Silverstone's charm gives `Miss Match' its heart
"Miss Match" is about a young miss who likes to match. She likes to match her outfits (note: the series is from "Sex and the City" creator Darren Star) and she likes to match up singles. In fact, by the end of tonight's premiere, at 8 on Channel 7, she has become the cellphone-wielding Dolly Levi of Southern California. "Miss Match" is Alicia Silverstone's first foray into TV, and it's a definitively fluffy foray. The hourlong dramedy is airy, sweet, a little gooey, and mostly lacking in nutritional value. It's very easy to swallow, especially on a Friday night, but only if you're prepared for a mild sugar headache once the credits roll.
Silverstone plays Kate Fox, an LA divorce attorney whose luck fixing up friends has become legendary. She's a kind of romantic urban superhero: By day, she barters deals between embittered couples; by night, she shoots arrows of love at lonely hearts.
As a lawyer, Kate works for her crude father, Jerrold (Ryan O'Neal), who says "Ca-ching!" when he has successfully helped a couple legally part. They have different moral bearings -- she thinks he's "low-rent" -- and she resents working for him. As a matchmaker, she's happily freelance, lovingly guiding clueless single men through their courtships. "We want deep and real and profound," she tells one overly serious fellow, "but if we're looking good we want to know about it." Maybe one of these days, she'll snag a single for herself? Maybe it will be her new matchmaking client, Michael (David Conrad)?
The show has a bit of "Ally McBeal" to it, in its legal-lite setting, in its portrayal of forlorn singles looking for love, and in its whimsical tone, which tonight finds Kate changing clothes in her car on the freeway with the car's top down. But "Miss Match" is less desperate for attention than anything from David E. Kelley, and Kate is less neurotic than Ally. She's very likable -- and so is Silverstone, particularly in the matchmaking scenes. She has a sweet charm that's worth every calorie.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
