Say goodbye to the Darling family. While the name might imply an endearing group of wonderful folks, nothing could be further from the truth. They are a wealthy and powerful family. The patriarch Tripp (Sutherland) is a ruthless and conniving man very used to getting his way. His wife Letitia (Clayburgh) appears to want to be a nicer person but gets drawn into the incredible scandal and corruption of her family, while Tripp tries to shelter her from it. They have 5 kids. Brian (Fitzgerald) is a priest, but his actions are anything but priestly .He’s even hiding an illegitimate child. Patrick (Baldwin) is a politician who is running for Governor. He’s married to Ellen (Young) but also has a mistress, Carmelita (Cayne) who is a transsexual, played by an actress who is also transsexual. One of the more humorous scenes was one in which Ellen and Carmelita negotiate what days/times she can see Patrick. Karen (Zea) is the big sister who is getting married; that makes husband number 4. Juliet (Armstrong) and Jeremy (Gabel) are twins. Juliet thinks she has some supernatural “twin connection”. Jeremy is a lazy kid who is trying to break out of his non-ambitious life and find out who he is, even if it means giving up the wealth of the Darling lifestyle. Enter Nick (Krause) into the Darling life. Nick’s father was the family lawyer and catered to the family’s every whim, ignoring his own family most of the time. Now he’s dead, and Tripp wants Nick to step into his father’s place. Nick hates everything the Darlings represent. He’s a lawyer who actually wants to help people. Still, the Darlings are used to getting what they want, so Tripp offers him an extra $5 million a year to do charity work with over and above a generous salary to work for the family. It’s an offer Nick can’t refuse, and against his better judgment, he accepts. It’s a deal with the devil, and it is here that the show’s conflict and strength derive from.
The cast and characters of the show are a mixed blessing. Sutherland and Krause are great and quickly develop a strong dynamic. The problem is that the show very soon turns into a who is sleeping with who drama, and therein lies its weakness. When the show concentrates on Nick and the family scandals and dealings, it is one of the most powerful dramas on television. It’s often cleverly written and always well acted. But the writers continually bow to the pressure of the lowest common denominator and spend entirely too much time in bed. I will admit to being amused by the Patrick affair just because of the novelty of the whole thing. Ellen ends up shooting him at one point. There is also an uneven underline plot that just doesn’t work for some reason. Nick suspects that his father’s death wasn’t an accident and that one of the Darlings may have killed him because he “knew too much”. It’s a clever idea and certainly gives Nick more motivation for working for the Darlings, but they can’t seem to decide the truth as writers, so it’s a very awkward thread.
And so the show entered its second and final year. I can’t say I was at all surprised. While the series sports a really nice cast and the characters are quite interesting, the writing staff never seemed to be able to make the stories work very well. It all came across as very awkward and more than a little tedious. The cast deserved better than this, and now it seems they are off to try and find something better. I’ll miss the people, but not the series.
While the series ends the big mystery around Nick’s father only gets bigger in the final episode. It ends with a bombshell that will now not get explored or resolved.
Video
Each episode of Dirty Sexy Money is presented in a pretty sweet television 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The production standards here are very high, and it shows in this presentation. Colors are often quite bright, particularly in the dress and decorations of the Darlings and their home. Black levels are also quite impressive, offering good detail and shadow definition. At times it might appear a little too House and Garden magazine glossy, but that is obviously intended. Flesh tones look pretty natural. No real compression problems to speak of. I didn’t see the broadcasts, but I suspect this is a pretty faithful presentation.
Audio
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is everything it is intended to be. There isn’t much in the way of ambient sounds outside of some musical cues. This is a very dialog strong series, so you should expect most of the sound to be in front. Dialog is clear and placed correctly. What else do you really need here?
Special Features
Deleted Scenes: There are 7 mostly character scenes that you can access individually or with the convenient play all option.
Directing The Darlings: (11:31) Join director Jamie Babbitt as she takes you through her life directing an episode of the show. She takes us through location scouting, art department meetings, and plenty of on-set footage interacting with the cast and crew. Expect the usual love fest from her fellow crew members and, of course, the cast.
A Total Knockout: (8:41) This feature is a character/actress profile of Natalie Zea who plays Karen Darling. She offers up a lot of insight into the character, and there are plenty of accolades from the cast and crew. There’s some great behind the scenes footage of her catfight scene from this season.
Dirty Sexy Crafty: (9:15) Everybody’s gotta eat. Josh is the entertaining head of the show’s craft services. That’s the lunch wagon, if you didn’t already know. Plenty of banter between Josh and the cast and crew.
Faux Pas – Bloopers: (1:52) The usual line muffs and laughing fits.
Final Thoughts
And so ends another series in its sophomore season. There seems to have been a lot of that from last year. Many of these shows didn’t get solid starts because of the writers’ strike. With this one I think it was wasted opportunity. The writers never did take good advantage of a good setup and a fine cast. That’s a recipe for any series to be simply “Done!”
