It's such an obvious ripoff of Sex and the City, NBC's new dramedy Lipstick Jungle debuts tonight as a copy which seems lifted straight from a paint by numbers formula.

Fashionable, sexy heroines in an urban playground? Check.

Tony, upscale environment to avoid any unpleasant reality? Check.

Jobs and pasttimes which feel more like fantasy than reality? Double check.

The fact that NBC got all this from the woman who created Sex and the City -- Candace Bushnell, a woman whose materialism and vocal cadences sound so much like Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie Bradshaw, you'd swear SHE was doing the impression -- doesn't stop the pain. Bushnell just throws in a few curves -- a slightly less unbelievable explanation for her characters' immense wealth, for instance -- while retaining her classic formula of New York City, wealth, trendsetting and bitchy friendship.

Here now, is a handy formula to understanding the new characters from Lipstick Jungle by comparison to the old characters from Sex and the City:

Wendy   =  Carrie   +   Miranda   (divided by) Charlotte

   =

  + 

  divided by         

Explanation: Brooke Shields' Wendy Healy is a married movie executive with a kid and a husband who feels overshadowed by her success (Miranda!) who is also clearly the character the audience is supposed to relate to most (Carrie!) and who frets that she isn't doing enough to serve her family (Charlotte!).

Nico   =   Samantha  X  Miranda (with a splash of Charlotte)

  =                          

  X                          

Explanation: Kim Raver's Nico O'Neilly is a driven magazine publisher who falls into a steamy affair with a much younger hottie (Samantha!) when her marriage to a boring guy who feels totally overshadowed by her career falters (Miranda!)

Victory   =  Samantha   +  Carrie   +  Stanford

   =   

   +

  +

Explanation: Lindsay Price's Victory Ford has a business built on catering to the rich and trendy (Samantha!) who falls for a wealthy, powerful businessman when her own career falters (Carrie!), which basically centers on designing oddball, edgy fashions no sane person would ear (Stanford!).