AllMovie

Described by critics as a reality-show variation on Desperate Housewives, the weekly, hour-long CBS offering Tuesday Night Book Club also bore similarities to the unscripted Bravo series The Real Housewives of Orange County. Filmed in an upscale suburb, of Scottsdale, AZ, Tuesday Night Book Club focused on a group of women, mostly housewives, who gathered for a weekly literary meeting which generally devolved into a round-robin discussion of their sex problems. The main players were identified only by first name and character description: thus, the woman named Cris was billed as "The Loyal Wife," while Jamie was "The Conflicted Wife," Jenn "The Trophy Wife," Kirin "The Doctor's Wife," Sara "The Party Girl," Lynn "The Newlywed," and Tina "The Divorced Mom." In addition to the ladies' book-club discourses, the series allowed the women time to vent their woes in direct-to-camera interviews, and occasionally went "backstage," as it were, to show certain ladies in their own homes with own significant others. The preponderance of severe crises and bitter arguments, coupled with the sonorous offscreen narration and ominous musical stings, suggested that perhaps the series was not as "spontaneous" and unrehearsed as the producers claimed. Debuting June 13, 2006, Tuesday Night Book Club was doled out in "chapters" rather than episodes; only two of the four completed "chapters" were seen before the series was canceled.