I’ll be honest: When I learned that the Disney/ABC junket I was on last week included the TV show Trophy Wife, I didn’t expect to like it. I knew the show starred Bradley Whitford, whose dramatic and comic acting I’ve enjoyed since The West Wing, and Malin Akerman, whose acting I really only knew from Zack Snyder’s uneven Watchmen film.
My concerns turned out to have been wholly unfounded. The show makes Akerman’s character Kate not only not just a trophy wife, but a decent, well-rounded person. And Whitford’s character Pete’s ex-wives – played extremely well by Michaela Watkins and Marcia Gay Harden – who could very easily have been sitcom-clichés, are both fully-realized characters with stories of their own. The kids from Pete’s former marriages definitely stay closer to classic-sitcom-kid territory, but that isn’t always a bad thing when the kids aren’t really the main focus of the show – not every TV sitcom family can be the Huxtables, after all.
Anyway, Trophy Wife – which airs on Tuesdays (including tonight) at 9:30pm ET/PT on ABC TV – is definitely worth at least a half-hour of your time to try out. Ignore the show’s name and just have fun watching.
Logo and photos ©(ABC/Bob D’Amico)
Note: Meeting Malin Akerman and viewing several episodes of Trophy Wife were part of a press junket I attended that was paid for by Disney. All opinions expressed are my own.