From Seth Stevenson's review-slash-explanation of how Pond's finagled its way into USA's The Starter Wife, published yesterday:

On Thursday night, the USA network will premiere the first installment of The Starter Wife—a six-hour miniseries starring Debra Messing. I have zero interest in this show as a piece of entertainment. (Having watched an advance DVD of the first three hours, I can offer a mini-review: two thumbs up. Up my own eye sockets.) [...]

(As for story arcs, I'll never know if their resolutions relate to Pond's—as previously stated, I will gouge out my eyes before watching the final three hours of this thing. I'm serious about this.)

From Troy Patterson's examination of how USA became cable's top rated network, thanks to shows like The Starter Wife, published yesterday:

USA is campy and sincere at once. Although it broadcasts some golf and tennis, its signature sporting event is the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, which must attract viewers with a wide variety of ironic dispositions, from big fans of Best in Show to passionate Chihuahua aficionados. For this very reason, The Starter Wife is a natural fit. The show is total trash—just the ticket if Desperate Housewives is rather too dry for your tastes—but it's good-natured, formally ambitious trash, full of long-playing scenes and guided by a hostility to narrative logic that must be intentional.

The winningly gawky Debra Messing, late of Will & Grace, stars as a woman who's recently split from a Hollywood big shot.

So there you have it: Slate hates-slash-loves Messings' attempt to show America that she's more than a socially awkward fag hag on the small screen, and more than a woman who brings a prostitute to a wedding on the big screen.

(Disclosure: The Starter Wife and the USA Network advertise on this site. And should you think otherwise, no, they did not ask for us to cover the show in our editorial. Frankly, we doubt they'd appreciate most of what we'd have to say, including the above.)