Cashmere Mafia Could Use a Little Law & Order

I love television. Have I made that abundantly clear yet? Because I do. I really, really do. I do not, however, love Cashmere Mafia. Sure, I watched it last night, not in place of the also airing at 10pm Law & Order, but in addition (thank God for dual-tuner TiVos).

I know that the show isn't trying to do anything new; it seems, very consciously, to just once again be telling the plight of the rich and middle-aged and how it's oh-so-hard for people making somewhere in the mid-six figures to possibly be happy.

People make choices in life, lots and lots of choices. It seems to me the major plotlines with these women involve all of them not having thought through the choices, not having considered the consequences. It's hard to be sympathetic towards them.

Take Miranda Otto's character, Juliet, for example. In the first episode Juliet found out her husband was having an affair — not just an affair, but an affair with someone she knew. She had long countenanced her husband's having affairs with women out of town, but this time he had slept with someone in NY. You see, she's okay with his sleeping around, it just shouldn't happen in the city she lives in (actually, she'd probably be okay with it happening in the Bronx or on Staten Island). What exactly did she think she was doing — "sure, sleep with anyone you want, go ahead, just do it in Philadelphia"? Yeah, that wasn't going to come back to haunt her one day. Good call. Way to think clearly about your life.

So, what did Juliet do now that her husband had cheated on her in NY? She decided to cheat herself. She couldn't quite bring herself to start down the road though, so her friend, Caitlin (Bonnie Somerville), got her a free makeover so she would feel better about herself and be more able to cheat on her husband. Okay, not only is such enabling behavior abysmal, but Miranda Otto is an attractive woman who, after the makeover, looked like a streetwalker (and not the good Julia Roberts kind); it was as though she borrowed Homer Simpson's make-up shotgun (Marge: "Homer, you have it set to whore"). She was absolutely thrilled with how it turned out. I guess her notion was that she could start down the road to the affair by having people solicit her.

There are other storylines on the show I could get into from last night, but it's all so whiny that I simply can't face it. Let's just leave it at the fact that we all make choices in life, and every choice has a consequence. It probably helps to think about the consequences to your actions ahead of time, that way you know what your in for. Also, it's tough to feel bad for the super-rich.

Thankfully for me, I watched Cashmere Mafia first, and was able to soothe myself with another good episode of Law & Order. I fell off the Law & Order bandwagon with the appearance of Dennis Farina, but with his departure and Jeremy Sisto's arrival, I'm back. This season features Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) having been promoted to District Attorney and a new Executive A.D.A., Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), having appeared. The dynamic between Cutter and McCoy is fantastic; obviously Cutter has huge shoes to fill, and McCoy is a very hands-on D.A.. He has no desire to back off from trying cases and wants to be involved in every step of the process. It was a logical move to take McCoy from Executive A.D.A. to D.A., but they don't want to drastically reduce Waterston's screen time as he's a huge part of what Law & Order has become. How they go about fitting him in is tricky, but so far the producers have managed quite well. Long may it continue.