Lip Service

Above: Laura Fraser (a dead ringer for my dead sister) and Ruta (♥) Gedmintas, aka Cat and Frankie (♥♥) from Lip Service (you can watch it on Netflix instant); click to enlarge.

    Without a third season in sight, Lip Service has so far been both intensely promising and generally frustrating. While I find no fault with what I consider to be its secondary characters, the show failed to notice the goldmine that could have been in the bi-polar relationship between Cat and Frankie. I love how they’re introduced — Cat all conservative, Frankie all rock n’ roll — while peeling back an uneasy history of lust, longing and heartbreak. And for the first season, just six episodes, I was eager to see their potentially interesting future unfold.
    Unfortunately, as I got into season two (just another six episodes), there was something of a letdown — the spontaneity of the first gradually diminishes, characters devolve into superficial dramady figures… while one of its central, and genuinely compelling, women is dropped for good while the other is emotionally neutered and cast into exile. Midway through season two I began to question (rather than speculate) just where the thing was headed, and wondered what the charismatic Ruta would be doing next.