Network: FX; Genre: Drama; Content Rating: TV-14 (strong language); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 4);
Seasons Reviewed: Series (2 seasons)
The only way to push the "Start" button on "The Riches" requires creator Dmitry Lipkin to pull off and the audience to accept one of the craziest premises to grace TV. Move over "Tru Calling".
In the Pilot everything has to happen exactly as it does, exactly when it does in order for the show to make any sense at all. Wayne (Eddie Izzard) and Dahlia Malloy (Minnie Driver) are the head of a family of travelers. They steal from the traveler's camp and are pursued by another family of travelers, who run a car off the road and then flee the scene, leaving the Malloy's come to the car's aid, to find the passengers have died. The passengers are Doug and Cherien Rich "buffers" - and they happen to be on their way to a house that they have bought on the internet filled with furniture that has been pre-moved, to take jobs they have not interviewed for in person, in an elite gated community. The Malloys move in and assume the identity of the Riches. Soon Wayne/Doug is pretending to be a lawyer and Dahlia/Cherien is trying to get her kids into a private school. If the American dream is a big house, lots of things, reputable jobs and high social standing in the community, the Malloys have walked in and stolen it.
After years of outrageous worst case scenario shows, "The Riches" is an FX drama that shows some welcome restraint. An admirable change from the nonsense that has overtaken "Nip/Tuck" and threatens "Rescue Me". The possibilities are almost endless here. Fish out of water comedy. Class warfare satire. The Malloy's in a feverish cat-and-mouse chase to stay one step in front of the con. Side-cons on the rich suckers of the community. Maybe a little "Six Feet Under" disconnected family drama. All the family members have differing takes on the con with Wayne spearheading it with gusto relishing his role as a smooth-talking lawyer, Dahlia and her son (Noel Fisher) ambivalent and increasingly tormented by it, while their daughter (Shannon Woodward) is finding her place in the school and their younger son (Aidan Mitchell) experiments with cross-dressing, a character quirk that the family is unconcerned about.
Lipkin sets the stage for a juicy, thick new dramatic playground. But very quickly he starts to close it up. He only scratches the surface of this delicious premise in the following episodes with any potential fun cut short quickly when Dale (Todd Stashwick) a fellow traveler and royal redneck stumbles on the Malloys and threatens to expose them. "Riches" tugs itself in several directions and never fully getting anywhere. At times it veers toward quirky dark comedy, thanks to Gregg Henry as Doug's live-wire, gun-totting, half-insane boss at the law firm Hugh. Then at times it swings into straight crime drama as Wayne, Dale and Doug Riches' friend shows up with grim results. The show neither has fun with itself as a dark comedy nor raises the threat level enough as a compelling drama. When your big shocking season ending cliffhanger is yelping puppy Ayra Gross spinning around in a chair and "demanding" to see his best friend you might want to ratchet up the stakes just a bit or leave it alone. Pick a side and commit.
Izzard and Driver are quite good with what they've been given. Izzard chokes back his British accent but is commanding in the lead. Driver is superb, showing acting chops I had never seen in her. She was Emmy snubbed for the role. As a character serial drama, the show's chief problem may be that Lipkim, even after 2 seasons, keeps us at arm's length from the Malloys.
I wanted to love "The Riches" and I'm not quite sure why it doesn't catch fire. Freshman series kinks? Writers showing too much restraint in a show that could have pushed a little bit more toward the edge? A lack of a clear vision on where to take it? I can't help but think that someone like Alan Ball or the "Mad Men" crew could have wrought the proper amount of yearning, family dysfunction and sly character bits out of this serial. What makes "The Riches" so tragic is not that it doesn't work, it's that it feels like a missed opportunity with such a unique and imaginative premise and game actors ready to follow it.
* * ½ / 4
Seasons Reviewed: Series (2 seasons)
The only way to push the "Start" button on "The Riches" requires creator Dmitry Lipkin to pull off and the audience to accept one of the craziest premises to grace TV. Move over "Tru Calling".
In the Pilot everything has to happen exactly as it does, exactly when it does in order for the show to make any sense at all. Wayne (Eddie Izzard) and Dahlia Malloy (Minnie Driver) are the head of a family of travelers. They steal from the traveler's camp and are pursued by another family of travelers, who run a car off the road and then flee the scene, leaving the Malloy's come to the car's aid, to find the passengers have died. The passengers are Doug and Cherien Rich "buffers" - and they happen to be on their way to a house that they have bought on the internet filled with furniture that has been pre-moved, to take jobs they have not interviewed for in person, in an elite gated community. The Malloys move in and assume the identity of the Riches. Soon Wayne/Doug is pretending to be a lawyer and Dahlia/Cherien is trying to get her kids into a private school. If the American dream is a big house, lots of things, reputable jobs and high social standing in the community, the Malloys have walked in and stolen it.
After years of outrageous worst case scenario shows, "The Riches" is an FX drama that shows some welcome restraint. An admirable change from the nonsense that has overtaken "Nip/Tuck" and threatens "Rescue Me". The possibilities are almost endless here. Fish out of water comedy. Class warfare satire. The Malloy's in a feverish cat-and-mouse chase to stay one step in front of the con. Side-cons on the rich suckers of the community. Maybe a little "Six Feet Under" disconnected family drama. All the family members have differing takes on the con with Wayne spearheading it with gusto relishing his role as a smooth-talking lawyer, Dahlia and her son (Noel Fisher) ambivalent and increasingly tormented by it, while their daughter (Shannon Woodward) is finding her place in the school and their younger son (Aidan Mitchell) experiments with cross-dressing, a character quirk that the family is unconcerned about.
Lipkin sets the stage for a juicy, thick new dramatic playground. But very quickly he starts to close it up. He only scratches the surface of this delicious premise in the following episodes with any potential fun cut short quickly when Dale (Todd Stashwick) a fellow traveler and royal redneck stumbles on the Malloys and threatens to expose them. "Riches" tugs itself in several directions and never fully getting anywhere. At times it veers toward quirky dark comedy, thanks to Gregg Henry as Doug's live-wire, gun-totting, half-insane boss at the law firm Hugh. Then at times it swings into straight crime drama as Wayne, Dale and Doug Riches' friend shows up with grim results. The show neither has fun with itself as a dark comedy nor raises the threat level enough as a compelling drama. When your big shocking season ending cliffhanger is yelping puppy Ayra Gross spinning around in a chair and "demanding" to see his best friend you might want to ratchet up the stakes just a bit or leave it alone. Pick a side and commit.
Izzard and Driver are quite good with what they've been given. Izzard chokes back his British accent but is commanding in the lead. Driver is superb, showing acting chops I had never seen in her. She was Emmy snubbed for the role. As a character serial drama, the show's chief problem may be that Lipkim, even after 2 seasons, keeps us at arm's length from the Malloys.
I wanted to love "The Riches" and I'm not quite sure why it doesn't catch fire. Freshman series kinks? Writers showing too much restraint in a show that could have pushed a little bit more toward the edge? A lack of a clear vision on where to take it? I can't help but think that someone like Alan Ball or the "Mad Men" crew could have wrought the proper amount of yearning, family dysfunction and sly character bits out of this serial. What makes "The Riches" so tragic is not that it doesn't work, it's that it feels like a missed opportunity with such a unique and imaginative premise and game actors ready to follow it.
* * ½ / 4