ABC soap captures Southern living

ABC’s newest soap opera, “GCB,” is absolutely hilarious. “GCB,” or “Good Christian Belles,” is about a group of scheming women living in the Dallas, Texas area.
The show’s name was changed from “Good Christian Bitches,” the book by Kim Gatlin of which the show is loosely based, to “Good Christian Belles” after controversy with several groups. But, perhaps the first name would have been more appropriate given that’s exactly the premise of the show.
The show is centered on the character Amanda Vaughn, played by Leslie Bibb. Amanda was the queen bee of high school that moved away to California 18 years ago. She returns to Dallas a widowed mother a two. When she returns she is forced to deal with high school peers who she is hated by, an over-bearing high-maintenance mother, Gigi (Annie Potts) and neighbor and hold classmate who she is despised by, Carlene “Kitten” Cockburn (Kristin Chenoweth).
“GCB” is a satire on the way of living by southern, Christian women. Its lineup of superficial characters brings both humor and cleverness to the show.
Chenoweth does a fantastic job of bringing her character Carlene to life. Her Broadway experience comes in handy when playing this over-the-top role.
Sharon Peacham, played by Jennifer Aspen, is a fun counterpart to Carlene. Her helpless, dumb blonde stereotype is offset by overwhelming desire to be a good person and make her husband, who never seems to pay much attention to her since Amanda came back into town, happy. She adds countless laughs and lightheartedness to the show.
Cricket Caruth-Reilly, played by Miriam Shor, also adds laughs to the show with her less than traditional relationship with her husband, Blake (Mark Deklin). The two portray a good Christian couple to the outside world, but Amanda figures out their little secret and Blake befriends her, thus causing jealousy in Cricket.
Amanda spends a good amount of her time trying to redeem herself among the women she was hateful to in high school. However, their contempt for her and how she treated them before is deep-rooted and not easily forgotten. Amanda tortured Carlene in high school, Sharon lost a beauty pageant after Amanda launched a smear campaign against her and Amanda stole and married Cricket’s high school boyfriend.
The only character who can seem to somewhat forgive Amanda and try to befriend her is Heather Cruz, played by Marisol Nichols. Heather became close with Gigi, Amanda’s mother, after Amanda left town. Therefore, she finds it easier than the others to embrace Amanda.
Heather offers plenty of laughs of her own with her back-and-forth indecisiveness on which group to appear to be close friends with. She’s the only woman in the group who is unmarried and the other women make plenty of one-liners stabbing at her love life.
Gatlin co-created the show with “Steel Magnolias” play author Robert Harling.
“GCB” airs on Sundays at 9 p.m on ABC.