LI is the setting for some sweet 'Revenge'

DRAMA PREMIERE "Revenge"

WHEN | WHERE Wednesday at 10 p.m. on ABC/7

REASON TO WATCH It's far too long since we've had a truly frothy prime-time soap. And this one's set on Long Island! (although it's filmed in North Carolina).

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Beaches and pretty people and -- oh yeah, the plot. Pretty and mysterious, Emily VanCamp's young blonde Emily Thorne shows up in Southampton one spring day and rents the shore house next door to the "Queen Victoria of the Hamptons." That would be Madeleine Stowe's Victoria Grayson, who looks to-die-for while smiling through gritted teeth and running the lives of her glossy family and social circle with a beautifully gloved iron fist.

Soon their lives intertwine, and there's an engagement party, and a poisoning, and gunfire, and stashes of cash, and corporate intrigue involving connections to terrorists. There's a high-tech whiz kid turned slummer, and resentful social-class clashes, and one very twisted, very intricate case of revenge slithering its way across the sand.

Plus, the cash-strapped local bar owners' dog figures things out before the people do!

MY SAY Yum, yum. This one's tasty. It's as lip-smacking as "Dallas" and "Dynasty" were back in the '80s -- slightly more attuned to the latter's trashtastic take on filthy lucre, while benefiting from the former's semi-relatable feel for family (and its understated wit).

If you haven't read "Revenge" story details elsewhere, don't. It's a lot more fun discovering them for yourself. Suffice to say that Emily T. is terrific at takedown, and Emily V. plays her with a spiky mix of repressed pain and vengeful glee, maybe spiced by a teensy trace of guilt at having such a swell time inflicting such grief. If Alfred Hitchcock were still around casting icy-cool blondes, he'd be calling her agent right now.

BOTTOM LINE "Revenge" is a tale best served sudsy.

GRADE A-