband is recently dead but it turns out that it was a number of years ago. So why would her dead husband start calling her after all these years? Another part of the story I thought was a bit stupid but it was all explained by the end of the episode which was a good thing.
A single dad, Richard, drops off his daughter at the birthday party. He’s charming enough to make April act like a little giddy. She accepts his invitation for a date.
Sam Grey shows up at Karen’s office. He wants to knows who is dad's lover was because he didn't want his dad to have died alone and hating him (from an earlier argument). Karen says she doesn't know who the women was. She also sees how much pain Sam is in. Karen later learns that Elizabeth Grey gave her husband a lethal dose of drugs she prescribed when the end was near. This upsets her because this means that her lover chose to be with his wife at the end rather than her. Well obviously you stupid women. Married men nearly always chose their wives. I felt like shaking her.
Savi gets the news that Harry’s low sperm count is the cause of their inability to have a child. She also has a problem at work that needs to be dealt with ASAP. Dominic notices her hot little undergarment when Savi’s dress rides up a bit. He offers to do his colleague’s work for her if she’ll give him another sneak peek. Savi agrees. I thought this was completely unrealistic, he got to look at her legs for 5 seconds and then stayed late at the office to do her work for her? No man would be that desperate.
Savi then uses her free time to try to seduce her husband. That doesn’t go over well. Harry isn’t feeling like much of a man after the earlier doctor’s appointment. It was so obvious that this was going to happen since the majority of men act like this when they get told they have a low sperm count so god knows why she even tried and why she was surprised at his reaction.
April gets another ghost call. It freaks her out enough to cancel her date. She ends up spending the evening with her friends as Karen reveals the details of her affair with Thomas Grey. She’s upset because he chose to be with his wife at the end. Savi lets her friend know that she needs to cut ties with the family, but Karen feels Sam needs her. She convinces the distraught young man that his dad loved him. They share a long hug. Sam later shows up at Karen’s office with thank you flowers. He’s looking for more than therapy.
By this point I had pretty much decided that I wasn't going to watch anymore but then the next part of the story interested me slightly more than the rest of the episode.
Savi helps April track down the source of the prank calls. They’ve been coming from a hotel room. The woman inside says her young son must have been doing it. This is a relief to April, who now knows it’s time to move on. She makes a second date with Richard until the woman she met at the hotel shows up at her front door with her young son. Her name is Miranda. She claims she and April’s husband were in love. A horrified April stares down at the young boy who appears to be her late husband’s love child. This was probably the first part of the story line that I found surprising and interesting.
Savi tries to get Harry to connect with her. It’s something she hasn’t felt in a long time. The two of them have a nasty blowup that leaves Savi in tears. Dominic offers to help out Savi during a late night work session. Savi turns down his offer, but doesn’t want him to leave. She leans in to kiss him passionately. Soon the two of them are ripping each other’s clothes off. Dominic climbs atop Savi on the desk. Okay this part did completely shock me but then I guess because of the title of the show it shouldn't have done. It seemed that just one argument made Savi jump into bed with someone else and it also made my dislike of her increase.
However, even after saying all of the above I have decided to give Mistresses another go. Mainly just to find out more about April's husband's love child and also to find out if Savi and Dominic were a first time / one time thing or if they have been having an affair for a while.
I will let you know if it gets better.
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