Summer is always an interesting time for television, especially on the broadcast networks. While most hours of their schedules are filled with cheap, reality programming, there’s been a push, especially in recent years, for year-round scripted content, a demand that has led to Hannibal Season 3 premiering just two weeks ago on NBC and CBS continuing with a third season of Under the Dome. One of the first, fully new network offerings to premiere this summer is ABC’s The Astronaut Wives Club, which is created by Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl, The O.C.) and based on the book of the same name, written by Lily Koppel. And even though there’s nothing in Astronaut Wives Club that is groundbreaking, the first three hours of the show that I’ve seen are fun, enjoyable television with an incredibly strong and likable cast, which ensure that this is a series that I will continue to follow throughout its 10-episode run.
Taking place at beginning of the ’60s, in the middle of the space race between the United States and Russia, Astronaut Wives Club lives up to its title and focuses on the seven women behind the infamous astronauts who made history, as they deal with their own personal struggles. In the cast, we have Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) as Rene Carpenter, Dominique McElligott (Hell on Wheels) as Louise Shepard, Odette Annable (Banshee) as Trudy Cooper, Joanna GarcÃa Swisher (Once Upon a Time) as Betty Grissom, Erin Cummings (Spartacus) as Marge Slayton, Azure Parsons (Salem) as Annie Glenn, and Zoe Boyle (Downton Abbey) as Jo Schirra. During these initial three episodes, all of the women (aside from Boyle’s Jo) have their own stories, and while that may seem like a lot to juggle, Astronaut Wives Club does an impressive job of balancing screen time between its main characters and their spouses. In fact, the only real trouble that the series has is in its pilot, which is overstuffed as it attempts to introduce each of these couples and overwhelms us with names and extraneous details while we only really get to know McElligott’s Louise.
Thankfully, the two episodes that follow the pilot prove that Astronaut Wives Club knows what it’s doing. Instead of trying to give every character a big moment in every episode, the series centers in on two or three of them and sheds light on why these women are the way they are and explores their relationships with their husbands. Storylines involving Louise, Rene, Trudy, Betty, and Annie work very well, as these characters are much more defined by the end of Episode 3 than I would have thought possible after watching the pilot, and Louise, Trudy, and Annie, in particular, provide some of the show’s most compelling moments, whether they involve their husbands or not.
And ultimately, separating the titular wives from their husbands and allowing them to anchor the show on their own is what Astronaut Wives Club is going to have to continue doing to remain a recommendable summer watch. It’s not that the husbands are poorly cast (it’s a solid lineup of actors, including Dexter‘s Desmond Harrington, Hart of Dixie‘s Wilson Bethel, and Reaper‘s Brett Harrison), or that the relationships between the couples are uninteresting. Rather, it’s the fact that the individual stories of these seven women and the bond that they forge together is the freshest and most exciting part of the show, showcased in the final scene of the pilot where all of seven of them gather together. We want to see them help one another out and learn about each other’s pasts to become an unlikely group of friends; the dynamic between the wives is much more palpable and unique than the ups and downs of marriage that we’ve seen TV series do countless times before.
Astronaut Wives Club doesn’t have to try to be anything revolutionary (and I don’t expect it to). This isn’t the type of show that is going to show you something you’ve never seen before; it’s not striving to be especially deep or insightful. However, the series does possess a very talented cast and a creative team (with Savage and her partner in crime, The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz) that has proven before that it can produce fun, soapy television. I’m optimistic that Astronaut Wives Club can continue to live up to that potential and be a somewhat light but very entertaining period piece that brightens up the typically dour summer TV season.
The Astronaut Wives Club premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC. Three episodes were watched for this review.
[Photo credit: Cook Allender/ABC]
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