The Mind of the Married Man - The Complete First Season
Often (misleadingly) compared toSex and the City,The Mind of the Married Manis more like a buttoned-downCurb Your Enthusiasmor saltierEverybody Loves Raymond. Created by Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger), the HBO comedy revolves around Chicago reporter Micky (Binder), wife Donna (Sonya Walger,C.S.I.: NY), and fellow ink-stained wretches Jake (Jake Weber,Medium) and Doug (Taylor Nichols,Metropolitan). Unlike the glamorous Carrie Bradshaw, Micky's just a regular guy with a pretty decent life, but he often feels as if something's missing.Things get off to a shaky start in the pilot when Donna finds pornography on his computer. Then he hires the impossibly leggy Missy (Ivana Milicevic,Love Actually), because he finds her attractive. He fires her for the same reason--she had become distracting--then has to rehire her, because she hadn't done anything wrong. (M. Emmet Walsh plays his droll boss, Randall.) Mickey is nothing like the adulterous Jake, but as the theme song puts it, "The neighbor's grass may seem much greener than the grass right here at home." So then Jake introduces him to sensual massage ("The God of Marriage"), which starts out innocently enough--although he neglects to tell Donna about his new "hobby." By the end of the season, Missy will have moved on, but the situation with the masseuse (Michelle Krusiec,Saving Face) will have crossed a line, leaving Micky's marriage more precarious than ever.Aside from Binder, directors include Danny Leiner (Dude, Where's My Car?), Nancy Savoca (Household Saints), Bob Saget (The Aristocrats), and Bruce Paltrow (St. Elsewhere). Recurring characters include Larry Miller (Mad About You) as host of the TV show on which Micky regularly appears and Kathryn Morris (Cold Case) as a fellow guest. (Interestingly, Binder and Morris both appeared inMinority Report.)--Kathleen C. Fennessy