THE most unexpec tedly delightful new show of the season, “Drop Dead Diva,” ends its freshman term tomorrow night with a cliffhanger that will leave fans, er, dying for more.
In the episode, overweight Jane Bingum (Brooke Elliott) has finally settled into her new role, if not her new pants size, and has figured out how her former size zero model’s experience can use the new size 16 lawyer’s brains to her full advantage.
(When the show opened, the size zero supermodel, Deb Dobson, died in a car crash — and ended up in the body of the overweight attorney Jane.)
For example, through her roommate Stacy (April Bowlby), Jane gets a high-profile case of a lingerie model who was fired from a campaign after she went public with the fact that she’d had breast cancer. Fashion meets firing: a perfect fit.
Nonetheless, Jane’s boss, Parker (Josh Stamberg), hands that client off to Grayson (Jackson Hurst) — Deb Dobson’s grieving boyfriend — while making Jane and her arch-rival, Kim (Kate Levering) the first chair and second chair, respectively, in a huge case involving a baseball minor leaguer whose botched shoulder surgery leaves him unable to pitch.
But just who is pitching what to whom is really the question, as both women try to outdo each other when it appears that Parker is going to announce that one of them will be made partner.
Meantime, there’s Jane’s personal life to worry about. Or think about, at any rate. When lunch buddy/colleague Tony (David Denman) suddenly asks Jane to have lunch — over a weekend in Napa Valley — she has to figure out whether or not it’s time to let the grieving Grayson go once and for all and get on with real life, as opposed to her dead life.
I don’t know about you, but when I can’t make a big decision, I always hope that ex-“American Idol” judge Paula Abdul will come by and help me out. Abdul never shows up at my house, or even in my dreams, but she shows up semi-regularly for Jane, and does so again tomorrow night as a dream judge replete in sequined robes. Fabulous. But then again, she was always the fabulous judge.
Among the questions that arise: Will Jane lose her job (don’t ask what she does to get her in so much trouble!)? Will she end up doing the naughty in Napa? And who is that guy knocking on her door in the last five seconds of the show?
So many men, so many pounds, so little time.
Terrific.