Review: Lifetime Movie Made For Spike TV!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 04 11, 2013
Don't be fooled friends--this brutal series is nothing more than a cheap Liftime movie glossed up for Spike TV. It is full of amoral, poorly drawn characters whom we never care about. The closest thing Book One has to "protagonists" are two scions of rival rich families who learn nothing throughout the book, and grow organically not one iota (unless you count the woman bemoaning the fact that she never wrote checks to charities to help the homeless?!) Both of them have "Daddy" issues that help them "bond." The plot is implausible (the head of one of the rival families promotes the daughter of the other rival family as president of the world's largest hotel in Manhattan even though she has no work experience so he can "get even" with her father--"you can do this. I believe in you" is the "explanation"); the characters truly are one-dimensional and interchangeable; the writing is very average--no pithy lines or clever word choices to move the story along..I have no idea why there are so many amoral characters in the book, unless its to serve as fodder for brutal killings. Even the "good girl" sister to the female scion is sleeping with a new guy on the first date after she found her fiance' cheating on her: no grief, no anger, no "man hating phase," just "let's get back in the saddle"--total male fantasy, and unrealistic. The only char of any interest is the middle age lawyer who's a good family man and friend by day, and a kinky S&M; freak by night; clearly, he's a tortured soul but we are never allowed to understand his motivations, except for a brief Psy 101 blurb before he kills himself by jumping in front of a speeding subway (Anna Karenina anyone?) and we are told that "judgmental society did this to him." Yawn. Imagine all of the shallowest char from any soap opera all stuffed together in one book, and you pretty much have 5th Ave. It's Dallas without Bobby or Ms. Ellie; it's the Kardashians without Rob or Bruce; it's the evil step-sisters with no Cinderella..Would I rec it? Only to NY's who might enjoy the "ambiance."Would I buy it? NO WAY!Would I reread it? No