The Client List: The Complete First Season

Jennifer Love Hewitt stars in this Lifetime original series as Riley Parks, a licensed massage therapist and mother of two who's left broke and desperate when unemployed husband Kyle (Brian Hallisay) runs off without a word. Her legitimate income from working at a classy day spa isn't enough to make the mortgage payments, so she signs up to take on a few select clients who will pay for a little extra service on the side. Yes, Riley is a suburban single mother with a secret life as a prostitute. The show avoids the more lurid elements of the TV movie that inspired it, but is still essentially a racy soap opera with a Texas drawl, a lot of girl bonding and family crises, and a few hunky cowboys. What grounds it are the real-life anxieties: a bad economy, unemployment, fears of losing a home, and, of course, holding a family together after being abandoned by a spouse. And in a curious twist, Riley is a relationship counselor as well as a sex worker, repairing the broken lives of her customers. The rest is romantic melodrama, moral hand-wringing, and political hardball in a series that at least challenges the sexist double standard of men and women and sex. Costarring Cybill Shepherd, Loretta Devine, and Colin Egglesfield, this set compiles all 10 episodes from the 2012 debut season, with extras including outtakes and deleted scenes. An optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)