Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery but what is it if all you are doing is imitating yourself? Such is the question posed by Darren Star's new series Cashmere Mafia, in which the former Sex and the City executive producer doesn't so much pay homage to his previous series as regurgitate it for a new generation.
Or so it seems at first glance. All the things that made people love or hate SATC appear to be present and correct in Cashmere Mafia - from the number of friends to the ever so slightly wacky fashion (courtesy of SATC's ever so slightly wacky fashion guru Patricia Field) to the way in which our heroines are forever meeting up for lunch in chi chi restaurants to dig the dirt or being filmed strutting down the street in slow motion.
So far so familiar, and at this point I have to hold my hand up and admit that I loathed Sex and the City, finding all four of the main characters unbelievable, unpleasant and very irritating - so it was with some trepidation that I watched the first two episodes of Star's newest show.
And initially that trepidation seemed justified. On the surface our four heroines are simply Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha ten years down the line and a bit more successful - which seems just a little bit redundant given that Lipstick Jungle, Sex And The City creator Candace Bushnell's look at that very topic is due on television screens on February 7 while the SATC movie out in April also promises us a ten years later update.
Arguably we might watch one programme or film about fortysomething women struggling to balance work demands with their family lives but do we really have time for three? (Or four - if you consider that Desperate Housewives mines similar territory.) As Carrie Bradshaw herself might muse while wearing a cute yet ever so slightly wacky outfit and staring pensively at her laptop: "Ladies, is this a trend or just overkill?"
Cashmere Mafia is certainly never going to win any awards for originality and indeed there are times when it makes you want to hurl your Christian Louboutins at the screen - not least because Star has chosen to replace SATC's irritating voiceover with an equally irritating texting plot device. Yes, whenever our intrepid heroines (a publisher, a Mergers & Acquisitions VP, the socialite COO of a hotel chain and a cosmetics exec) feel the need to contact each other they whip out their blackberries and send a quick text. It may be meant to signify how busy their lives are but it comes across as product placement on a ridiculous scale.
Yet despite these obvious flaws Cashmere Mafia is oddly likeable. This is partially down to great performances from Lucy Liu and Miranda Otto, both of whom clearly enjoy channelling their inner ice queen and a fantastically warm turn from Frances O'Connor, who actually makes you believe in her character Zoe's struggle to balance family life and work and partially because it turns out that Darren Star may have wanted to remake Sex and the City but the finished product bears far more resemblance to the barmy brilliance that was Melrose Place.
Ultimately Cashmere Mafia is an 80s soap par excellence masquerading as an up-to-date drama. Its heroines are beautiful, corporate bitches in high heels and tight pencil skirts and its heroes firm-jawed, broad-shouldered lunks in sharp suits. It's a bonkbuster to Sex In The City's chick lit and frankly far better for it. For the truth is that no matter how many times SATC tried to tell viewers that they should want to be Carrie Bradshaw, I'd rather be Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter any day.
