Daytime Divas review: Thinly veiled take on The View more messy than fun
A television show based on Star Jones’ novel Satan’s Sisters naturally promises plenty of sudsy behind-the-scenes drama, no doubt inspired by her former days on The View. But Daytime Divas is brimming with a little too much drama.
Vanessa Williams plays Maxine Robinson, the Barbara Walters of “The Lunch Hour,” the series’ thinly veiled version of The View. Maxine and her co-hosts — former stand-up comic Mo (Tichina Arnold), grown-up child star Kibby (Chloe Bridges), journalist Nina (Camille Guaty), and conservative TV personality Heather (Fiona Gubelmann) — savor every opportunity to stab each other in the back.
While Divas does get points for being somewhat progressive — Kibby is “sexually fluid,” and Heather is raising a transgender child — it lacks nuance, and it fails to explain why the women, who are painted in overly broad strokes, dislike each other to the point of sabotage, other than simply coveting more screen time. The cat fights might be fun if there weren’t so many “twists” and the plot points weren’t so messy. The first two episodes (the only ones available for review) serve up an affair, a drug problem, a threesome, a secret relationship, and two different instances of blackmail.
You’re gonna need that cup of coffee.
Daytime Divas premieres Monday, June 5 at 10 p.m. ET on VH1.
