IR TV Review: THE SPENCER SISTERS - EPISODE 1 (“The Scholar’s Snafu”) [The CW]
The aspect of any buddy investigational series, especially in the modern context, has to have an air of believability. "The Spencer Sisters" in its first episode on The CW sets up its premise with a little bit of a flimsy context of why and how its protagonists get into the ruts they do. The leads in Lea Thompson (of "Back To The Future" fame) and Stacey Farber ("Virgin River") as a mother/daughter team that are not exactly the best friends, works on a base level but with certain cliches and expectations that float around every corner. The first episode entitled "The Scholar's Snafu"shows Farber's Darby returning home to her novelist mother's house because she has nowhere else to go. She quit her job as a cop because her instinct was getting her in trouble when it was actually dead to rights. Her mother Victoria is having her own problems with her career and seems to project onto her daughter (though we need more background on her younger life and raising her child).
However as with other shows on the network, there is a certain lightness in the approach. As the women uncover a university bribery structure which involves the sports program and how it has affected an asian american student who been accused of plagiarism, the focus comes a little more into play. However the details seem a little convoluted and seem to come to a head fairly quickly. Said student is also who brought them her problems indirectly by crying at a book launch event. The legality of how the sisters (Thompson's character says it is because they look the same age, maybe in jest - ?) go about their "investigation" is a little suspect. Perhaps their approach will come to bear in later episodes since the eventual resolution of the episode is luck-filled and a bit happenstance. The relation between Farber and Thompson is a bit quippy but it all depends how it settles into its cadence. Thompson's Victoria is more of a girly-girl and Farber's Darcy is a tomboy of sorts so that should play out in a certain way. But in the final moments, especially from Thompson, you see the heart which might help sustain this narrative perhaps for a little bit. B-
By Tim Wassberg
