"The Italian Banker"
First aired: 10/10/2007 Synopsis: Nick tries to fix things when the Darlings are blackmailed over a sex tape starring a family member. Patrick is upset over being forced to end things with Carmelita. Brian's wife gets suspicious over the Swedish orphan he brought home. Jeremy tries to keep it quiet about him and Natalie, but when they all show up at a fundraiser for Patrick things get out of control.
Here we are at the third episode and I'm still torn though I'm feeling a bit more sure of the reasons I both like and don't like Dirty Sexy Money.
(Candis Cayne at right, as "Carmelita.")
On the big plus side is Donald Sutherland, former movie powerhouse, star of films such as MASH (right), Klute (left, with Jane Fonda) and 40 years ago, the classic, The Dirty Dozen. Though I was waffling in Episode 2 about whether Sutherland as Tripp Darling, the patriarch of this much-monied clan was in fact as he insisted, a truth teller, he was caught by the lead character Nick George (Peter Krause) in a whopper this time around. As I opined before, I believe that the ambiguity--is Tripp good, is Tripp evil? is fun to watch. Donald Sutherland is such a great asset to this series. I :heart: the Tripp character--with this great Canadian-born actor playing him :) but Tripp Darling has more to do with Sutherland's acting chops and ability to inhabit his characters than the quality of the scripts please. I'm asking nicely. Please hired some writers who can do justice to what these actors bring to the table.
There really wasn't much more for me in this episode, "The Italian Banker." I'm finding the references--outright ripping off actually, to utterances made by the real life celebutante Paris Hilton becoming tiresome already. If there are many more I'm going to have to hunt down the writers and clock them over the head because I get it already, okay? The Juliet Darling character (the female half of the Darling twins) is not written; she's just cribbed from the lives of several tedious, spoiled celebutantes and semi-celebrities. Her brother, he of the perpetual flushed red face (he's got um, bad habits) is kind of pitiful. I like that they don't overly glorify his drug-taking though he though he's pretty much impaired all the time-- just totally messed up 24/7. Their much-married sibling, Karen Darling is another one note character. For the life of me I cannot figure out why this actress was cast as she holds no appeal in her appearance or acting skills.
The character in the running for who I like least, is yet another Darling sib, Brian Darling, a married priest with an illegitimate son whom he's recently reluctantly taken custody of. I know I'm supposed to hate this character but I'm hating the script even more. There's nothing redeeming or humorous about his behaviour towards his previously unacknowledged son--he is simply unkind. The character played by Glenn Fitzgerald. is striking one note--mean--and I'm not digging him at all.
Finally, in terms of some decent screen time, where hypothetically some character development might occur, we have Billy Baldwin. I dunno, maybe I'm just not a fan of all things Baldwin---but he leaves me cold. However, his character Patrick Darling's, girlfriend --Carmelita is resonating a bit more if only for the fact that actor Candis Cayne is a transgender woman who plays a transgender woman with whom he is having an affair. It's actually one of the more authentic aspects of this series besides Sutherland, Clayburgh and a couple others. ;)
I'm still undecided about the show as a whole but I will tune in next week if only because Lost has not yet come back from hiatus.
Its a good show, but its gonna lose me if things dont change.
Posted by: KathyC | November 06, 2007 at 05:39 PM