Girlfriends
UPN
Mondays 9 p.m.

Who will carry on the torches of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha? While critics of "Sex and the City" see it as a loose parable of femme-empowered-through-purchasing-power, its fans see the show as the force that normalized dirty vocabulary for millions of viewers. While we can hear about "tossed salad" from our jaunty single friends, it is still jarring to hear such a reference from Grandma over eggs and toast. "Girlfriends" is no such thing; its tender treatment of characters and issues are more in line with a softly focused Nestle Coffee-mate commercial. If "Girlfriends" is ranch dressing to SATC's bourbon sauce, who would want to watch it? More importantly, how is a viewing audience to stomach another show about the struggles of being petit bourgeois and beautiful?

"Girlfriends," a show executively produced by Kelsey Grammar, has slivers of the fanciful elitism of "Fraiser." After a few viewings, it becomes clear that "Girlfriends" must be a pet project for Mr. Grammar the same way that billionaires will indulge in ostrich farming.

Admittedly, the characters are derivative, but they exude a comfortable archetypal quality capable of drawing viewers back week after week. Try as you might, you will just end up liking these four women. Because it's on UPN, we won't get the colorful truisms of Samantha and because the show isn't a fashion trash dump, we won't get a parade of Prada or a forced scenario when four ladies accidentally wear Marc Jacobs's entire fall line. (And some episodes of "Sex and the City" started to feel like high-end QVC, with Carrie Bradshaw hawking Louis Vuitton instead of Suzanne Somers milking her "trilliant" bracelets.)

To familiarize readers with the women of the show, a short biography follows their "I'm better than you are" headshots.

Joan: Tough but sexy corporate attorney. She is the embodiment of a successful woman with a Ross/Rachel type relationship with her best friend, William. At first glance, she may resemble Miranda, but her tendencies for domesticity and eccentric behavior put her more in Carrie territory. In addition, she also has the curly hair which, in TV-land, signifies diversity and quirkiness. Most of the action of the sit-com takes place in her apartment, making her the eye of the "Girlfriend" storm. She is sassy.

Toni: Tough but sexy upwardly mobile real-estate agent who relies on her looks to get by. Characterized by an abrasive shallowness, she is well padded by a sense of "you-go-girl" girlfriend philosophy. She marries a "nice Jewish boy," but finds the marriage is work. She is like Charlotte without that nasty habit of wanting love. It goes without saying that she is also sassy.

Lynn: Tough but sexy sociology grad student with a penchant for Jamaican men and rent-free apartments. She is often the voice of the feminist intellectual, all while wearing really cute outfits made out of wax-washed ethnic cloth. Lynn doesn't bathe and still looks damn good. Her sassiness is somewhat dampened by her socially conscious philosophy which makes her more like Miranda.

Maya: Tough but sexy divorcee, who's also Joan's secretary and has no problem telling it like it is. While not afraid of telling it like it is, she is often seen in ridiculously tight outfits that would make most women turn around to mutter to their girlfriends "Ho," while just telling it like it is.

While these women are not faithful reproductions of the SATC type (and would we want them to be?), their re-interpretations represent the same annoying characteristics. Are these four women impossibly gorgeous, sexually available, and gallingly skinny? Yes. Do these four women have a seemingly endless supply of hunky men? Yes. Do these women have jobs with 15-hour workweeks and a benevolent boss who encourages five-hour lunches? Do you worry about the state of these women's IRA accounts? At the end of the show, are you vaguely annoyed that you aren't a) skinny b) beautiful and c) black?

It's too easy to say that the appeal of "Girlfriends" is that it glamorizes the life of single women. The cattiness and openly bitchy behavior are all taken in stride because we've come to expect it from shows about women. One thing different about these women is that while their behavior still stinks of narcissism and shallow materialism, we get the sense that they do enjoy each other's company. In addition, all these women have a sharp intelligence that is lacking in most sitcoms that portray black women (see The Parkers, Eve). A recent UPN study shows that female black audiences have dramatically fallen for shows like "All of Us" or "Eve." A spokesperson for the media agency MPG is quoted as saying: "Something is going on among African American viewers, but what it is is not clear to us, it is clear that all networks are being impacted in some regard, but there is no clear pattern. We're baffled."

Perhaps what is really going on is that black women (and women in general) are more interested in shows that discuss female friendships but do not also treat the women as morons.

— Ceda Xiong (ceda dot xiong at gmail dot com)