The Ex List

From the very sound of The Ex List, I didn’t want to watch it: Based on an Israeli series, Ex is about Bella (Grey’s Anatomy‘s Elizabeth Reaser), a thirtysomething woman who is told by a psychic that she must marry in the next year or she never will — and her future husband is someone she’s already romanced. I envisioned female friends leaning on each other emotionally and laughing raunchily while they drank fruity things and shopped. Blech. When ? I watched the opening scene — a bunch of lovely ladies climbing out of a limo for a bachelorette party — I had to turn off the TV to gather my strength. And when ? I turned it back on…I realized The Ex List could be one of the more charming new shows of the fall.

Huge thanks go to Reaser, whose Bella is the kind of woman you don’t see much on TV: She’s easygoing, reasonable, and funny in a way that’s actually funny. This is not a woman who’s going to fall over a chair or whine neurotically in a manner that’s supposed to be adorable but really is pathetic. No, she’s just funny, with the wisecracking gameness of a ’30s-era broad (”When did having a vagina become a full-time job?” she asks an overly bikini-waxed friend). I’m worried, however, because exec producer Diane Ruggiero (Veronica Mars) just left the show. Does that mean this very hang-out-withable female character will revert ? to the usual flibbertigibbet silliness? If only someone knew a good psychic. B+