How far can sisterhood extend?
Proof is supplied by the two siblings in “The Return of Jezebel James,” the edgy new Fox sitcom from the creator of “Gilmore Girls” debuting Friday. Movie actress Parker Posey (“You’ve Got Mail,” “A Mighty Wind”) is appealing in her series debut as Sarah, a children’s book editor who wants to be a mother but is unable to carry a baby to term.
Enter Coco (the equally excellent Lauren Ambrose, formerly of “Six Feet Under”), Sarah’s commitment-phobic sister who’s so estranged, she sits at the next booth over when she meets Sarah at a coffee shop. She’s also Sarah’s possible solution — if Coco will agree to move in and act as birth surrogate for her.
Or, as Sarah puts it in noting how “delicate” the subject is, “I need your uterus.” The idea doesn’t go over well with Coco at first (“I’ll have all the morning sickness? I’ll get fat? I’ll have to go through hours of pain and screaming and sweating? And stretch marks?”), but since a weekly show is built on it, you can expect things to turn around quickly.
And just who is the returning Jezebel James? She’s an imaginary character from the women’s youth, now the central figure in a book overseen by Sarah, and a major force in bringing her back together with Coco.
Also in the regular cast: Scott Cohen (“NYPD Blue”) as Sarah’s co-worker and secret beau; Ron McLarty (“Spenser: For Hire”) as the sisters’ expectation-filled father; and Michael Arden as Sarah’s office assistant, who pines for Coco. Two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest makes recurring appearances as the women’s mother.
“A sitcom is infinitely harder to do than an hourlong show,” says Amy Sherman-Palladino, who left “Gilmore Girls” the season before it ended because she couldn’t get a two-year renewal commitment. “You’ve got to do your work fast, and if the sitcom is any good, the scenes are about something. And if they’re about something, it’s even harder, so it’s a great challenge for everybody.”
The challenge of “Jezebel James” is exactly what lured Posey to television, but she doesn’t deem her move such a surprise. “I’m a working actor,” the New Yorker explains. “People think actors have such control over their careers, and I really don’t. You can’t really make a living doing independent film without being a real-estate agent or (having) another job.
“I’m right for the character parts in Hollywood movies, and I can do a lead in an independent film. If I have a reaction to a part, I’m going to do it. I like the humor in this. It’s not like somebody comes in and knocks somebody down and somebody gets hurt and everybody laughs. This whole thing about, ‘I relented and now I’m finally doing television,’ it’s not that at all. I read it and I loved it, and that was it.”
