[TV] Dirty Sexy Money 10pm, Wednesday, ABC

[Emperor]

“Dirty Sexy Money” reunites two “Six Feet Under” vets: writer-producer Craig Wright, who created the new series, and star Peter Krause. Krause's many co-stars include Billy Baldwin, Samaire Armstrong, Jill Clayburgh and Donald Sutherland.

 

It’s a comedy-drama about a lawyer named Nick George who inherits his late lawyer father’s only client: the very rich Darling family, whose members are always behaving badly. They snort coke, they pop pills, they swill liquor, they fuck trannies, they spawn illegitimate offspring. If they’re not transparently evil pricks, they’re insanely self-absorbed.

 

It’s funny, it’s edgy, it’s compelling, it’s sexy and it’s well-acted. It’s also a little too silly at times, but not silly enough to keep it off my Season Pass list.

 

USA Today gives it two and a half stars (out of four) and says:

 

… far less than the sum of its parts. The tone shifts precariously from scene to scene, and Krause is too dull a presence here to tie the tones together. He has to serve as our entrant into this strange world, and in the pilot, he just seems disinterested. …

 

 

The New York Times says:

 

… a drama that doesn’t take itself seriously and is all the more sophisticated for it. … “Dirty Sexy Money” lives up to its name.

 

 

The Los Angeles Times says:

 

We are not living in a subtle age and, as the title would suggest, there is nothing subtle about "Dirty Sexy Money." … Anchored by the sensible sensitivity of Nick, "Dirty Sexy" goes over the top and back again, as brightly fun and cheesy as a carnival ride. …

 

 

The Washington Post says:

 

… Whether there are answers or not just doesn't manage to matter, and neither do the questions -- with the possible exception of, "How did this awful thing get on the air in the first place?" …

 

 

The Chicago Tribune says:

 

Rating: Loved it. "Dirty Sexy Money" has everything you could hope for in a nighttime soap: a stellar cast, lush interiors, catfights, affairs, parties and jewels.

But it's also the story of one man's attempt to hang onto his moral center while cleaning up after a spoiled family worth billions. For extra spice, there's an intriguing murder mystery.…

 

 

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer says:

 

… You don't usually encounter the words "smart" and "soap" in close proximity, but this is one of those exceptions. Elements need to be ironed out; Gabel and Armstrong's trust-fund kids, for example, are in peril of turning off viewers with their cartoonish portrayals. From what one can glean from the pilot, this is a show that handles TMZ culture and the idiocy that feeds it with just the right touch, while maintaining hold of the idea that behind it all are flawed human beings -- none so much, perhaps, as our good man Nick. Krause keeps the character and the story grounded with his rumpled, eternally put-upon attitude, but the interplay between his character and Sutherland's hints at the deliciously brutal places "Dirty Sexy Money" can go. These are definitely the richies you can spend the season with.

 

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

 

… once you get past the show's bad-choice premise, it turns into an entertaining, absurd drama. … The characters are engaging in their varying degrees of awfulness, and there appears to be plenty of story fodder for years to come.

The show is less successful in making viewers care about Nick and his search for the truth about his dad's death. It's a distraction from the more interesting Darlings' contretemps. A future episode suggests the character stories will be more prominent, pushing Nick's search for the truth about his dad's demise to the back burner, where it belongs.

 

 

The Milwuakee Journal-Sentinel says:

 

… Like "Dallas" and "Dynasty" before it, "Dirty Sexy Money" lets viewers vicariously revel in the high life while assuring us that we're really better off leading our relatively sane, comparatively upstanding existences after all. Add in that irresistible title, and it could run for years. …

 

 

The Mimai Herald says:

 

… The continual orgy of conspicuous consumption, of both possessions and morality, can grow wearing after a while, but the excellent cast keeps drawing you back -- especially Donald Sutherland as family patriarch Tripp Darling, whose evil glint makes even as benign a phrase as ''good morning'' sound like ''I'm going to put an ice pick through your eye.'' Even better is Krause's portrayal of Nick, layers of exasperation upon fascination upon temptation.

 

 

Variety says:

 

… despite an unusually high-octane (and yes, reasonably sexy) cast ably led by “Six Feet Under’s” Peter Krause, the pilot doesn’t quite gel — feeling too determined to be quirky and provocative, and baited with a mystery that lacks the allure of the suicide that set “Housewives” in motion. Nevertheless, given the show’s asset, it would be premature to write “Money” off as a loss just yet. …

 

 

The Hollywood Reporter says:

 

… Part drama, part mystery and part unintentional comedy, "Dirty Sexy Money," the creation of exec producer Craig Wright, is full of well-drawn characters. Unfortunately, except for the two played by Peter Krause and Donald Sutherland, each is more tiresome and off-putting than the last. … the series, even after a second episode, is stuck in a rut. After awhile, the insane predicaments of these overprivileged characters are more pathetic than funny. The murder-mystery element is just a tiny part of the show. As for the money, it is not so much dirty or sexy as it is dull and overbearing. …

 

[ironcross]

ahh, but what dose the empy gasett say?  ;)

[Emperor]

DVRed.... Empy slow on watching premieres as this is also Halo week for me.  I will get to it today or tomorrow.

[Emperor]

Ok empy watched it.

 

Not great but not bad.  I will probably watch a few more episodes because I see real potential to me.  It seemed like an not-even-close-to funny version of Arrested Development. 

[Whitestar]

The premier wasn't that bad.  It had a few great moments but it kinda lost me near the end when they revealed the whole my father was murdered and I have to find the murder angle.  They kinda muddled that part up which left me a little confused and wondering "where the **** did that come from?!?"