#1
Posted: 10/23/08 at 12:06am
In its first, strike-shortened season, “Dirty Sexy Money” was a more-than-acceptable diversion that embraced its campy side and flaunted its eccentricities as much as its Darling family flaunt their excess. It was, quite simply, fun. Cut to nine months and three episodes later, and the show has somehow managed to systematically drain every drop of enjoyment from its vaults. What remains is the shell of a once-intriguing ride, with snoozer B-plots that were forgettable last year brought to the forefront only to remain just as sleep-inducing.
Take the yawn of a confusing subplot involving Karen Darling (Natalie Zea) seducing billionaire Simon Elder (Blair Underwood) because…well…apparently Elder is a threat to the Darling family, though he has never done anything that seems even remotely powerful or assertive. Underwood is a hugely charismatic actor, but seems utterly lost in the useless role, and drags the still-charming Zea down in every scene they share together.
Want more bad storylines? We’ve got plenty. The long-simmering story of who killed Nick’s father—which only took up five forgettable minutes of every episode in the first season—has turned into some sort of umbrella arc for the season. Perhaps the writers have forgotten that viewers won’t really care about a character that has never been on the show, was a scoundrel and wasn’t even liked by his son, and therefore could care less about who killed him. But despite every sign of logic screaming to stop while you are ahead, “DSM” continues to devote the bulk of most of the season two episodes to the lame mystery, dulling the usually sharp Jill Clayburgh by making her the prime suspect and bringing in Lucy Liu (who deserves much, much better than this or “Cashmere Mafia”) for no particular reason to prosecute the case.
Liu is secretly bedding Jeremy Darling (Seth Gabel) for no apparent reason. While in the past Jeremy has been nothing but a cad, the viewer was always led to believe he was, at heart, a good person, but allowing him to sleep with the woman trying to send his mother to the electric chair has turned him into an irredeemable piece of ****.
Enjoyable characters that once were the hallmarks of the show’s eccentricities have disappeared or been killed off, leaving the remaining Darlings and other roadkill characters wandering through large sets saying overblown dramatic dialogue. If the charming Juliet Darling or Carmelita were still around, they would chuckle and point at the things the main characters were saying. True, Carmelita returned in the latest episode, but apparently could not speak because because Donald Sutherland was too busy arguing with Steven Baldwin about something melodramatic. Juliet gave the series much of its life and kept it from becoming too full of itself (by being too full of herself), and the loss of the character has taken its toll on most of the ensemble.
Soon the urge to turn off the Darlings babbling on overdramatically and investing themselves in uninteresting subplots may become too much, and this viewer may be forced to switch over to “Lipstick Jungle” to get my camp and excess. And if a crappy “Sex and the City” ripoff is looking more appealing than your show, you know you’ve got a problem.
Grade: D
Take the yawn of a confusing subplot involving Karen Darling (Natalie Zea) seducing billionaire Simon Elder (Blair Underwood) because…well…apparently Elder is a threat to the Darling family, though he has never done anything that seems even remotely powerful or assertive. Underwood is a hugely charismatic actor, but seems utterly lost in the useless role, and drags the still-charming Zea down in every scene they share together.
Want more bad storylines? We’ve got plenty. The long-simmering story of who killed Nick’s father—which only took up five forgettable minutes of every episode in the first season—has turned into some sort of umbrella arc for the season. Perhaps the writers have forgotten that viewers won’t really care about a character that has never been on the show, was a scoundrel and wasn’t even liked by his son, and therefore could care less about who killed him. But despite every sign of logic screaming to stop while you are ahead, “DSM” continues to devote the bulk of most of the season two episodes to the lame mystery, dulling the usually sharp Jill Clayburgh by making her the prime suspect and bringing in Lucy Liu (who deserves much, much better than this or “Cashmere Mafia”) for no particular reason to prosecute the case.
Liu is secretly bedding Jeremy Darling (Seth Gabel) for no apparent reason. While in the past Jeremy has been nothing but a cad, the viewer was always led to believe he was, at heart, a good person, but allowing him to sleep with the woman trying to send his mother to the electric chair has turned him into an irredeemable piece of ****.
Enjoyable characters that once were the hallmarks of the show’s eccentricities have disappeared or been killed off, leaving the remaining Darlings and other roadkill characters wandering through large sets saying overblown dramatic dialogue. If the charming Juliet Darling or Carmelita were still around, they would chuckle and point at the things the main characters were saying. True, Carmelita returned in the latest episode, but apparently could not speak because because Donald Sutherland was too busy arguing with Steven Baldwin about something melodramatic. Juliet gave the series much of its life and kept it from becoming too full of itself (by being too full of herself), and the loss of the character has taken its toll on most of the ensemble.
Soon the urge to turn off the Darlings babbling on overdramatically and investing themselves in uninteresting subplots may become too much, and this viewer may be forced to switch over to “Lipstick Jungle” to get my camp and excess. And if a crappy “Sex and the City” ripoff is looking more appealing than your show, you know you’ve got a problem.
Grade: D
