TV REVIEW : THE FRESH, UNDEFINABLE ‘MOLLY DODD’

Networks rarely get enthusiastic about what they can’t define. That’s why TV series nearly always fall neatly into traditional categories of comedy or drama. So much the easier to sell to viewers.

However, NBC’s “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,” premiering at 9:30 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39, almost defies definition in TV terms. NBC bails out by calling it a “dramatic comedy,” which means you’re on your own.

The defining is no sharper here, except to say that your reviewer watched four half-hour episodes at one sitting and found them subtly wonderful and utterly charming, without quite knowing why. So don’t ask; enjoy.

The broad premise is ordinary: Contemporary working woman copes with singlehood in New York. The application is highly unusual, though, with Blair Brown luminously playing a 34-year-old divorcee whose fitful moods range from euphoria to gnawing despair. This is not Mary Tyler Moore.

Various characters boomerang in and out of Molly’s life. Her connecting threads are a pushy-but-concerned mother (Allyn Ann McLerie), who initiates each half-hour with an off-camera monologue about her daughter; Molly’s ex-husband (William Converse-Roberts), whom she still cares about, and a blunt, all-wise elevator operator (James Greene), who is unable to stop his elevator level with the floor.

There are no brash come-ons here. The tone is soft-sell. We learn from initial episodes that Molly writes bizarre poetry, is unfulfilled in her job and in her relationships with men, and hears her biological clock ticking-- pounding --like a time bomb. A later two-parter that has her seeing a therapist is a stunner.

Creator/producer/director/writer Jay Tarses (“Buffalo Bill”) has given “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” an urbane and finished look by shooting in film. His series is sweet, tender and sneaky-funny. When a handsome Indian sweeps her off her feet, Molly exclaims: “Holy cow!” He innocently adds: “Oh, yes, they are, extremely.”

Tarses also breaks rules for prime-time half hours by stressing nuance and soft edges, extending story lines beyond single episodes, disdaining tidy endings and emphasizing irony over comedy, while lightly underlining Molly’s thoughtful, intriguing, beguiling character in melancholia. What dreamy, fresh, irresistible TV.