The "Wow" vs the "Ugh" factors. (Dirt (Five))

Name: TheChocolateLady

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Product:	Dirt (Five)
Date:	04.09.07 (158 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent acting, great script, glitzy production

Disadvantages: Do we really care about the 'woes' of the rich and famous?

Lucy Spiller edits two Hollywood magazines – "Now", a good journalistic magazine about famous people, and "Dirt", a sensationalistic, exploitative, all-revealing, Tinsel-town 'rag'. Lucy's greatest asset is her photographer, Don Konkey a "high-functioning schizophrenic", but the best in the business. With his skills and her wily ideas, there won't be a secret left in Hollywood that doesn't get published. The only problem is, sales are down and both the owner and her managing director want her to cut costs. Lucy's solution is to combine the two magazines into "Dirt Now", which will include properly fact-checked, well-written stories, as well as the spicy pictures and tabloid scoops on the celebrities. Will it work and save Lucy her job? That's what the TV series "Dirt" is out to discover.

Often after a long-running TV series ends, the cast find it difficult to get successful venues. Note the "Seinfeld Curse", which wasn't broken until Julia Lewis-Dreyfus' hit "The New Adventures of Old Christine". As for the cast of "Friends", so far neither David Schwimmer nor Jennifer Aniston have tried for another series, and Lisa Kudrow's show "Comeback" was so sad, it barely made it through one full season. Matthew Perry's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was unceremoniously and unfairly cancelled after only one season, despite the acclaim and popularity. That Matt LeBlanc's spin-off "Joey" got through two seasons was practically miraculous – but spin-offs often fare better than putting beloved actors into unfamiliar roles. Here we find Courtney Cox (Monica Geller of "Friends") as the cold, hard-hearted Lucy Spiller, and if IMDb is correct, a second steamy season will be forthcoming, and this show could very well be the post-"Friends" breakthrough that everyone has been waiting for.

Cox's performance as Spiller is truly the opposite of Monica in every possible way – proving that Cox has more talent than we were led to believe. Suddenly the actress behind cute, bumbling and funny shows she can pull off sexy, merciless and dramatic with aplomb. Her supporting cast is also excellent, headed by Ian Hart in the part of the crazy photographer Don Konkey, which he does so realistically, you'll feel like you should be buying yourself Prozac. What's more, I can promise you that he's equal to Hugh Laurie in portraying an American, and I hadn't a clue that he wasn't born and bred in the USA from this work. The two main actors that are the prime targets for Spiller's machinations are relative newcomers, Julia Mallory played by Laura Allen ("The 4400") and Holt McLaren played by Josh Stewart (first major role). These two are lovers with a "star is born" syndrome, as Julia's stellar career is starting to slip, while Holt is just being discovered as a James Deanian genius actor. Unfortunately, there's a price to pay to become hot property in Hollywood, and Spiller's only giving Holt publicity if he'll give her inside information for her next scoop. And so the series begins.

I'm of two minds about this show. On the one hand, Cox and the cast couldn't be better at their jobs. The script seems to shimmer with smart dialogue, high energy, fascinating intrigue, plot twists, hot sex, opulent costumes and settings and even a touch of the supernatural with the crazy photographer. That alone can make a series an instant hit. To add to this, that as a writer, the inside workings of a magazine is a subject that interests me very much. On the other hand, I've never given a tabloid a second look, and don't appreciate even the idea of paparazzi. Equally, I find it extremely hard to feel sorry for rich, "beautiful people" who have nothing better to do than screw up their bodies and lives. On that front there is something generally distasteful about this series for me.

The question is, will the "wow factor" be able to overcome the "ugh factor"? In my opinion, the only way this can happen is if we are made to care about these characters. So far, I already care about the nutty photographer Don a great deal. Holt really knows how to keep just enough under his hat with this part, so that the talent and disability of this character mesh into something so sympathetic that the viewers completely understand why Lucy wants to keep him on her staff, despite his illness. For him alone I'm inclined to want to see more of this show. As for Lucy, while I'm not terribly enamored with her now, from what I can see from future plot summaries, they are trying to make her into the type of character that you hate to love – which isn't the same as someone you love to hate. That category seems to be mostly reserved for the cameo role by Timothy Bottoms of Gibson Horne, the owner of the magazines. For now, I dislike Laura Allen's character Julie, but I'm feeling some empathy for Josh Stewart's character Holt. That means there's enough to keep my interest without overly disgusting me, and some of the minor characters have some real potential, as well.

In general, I can see where this series will appeal to the star-struck, Enquirer purchasers and even those who can't help glancing through Star while waiting in the shop queues (even if they'd never be caught dead paying for a copy). The portrayal of these yellow journals, the people who work for them and those featured in them seems to be perfectly done. There are juicy scripts, award winning direction, plenty of costume, setting and people eye-candy, and precise, accomplished acting. Even if the subject matter is as distasteful to you as it is to me, this might still be an interesting watch. I'll give it four out of five stars and recommend it since even though I'm not sure I want this to be my newest guilty pleasure, its undeniably Entertainment (and I do mean that with a capital "E").

Thanks for reading!

Davida Chazan © September 2007

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Technical Stuff:

The official website for this show is http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/dirt/ and the UK site for this on Five US is http://www.five.tv/dirt/

For those interested, the IMDb page for this is http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0496275/ and while Amazon is planning to come out with this on DVD, it hasn't yet been released in the USA nor is there a release date, and I don't see any listing on the UK site for a DVD of this at all.
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Summary: New, Sexy Hollywood drama series staring Courtney Cox and Ian Hart