`Second' is too tame to be first-rate

The first time you see "Second Time Around," tonight at 9:30 on Channel 38, you may feel as though you're seeing it for the second time around. It's instantly familiar, an inoffensive but generic sitcom in which a pretty couple deals with ex-lovers and jealousy. Starring the real-life couple Boris Kodjoe and Nicole Parker, the show is too likable for its own good. A little more vinegar would liven up and distinguish its warmed-over romantic cliches. Kodjoe and Parker play Jackson and Ryan Muse, who recently remarried after having been married for six months eight years before. They're older and wiser now, but nonetheless spend lots of time sifting through their first marriage and just exactly who divorced whom. They also lock horns about their dating lives during their years apart, even though they've agreed not to discuss them.

It sounds a little like a Katharine Hepburn movie, except that it doesn't contain enough comic bile to lift it off the ground. Kodjoe and Parker are probably smart to make their chemistry clear to viewers; otherwise, the Muses' reconnection wouldn't make any sense. And they do succeed in conveying a warm bond. But by keeping their claws hidden, they fail to leave much of a mark.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.