News - Entertainment

Thursday, Sep. 25, 2008

It's 'girls' night out' as Chick TV returns

When last we saw Meredith and Derek, she’d made the outline of their dream home with lighted candles, signaling she was ready to move into a committed relationship.

In the opening minutes of the new season, Mer’s dreaming Der’s dead. It’s a complicated relationship in a series filled with chatty women and rocky romances. In short, “Grey’s Anatomy” is the perfect example of Chick TV.

ABC has made a cottage industry of catering to women — who make up the largest part of the TV viewing audience — with “Grey’s,” the spin-off “Private Practice,” “Ugly Betty” and “Desperate Housewives.” While ABC gave up on the similarly themed “Cashmere Mafia” for this season, NBC’s hoping to get a better reception the second time around with its “Sex and the City” retread “Lipstick Jungle,” about professional women in New York.

So get up to speed as we take a look at these returning Chick TV shows:

• “Grey’s Anatomy” (9 p.m. Thursdays, ABC): Toss out the romance novels, girls. We’ve got a visual. And it isn’t MerDer. Now that Burke the jerk has taken a flyer, it’s the right moment for Cristina Yang to have a little sizzle-time. It’s enough to blow the H right out of the HDTV. Kevin McKidd (“Journeyman”) pops up in his cammies as Owen Hunt, a soldier right off the front in Iraq, ready to make a full assault on Yang. There’s still plenty of more Meredith babbling about should she or shouldn’t she stick with Derek. Time to pass the D, and on with the Hunt.

• “Private Practice” (9 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC): Coming off of “Grey’s Anatomy” as the woman you loved to hate, Addison left her failed relationships with McDreamy, McSteamy and McMixedsignals Karev. Now, she’s in a hot relationship with Officer Kevin, but that’s not the real romance cooking. Look for former “Swingtown” hunk Grant Show charging into the series as Addison’s brother, who quickly starts charming the socks, and other clothing items, off of one of Addison’s co-workers.

• “Pushing Daisies” (8 p.m. Wednesdays, ABC): While other chick TV shows offer the steamier side of romance, “Pushing Daisies” has that sweetness that still appeals to our “Cinderella” souls. Much to Ned (Lee Pace) the pie-maker’s distress, his beloved Chuck has decided to move out of his apartment, which the two had shared with nary a touch between them. It wasn’t so much because of chasteness, but because Ned has the ability to bring the dead back to life — and another touch puts them right back into the morgue. He brought the love of his childhood back from the dead, but now the two can never touch skin. The two now live next door to each other, but for Ned, it’s just too much distance between them.

• “Ugly Betty” (8 p.m. Thursdays, ABC): Fashion combined with girl power — what’s not to love about this show? Betty may be ugly to others, but her inner beauty speaks to many men. Or at least the two who she left behind to find herself. When she returns, she vows to move ahead with her life by taking on more responsibility at work, getting her own apartment and not getting involved romantically with anyone. Well, two out of three happen in the show’s premiere. And her failure to make all three things come true should make for an interesting season.

• “Lipstick Jungle” (10 p.m. Wednesdays, NBC): Since darn few people watched this show the first time out, it’s amazing that NBC opted to stay the course with this wannabe drama. Perhaps the success of the “Sex and the City” movie has empowered the NBC suits, but what we have are three friends in various stages of relationships: Movie executive Wendy (Brooke Shields) has a hot relationship with her husband; magazine editor Nico (Kim Raver) is cheating on her professor husband with a much younger man and Victory (Lindsay Price) has a Mr. Big relationship, but has started a hot flirtation with a contractor played by Carlos Ponce.

• “Desperate Housewives” (9 p.m. Sundays, ABC): Hit the reset button. Our Wisteria women are now five years in the future and facing whole new lives. With glammed-down Gaby sporting the frumpy look, it’s the unlikely former klutz Susan who’s providing the steam in this coffee klatch dramedy. When last we saw Susan, she was in a lust clutch with a man clearly not her husband. She’s now divorced and having a hot affair with Jackson, played by Gale Harold. Harold played the horn-dog character in “Queer as Folk” and is still playing to his assets by appearing without his shirt in most of his scenes.