Entertainment Weekly

This Wife is well worth committing to.

Hollywood ReporterBarry Garron

While it is far from apparent that Friday night is the best place for this smart and stylish show, one can assume USA will move it elsewhere, if necessary, to give it the chance it deserves.

VarietyLaura Fries

While the characters here haven't yet had the chance to become as interesting as Carrie Bradshaw and company, this great adaptation of Gigi Levangie Grazer's story should help fill the void left by "Sex and the City."

Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker

The Starter Wife isn't seamless or groundbreaking, but Messing and her colleagues deliver stylish goods in a threadbare era for comedy. Good show!

SalonHeather Havrilesky

The Starter Wife is fun and clever, but it’s witty dialogue and a great cast, not thoughtful storytelling, that keep this rich-divorcée gaffe-fest rolling along.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

The series does what it was designed to do: It stays true to its roots while allowing fans to spend more time with Molly and her friends and the actors who play them.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

Disposable as it may be, Starter Wife still has more to recommend about it than, say, NBC's "Lipstick Jungle."

Los Angeles TimesRobert Lloyd

The new series, to judge by the two opening hours, is better balanced and plays more to the players' strengths.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

Messing, who, happily, shed most of her "Will & Grace" tics and mannerisms for the miniseries, is as appealing as ever as Molly, whose maneuvering of the shark-infested waters of the entertainment industry remains voyeuristic fun.

TimeJames Poniewozik

Predictable but pithy, Wife takes itself no more seriously than the Hollywood-haves it skewers.

TV GuideMatt Roush

As a weekly series, this predictable but agreeable comedy-soap about spurned Hollywood wife Molly (Debra Messing, her neurotic sitcom mojo intact) is less heavy-handed than the starter miniseries.

PopMattersMichael Abernethy

Molly and her friends spend so much time name-dropping and worrying about reputations, we never feel connected to their pain or joy. The show’s foundational preoccupation with Hollywood does produce some humor, most often in film-based fantasy sequences.

Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

Messing is an appealing actress, and Starter Wife isn't really a bad show, just a victim of bad timing, and of possibly overstaying its welcome.