JOIN USIdon’t know about you, but I certainly felt like the makers of The Mysteries of Laura are recreating Rosemary’s Baby moments for us. What is that, you ask. Let me explain. Consider this. The creators (like the Castevets) are trying to sell (or rather thrust upon) us poor viewers (analogous to Guy and Rosemary) the jaded and faded formula of yet another series (similar to the good luck charm), which unfortunately stinks more than a tannis root.
All this, while we are expected to lap up the routine that is a NYPD homicide detective who is also a super mom, who wants to divorce her cheating husband, does not care to dress (but is quite a looker), has an eating disorder (but a fantastic metabolism), is unruffled by her colleagues’ criticisms, values relationships dearly (although stoically) and can accurately shoot a criminal in a park full of people.
Alright, keeping aside harshness and parentheses, Laura Diamond (Debra Messing) is as refreshing as your first cup of coffee in the morning. Her husband Jake Broderick (Josh Lucas), who later becomes her boss, plays equally well to match up to her game. Then come the customary token elements, like the adoring male colleague, the faithful junior and the jealous female counterpart. There, you have the oft-used template, accompanied by some humour that can make you either guffaw or groan, depending on your tastes.
But what The Mysteries of Laura does is prove some people wrong about women, their sense of humour and comic timing. It shows that women can be funny. Even when their lines aren’t. Or when the situations are so grave, that jokes don’t make an impact. It gets better when the protagonist is the mother of two boys who can get expelled from schools for being incorrigible. But she isn’t a perfectionist either. She can in disbelief and out of frustration yell in the middle of work, while quickly apologising for it and regaining herself. She’s not afraid to be hurt, vulnerable or uncertain. Also, just like female cops and sheroes, she is always swimsuit-ready, is seamlessly coquettish to achieve her ends and not one bit queasy about not being dainty. So, that’s Laura for you.
But then, again, there’s absolutely no novelty in the single working mother idea — be it on TV or in movies. So it seems like one too many wasted talents on a poor script. There are so many howlers that could have been avoided altogether. Why does the husband have to be a philanderer, why do the kids have to be such trouble makers that they need cough medicine to be calmed down, why does her mentor have to betray her…and so many more why’s which can never give us satisfactorily sane answers. Seriously, what’s with eating soup in a morgue and kids not apologising to someone when they spill coffee on them. This is just cool taking a turn for the worse, becoming desperate and gross.
Having said that, despite having used this concept, had the execution been different, this would have been a winner — like if Laura’s clumsiness was a result of distress and not sheer apathy, if Jake showed a little more interest in raising the kids, if the cops did more than just chase around in cars — this one would have turned out more wholesome and tasteful.
But none of those have been considered, making us wonder if the writers are insulting our intelligence, taking us for granted or gotten cocky enough to think their’s is a foolproof method. Whatever may be the reason, they’ve completely missed the point. There is a threshold to tolerating this kind of trite tripe. And The Mysteries of Laura exceeds the upper limit by a large magnitude. Even the mass audience may not stay tuned to it for long. This one is probably only for Debra Messing fans or for someone who has exhausted all other sources of their entertainment.
The Mysteries of Laura airs from Monday to Thursday at 11 pm, on Zee Café.