Tapeworthy: Fall TV Preview - Dirty Sexy Money

Dirty Sexy Money - Pilot - directed by Peter Horton
Premieres Wednesday September 26th, 10pm on ABC and Sunday, September 30th, 10pm on CTV

This is the show I keep calling "Dirty Sexy Monkey" only cause it somehow rolls off my tongue easier that way. Maybe it's my subconscious missing Love Monkey or that I'm kinkier than I thought. They will really need to find a shorter moniker to dub this show though, and DSM doesn't cut it. Sounds like some program software you must download.

So Dirty Sexy Money has THE CAST and Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Brothers and Sisters) as a producer and Peter Horton (Grey's Anatomy, thirtysomething) directing. So the pedigree is there. THE CAST includes Donald Sutherland (Commander in Chief) and Jill Clayburgh (Running With Scissors) as head of the Darling family, a mega wealthy New York family with too many spoiled rich kids. The rich kids include Samaire Armstrong (The OC, Entourage) as the useless baby of the family, Seth Gabel as the useless troublemaker of the family, and William Baldwin (looking and sounding more like a thinner Alec everyday, Backdraft) as the groomed-to-be-Senator-with-a-secret (that even I didn't really see coming. It's a great little twist even though Ugly Betty sort of covered it already, more spoiler below). There's also 3 more brothers and sisters (I think, I lost count), plus all the wives, girlfriends, husbands, fiances etc. etc. If you thought the Brothers and Sisters cast was big, try getting a handle on this one (that also includes a mean mean priest with a secret of his own).

The entire rich Darling clan loses their lawyer when he dies in a plane crash, and they ask his good-lawyer son (we know he's a good lawyer cause he works for good causes in a plain looking office) Nick George, played by Peter Krause (Six Feet Under) and basically the biggest selling point of this show for me. Nick George looks at the family in disgust but ends up taking the job working for them, until they drive him crazy and he quits, but then he discovers his father was probably murdered, probably by someone in the Darling clan, and vows to find out who.

But really, the whole show is just a thinly veiled polished and classy drama that hides the layers of dirty, trashy soap opera antics that lay just underneath. While I'm not sure I really need to watch another show about snooty, silly, spoiled rich people, I sure laughed several times at some of their antics (most particularly, a vamping Samaire Armstrong, who seems to be thrilled to be not playing a smart and sassy girl she usually does, though I'm wondering if that's a great move since that's what I loved best about her before).

There were parts of the pilot that bored me, others that really left me wanting more, and with numerous plot strings hanging about with each Darling, I'm sure things will tighten up. SMALL SPOILER ALERT highlight below to read on:

I was slightly surprised of the casting of Candis Cayne and slightly delighted, and cements ABC as the network deeply looking for GLAADS approval. Ugly Betty introduced a transgendered character but this goes one step beyond by casting a transgendered actor AS a transgendered character which is fantabulous! Still, my mouth dropped open when Carmelita (Candis' character) was introduced and spoke.

For the time being, I'm leaving Dirty Sexy Money at 3 Stars (***) though it has great potential with the pedigree in front and behind the camera (Blair Underwood also joins the cast after the pilot). Then again, I said that about Six Degrees last year too and look where that ended up.

Here's the promo for Dirty Sexy Money: