'Cashmere Mafia' a comfy if decadent fit

In general, I don't believe in guilty pleasures. According to Your Friendly Neighborhood TV Critic's Code, if you like something, you should be able to justify it.

Yet I might have to adjust that attitude to accommodate "Cashmere Mafia."

The glitzy, trashy, conspicuously consumerist prime-time soap opera debuted Sunday night in the plum slot after ABC's like-minded "Desperate Housewives," and now it shimmies into its usual time slot at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WLS Channel 7. It concerns four high-achieving, gotta-have-it-all women living in New York City.

They're color-coded for easy identification: Frances O'Connor as brunette Zoe, Bonnie Somerville as blonde Caitlin and Miranda Otto as redhead Juliet, with Lucy Liu thrown in for a little Asian spice as Mia. There are no blacks to speak of in this Manhattan, although Caitlin does seem to be in the process of taking a Latin lover, albeit in the sapphic form of Lourdes Benedicto's Alicia.

They all hold high-ranking and apparently well-paying professional positions, and Juliet and Zoe are mothers to boot. How do they do it? Well, money makes it a lot easier. In the pilot, Zoe didn't bat an eye over hiring a nanny at $900 a week.

The rich are different from you and me, as Fitzgerald once wrote, and no it's not just that they have money, as Ernest Hemingway supposedly replied. It's that they make for more interesting drama -- at least on TV.

Hey, you can take your "Bicycle Thief" and roll it down Main Street. When it comes to American TV, such neo-realism has never been as popular as "Dynasty" or "Dallas." More to the point, even the women of "Sex and the City" weren't exactly hurting for cash, except when Carrie overdosed on shoes.

That comparison applies because, although "Cashmere Mafia" was created by Kevin Wade, who wrote the pilot, it's being guided by Darren Star, who did "Sex and the City." He and original "Sex" author Candace Bushnell parted ways, and both have come up with rival new broadcast series for midseason. Now "Mafia" has beaten Bushnell's "Lipstick Jungle" on NBC to prime time by about a month. And I have to say, Star and his staff writers (Wednesday's script is credited to Terri Minsky) appear to have a good grip on how series TV works.

I'd hate to be rich if it meant being tormented the way these women are, but I think that's part of the appeal. Viewers tune in because they look great, sure, and they live exotic, sexy lives (Juliet is about to take a lover to exact revenge against her philandering husband), but also to get a healthy dose of schadenfreude by watching the characters suffer. They play power games, and sometimes they win and sometimes they lose, but even when they threaten to go over the top the show has a way of reducing things to a basic level of reality.

Mia, for instance, has risen to publisher of a stable of magazines, passing up her mentor, Grant, who says, "I'm happy to be the parrot to your pirate." But she also has to deal with the demands of her boss, Clive, whom she calls "Voldemort." "When I say, 'Let's talk,'" he says, "I mean I'll talk," and he wants Grant fired. It seems a pat situation, until Clive drops this bit of wisdom on her: "Grant is only there for moral support, which you think you need, but you don't. Mia, at this level decisions get difficult."

Not to give anything away, but I marvel at Star's confidence to create a character as immediately identifiable as Grant, and then just pitch him out the window.

Meanwhile, Zoe is trying to keep her husband away from a velour-jumpsuit-wearing stay-at-home mom (hey, it ain't just the working women who come to compete in this series) while preparing a "revenge-sex spreadsheet" of possible lovers for Juliet, who also gets a push from Caitlin the cosmetics executive in the form of a free makeover.

When Juliet eventually receives a pair of dueling bouquets from her husband and would-be lover (hey, it also ain't just the women who come to compete), all she can do is sigh with contentment.

So, yes, "Cashmere Mafia" is juicy and trashy and status-obsessed. But it also displays a sure sense of the characters and an occasional flair for withering dialogue. (Mia dismisses Caitlin's homosexual flirtation as trendy: "It's like when everyone was pregnant. Lesbians are the new babies.") It's not necessarily my sort of show, but I can see how some viewers -- especially women -- could find it addictive.

And if I do tune in to find these women suffering for all their money and possessions and handsome husbands and lovers, I just might have to sigh with contentment.

In the air

Remotely interesting: Hunter Brown, 17, of Wheaton has been picked to take part in the annual "Jeopardy!" teen tournament. It will air the fortnight starting Feb. 11. "Jeopardy!" airs weekdays at 3:30 p.m. on WLS Channel 7.

"Law & Order: Criminal Intent" returns to NBC at 9 p.m. today on WMAQ Channel 5, immediately after the original "Law & Order" at 8. … PBS' "Pioneers of Television" looks at late-night hosts Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson at 8 p.m. Wednesday on WTTW Channel 11.

End of the dial: The new monthly event series "Chicago Public Radio Presents" holds a performance by the local band Office at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Tickets are $15, $10 for CPR members.