Television review: ‘Jersey Couture’

If there exists some alternative universe in which “Sex and the City” is set in Mahwah, N.J., it might look a little like Oxygen’s “Jersey Couture.” The ascendancy of the Garden State on reality television — “Jersey Shore,” “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” “Jerseylicious” — seems to boil down to an American desire to watch Italian Americans with Holland Tunnel accents yell at each other. And as the success of “Sex and the City 2” amid a welter of terrible reviews proves, we never tire of looking at pretty dresses.

In those respects, “Jersey Couture” delivers. The couture in the title refers to the merchandise of Diane & Co., a suburban boutique owned by the Scali family, most specifically Diane and her daughters, Kimberly and Chrissy. (Father Sal and brother Anthony make a few appearances, but the family, like many in reality television, is a matriarchy.)

In the way of these shows, mama Diane is outspoken, outrageous and devoted to her children, who respond with the requisite yin and yang personalities. Kimberly is the sensible married daughter and new mother, while Chrissy is cast as the singleton rebel, which means that at 27, she finally moved out of her parents’ house in search of a life outside the boutique and enforced pizza night. She is, of course, still working for her parents.

For all its “glamour” and half-hearted conflict — in the first episode, tensions run high because Chrissy wants to use a red dress in a charity fashion show even though Diane has told her she can’t because they need the red dresses for the store — there is something oddly nostalgic about the show, and the whole Jersey subgenre. In a world made vast by technology, ambition and ever-migrating generations, “Jersey Couture,” like its counterparts, is emphatically insular, reminiscent of the golden age of radio — the iconic “The Goldbergs” comes to mind, in which the human drama was confined to a few rooms and a window to yell out of.

Unfortunately, the human drama seems fairly limited in “Jersey Couture.” And though I for one applaud the decision to not invent tension where tension is not present, the denizens of Diane & Co. seem better suited for a family sitcom or playing the colorful neighbors on an HBO drama than for the center of a reality show.

The women are all likable enough, pretty and of generous proportions, which is nice to see on television, and they provide their equally likable customers with service that is often funny and fashionably astute. Indeed, as an advertisement for Diane & Co., the show works very well.

But if you need something approaching drama, or even just a story, along with your familial yelling and “quit it, Ma’s,” you’d do better to watch a few “Rhoda” reruns.

mary.mcnamara@latimes.com