TV Review: Melrose Place is AWFUL...ly good... Who knew?

The series premiere of the revamped Melrose Place aired tonight and color me surprised when 5 minutes in I didn't want to shoot myself and 20 minutes in I was actually into it. MP was not nearly as lame as I expected it to be. While that's normally a snide, queeny judgment, this time it's actually a compliment!

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"Melrose Place may just be what the CW has been missing."

The CW has the 90210 kiddies with the emotional ranges of 8-year-olds, and it has the Gossip Girl socialites who are clearly grown up but restricted by the limitations of their high school roles. But, Melrose Place may just be what the CW has been missing: an adult drama. There's nothing holding the characters in MP back from taking it to the next level, and judging from the premiere, they won't disappoint.

First off, let me get it out of the way and say that everyone is hot. Duh, it's the CW. The show began with a half-naked Michael Rady (hence my rapt attention) who is ridiculously attractive and teasingly put his shirt on far too soon. And then of course there's the hot girlfriend, Riley, played by a Jessica Lucas migrated from 90210, and all the other fabulously beautiful residents. The gate on 4616 Melrose Place must read "You can't move in unless you're pretty."

"Michael Rady puts his shirt on way too quickly..."

The characters' beauty aside, the most intriguing aspect of the first episode was the juxtaposition of the goody-goodies and the ones who seemed to have misplaced their moral compasses. There's the earnest videographer pedaling his amateur film against the slutty, drug-abusing thief. There's the compassionate doctor-in-training versus the haughty, bisexual publicist who takes what she wants. The conflicts work because they're plausible and relatable: What would you do if someone offered you $5000 in tuition money in exchange for sex? (Mm, no comment). Or maybe you'd blackmail and exploit your way into stardom if you had the opportunity. All this combined with a murder in the first ten minutes of the show, and the subsequent whodunit, and Melrose Place becomes a dizzying, yet absorbing drama. Which totally knocked me down on my ass because I expected it to suck.

"The series' intrigue lies in its diverse range of characters; the good boys and girls mixed in with the grittier characters makes for absorbing television."

I guess I expected Melrose Place to be so bad because every time I heard about it or saw an advertisement, I would see Ashlee Simpson. Producers, pay attention: this is what we call 'poor marketing.' After the drab hour spent watching 90210, MP seemed like an oasis in a programming desert. I'll definitely be checking back next week to see if it was all a mirage, or if the show can make good on its promise and become even half as tantalizingly addictive as the original.

Rating: 8/10

Did you love it, too?? Or maybe you hated it and you think I'm a moron?? Sound off! Leave a comment.

Be sure to check out the reviews for all the other shows premiering this season!!