Lifetime Channel TV Reviews
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Annie Berke July 20th/2007.
Side Order of Life, Sundays at 8 (Lifetime). Debuted July 14.
State of Mind, Sundays at 9 (Lifetime). Debuted July 14.
I love Lifetime. What other channel shows “The Golden Girls” three times a day? What other channel produces television movies that are both dated (internet predators are so last season) and yet totally enjoyable? I appreciate Lifetime in all its incarnations—from the primetime soap “Army Wives” to the gleefully trashy “Gay, Straight, or Taken”—so of course I was excited for their new Sunday night line-up that concludes with “Army Wives.” So what did I think of “Side Order of Life” and “State of Mind”? Or is it “Side Order of Mind” and “State of Life”? First off, these titles are empty phrases aspiring to profundity and should never have gone beyond Lifetime’s giant, probably pink drawing-board.
The shows are as similar as their titles—both pilots open with a dream sequence. In each show, it is our leading lady whose nightmares are riddled with anxiety and neurosis. Why can’t these beautiful, successful women get their romantic lives in order? And why can’t they rein in their wacky imaginations and fantasies?
“Ally McBeal” anyone? Some critics have compared “Side Order of Life” to that David Kelley series. The waifish blonde star of “Side Order,” Marisa Coughlan, could even play Calista Flockhart’s sister in some episode cross-over. “Side Order of Life,” unfortunately for Lifetime and Ms. Coughlan, is no “Ally McBeal”: it lacks the latter’s freshness and innovation. (Okay, “Ally” got old quickly, but at the beginning, we all loved it—admit it.) “Side Order,” by contrast, is stale, contrived, and criminally cutesy. The dialogue in this clunker is full with half-baked self-help ideologies, and the series’ terminal illness plotline, which doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, is more manipulative than moving.
“State of Mind,” on the other hand, is a pleasure to watch. Equal parts “Providence” and “Judging Amy,” it strays into cliched territory at times but remains fun to watch. The banter in this series is far more entertaining than the tedious back-and-forth in “Side Order,” and the therapist heroine in “State of Mind,” as played by Lili Taylor, is very appealing. A cuckolded wife who only has her psychobabble to cling to when her marriage falls apart—now that’s a leading lady I can get behind! Unlike “Side Order of Life,” a poor man’s Meg Ryan movie, “State of Mind” shows real promise.
Retur from Lifetime Channel TV Reviews Annie Berke to Annie Berke
