So it took maybe one second to realize I was far from the target audience for Lipstick Jungle.  We start with shots of women’s calves as their expensive high heels clack down New York sidewalks.  A newscaster tells us that the sets of legs belong to a trio of the most powerful women in the country.  Then, boom, fashion show.  If not self-mandated to review every new show for this site, I might well have hit the remote right there.

However, I liked the show.  Well… at least I liked the structure on which it was built.  With an ensemble of three, LJ had time to explore each character well.  There was strong conflict in each storyline, and the pacing and development for each woman was compelling.  Less appealing was the fact that this sorority of female power elite featured less power and more sorority.  Good storytelling might get me to overlook the lack of subtlety in visiting feminist themes (Career vs. family, marital doldrums, arrogant suitors, boys’ club co-workers, all in the pilot?  Leave yourself some girl-power territory for later!) but I will never love the conversation if it has to happen while shopping for scarves and coconut body oil.  Perhaps the target audience will find this juxtaposition intriguing, but I thought the tone undermined the premise.  Maybe I’m giving the producers too much credit for wanting to create high-status female characters of depth, but the opportunity is undeniable.  Make-up tips in every commercial break don’t help.

Best aspect:  The relationship between Brooke Shields’s character and her husband, who is simultaneously supportive of and threatened by her success.

Worst aspect: The relationship between Lindsay Price’s character and Andrew McCarthy as her paper-thin billionaire boyfriend.  (Maybe I just can’t get past the fact that she was in the American Coupling.)

Verdict: I won’t go out of my way to watch it again, but wouldn’t flip to E.R. to avoid it.

Odds of success: Good.  Everything I didn’t like about it might be exactly what attracts a female crowd.  Meanwhile, given that the storytelling is solid, that the strike makes for fertile ground in which to launch a show, and a cast that did an admirable job performing likable characters, we could be talking about a Grey’s Anatomy lite.