Contrived ‘Women’ lacks sense of mission

Lifetime is calling “The Week the Women Went” (9 p.m.) a “social experiment.” “Big Brother” used to be called that, too. And for all of its pretensions, “Women” is just as contrived.

Based on a popular BBC series, “The Week the Women Went” will spend five nights exploring life in a pleasant little South Carolina town after all of the wives and mothers take a train to an undisclosed location. Fathers, sons, boyfriends and husbands are forced to do chores, raise children and learn to appreciate what they’re miss- ing while the women are pampered at a luxury spa.

In case that weren’t enough drama, we get a recap of some of the town’s gossip, including the tale of the fire chief, a 21-yearold self-confessed mama’s boy who wants to cut the apron strings and marry his sweetheart. Some dads are confident they can raise the kids alone, and others — most notably the father of a boy with ADHD — are simply terrified of handling this by themselves. The sight of that boy wailing when his mother departs indicates just how far people will go to get on television — or participate in a “social ex- periment.”

Absent here is any sense of mission behind the contrivance. In “Lysistrata,” ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes portrayed a world where war-weary women conspire to withhold sexual favors to force their men into peace. The 2004 film satire “A Day Without a Mexican” envisioned California collapsing without its undocumented workforce. Both of those works had a strong point of view. But “Week” is like an installment of “Wife Swap” on steroids. Lifetime should have called it “Wife Rapture,” a fantasy where the guys get left behind.