Ellen Gray: 'Brotherhood' has a look that's a bit too pretty

BROTHERHOOD. 8 p.m. Sunday, Showtime.

COMPARISONS, as they say, can be invidious, whether they're between siblings or TV shows.

Still, as much as I've found to admire in the first two seasons of Showtime's "Brotherhood," I don't know that I'd be taking Sunday's Season 3 premiere as seriously if HBO's "The Wire" were still around.

Because for all the emphasis on the brothers Caffee, and their seemingly divergent paths, "Brotherhood," like "The Wire," is a story about how things actually work in places where the politics is nearly always personal and the personal nearly always political.

"The Wire" had Baltimore, "Brotherhood" has Providence, R.I. Anyone following the trial of state Sen. Vince Fumo could probably come up with an episode or two at least of a show about Philly that would do the same thing.

If in the past I've accorded less respect to the Rhode Island version of how the sausage gets made - check out the actual sausage in the Nov. 9 episode - it might be because, like many Showtime series, from "The L Word" to "The Tudors," "Brotherhood's" a bit prettier than it needs to be.

Hard to imagine James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano - or most of the characters on "The Wire" - being the center of attention in a universe peopled by the likes of Jason Isaacs and Jason Clarke as Michael and Tommy Caffee or Annabeth Gish as Tommy's troubled but gorgeous wife, Eileen.

Even the Caffee matriarch, Rose, is played by the breathtaking Fionnula Flanagan.

And when you put that many pretty people together, you're bound to get soap opera sometimes.

Yet based on the two episodes I've seen, this season, a rebuilding one for several characters, seems to be taking a less sudsy approach, focusing instead on the devilish details of how the system works (and doesn't) that can only make "Brotherhood's" realpolitik that much more real.

Remember when cable's summer series were expected to disappear by Labor Day?

"Army Wives" (10 p.m. Sunday, Lifetime) didn't get the memo this year, and having made it through the first cold snap, it's wrapping up its 19-episode second season on Sunday.

From the tone of the ever-ominous promos, I'm guessing death's once again in the forecast. Too bad, because those women could use a break.

This season, we've seen Claudia Joy Holden, the general's wife played by Roxborough's Kim Delaney, mourn the death of her older daughter in the bombing that capped last season's finale. Oh, and she also fought off a rapist.

Her friends haven't had it easy, either, with Roxy (Sally Pressman) dealing with her soldier husband's pill problems, Pamela (Brigid Brannagh) with a demented stalker, Denise (Catherine Bell) risking her marriage for a motorcycle (and a guy who rode one) and pregnant Joan (Wendy Burton) going through a life-threatening delivery.

Who knew the homefront was so dangerous?

Truth is, the real strength of "Army Wives" lies not in its often over-the-top plot lines but in its cast.

Delaney, who's done her best work in years, is surrounded by women who manage to make their characters' sometimes-unlikely friendships seem genuine, certainly more so than any you'll see on "Desperate Housewives' " Wisteria Lane.

But what never ceases to amaze is the way they've cast the families.

Not only does Kim Allen, who played Amanda Holden until her character's death, bear an eerie resemblance to Delaney, but Denise's husband and son, played by Terry Serpico and Richard Bryant, look and behave more alike than many real fathers and sons.

"The John Laroquette Show's" Gigi Rice, who's appeared from time to time as Roxy's alcoholic mother, is just barely old enough to be playing Pressman's mother, but the resemblance, in looks and manner, is once again so uncanny you'd think they'd cast Pressman in hopes of one day luring Rice.

It probably wasn't a good sign when CBS' "The Ex List" lost showrunner Diane Ruggiero shortly before its premiere.

And the 6 million or so viewers it averaged in its first four episodes didn't constitute the kind of audience CBS is used to, even in a season where lots of series aren't doing so well. Last week, it dropped to 5.33 million.

So maybe I shouldn't be surprised by reports that Bella (Elizabeth Reaser) and her search for the man in her past she's meant to marry have been shipped to Hiatusville.

Reruns of "NCIS" - one of the crime shows CBS is better known for - will be replacing "Ex" starting tomorrow.

But if CBS is truly looking to expand beyond corpses, it's going to require more patience than it's shown. Otherwise, the list of ex-CBS shows will just get longer. *

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