Can 'Six Degrees' separate from pack?

BY VERNE GAY | Newsday Staff Writer

September 21, 2006

If "Grey's Anatomy" is the Most Important Show in the ABC lineup, does that mean "Six Degrees" is the Second Most? Stands to reason, because it follows "Grey's" at 10, which suggests someone at ABC decided this is the show that has the best chance of "retaining the lead-in" - to use the industry lingo.

Indeed, "Degrees" has the word "companion" plastered all over it. Like "Grey's," "Six Degrees" - filmed entirely in New York and produced at Silvercup Studios East - has a gauzy romantic texture that is conspicuously woven for viewers who just don't have the heart (or patience) anymore for the blood and gore of "ER." This show features a New York - albeit a New York of one socioeconomic strata that seems restricted to a few blocks on the Upper East Side - where everyone is "six degrees" from everyone else. The person you don't know today could be the one you marry tomorrow. Someone you sit next to on the subway could be "your soulmate ..." (according to a voice-over at the outset).

This - of course - is a totally bogus premise (for a life philosophy and arguably for a show, too) and one is moved to ask the producers: Have you even been on a subway lately? In fairness, "Six Degrees" isn't asking anyone to believe this bunk but only accept it over the course of an hour. Do that and you'll be treated to a reasonably competent soap.

But soap it is. Carlos (Jay Hernandez) is a court-appointed lawyer who represents Mae (Erika Christensen) - arrested for indecent exposure after a moment of youthful abandon near Washington Square. He falls hard for her, but she's got a dark secret, and is forced into hiding - or at least a new job, as au pair to Laura (Hope Davis), a widow whose husband was killed while reporting on the war in Iraq. Laura meets Whitney (Bridget Moynahan) a PR exec who doesn't trust her boyfriend, Roy (Jonathan Cake), and she certainly shouldn't.

Then there's Damian (Dorian Missick.) He's got a gambling problem, a criminal brother, a closet stuffed with more skeletons than Mae, and now, a new friend - unsuspecting Carlos, who enlisted Damian to help him impress Mae (long story ...). And did we mention Dave (Campbell Scott), the most intriguing character here? He's a has-been (and formerly famous) photographer - a bitter washout - until he meets Whitney.

OK, if this all sounds like an incomprehensible mess of a TV show, that's probably our fault. "Degrees" hangs together just fine, or at least the pilot does. But the future? Your guess may be as good as ABC's.

SIX DEGREES. Yet another all New York production that will leave some viewers hopelessly bored and others hooked. Did we mention that J.J. Abrams ("Lost") is executive producer? Premieres tonight at 10 on ABC/7.