Dirt

Network: FX; Genre: Drama; Content Rating: TV-MA (for strong language, simulated sex, drug use and violence); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: 2 seasons

Lucy Spiller (Courteney Cox-Arquette) is the ruthless producer of the salacious tabloid DirtNow Magazine who uses her schizophrenic best-friend photographer Don Konkey (an absolutely phenomenal Ian Hart) and fresh-faced, wide-eyed freshman reporter just waiting to be ruined by the industry Willa (Alexandra Breckenridge) to sneak into the lives of Hollywood's rich and famous to get the story. One of those celebrities is Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart) who like many of the celebrities makes a deal with Lucy to be her source if certain information is kept under wraps.

The latest and best series produced by the Arquettes (it's a hell of a lot better than "Daisy Does America") and created by Matthew Carnahan ("Fastlane"), "Dirt" is TV's first attempt at taking a bite out of the paparazzi - and I can't think of a target more full of potential and deserving of satire. Despite this, "Dirt" falters under the kind of shallow sleaze, manipulation and sensationalism that it should be satirizing.

For the show's many faults, the last thing going wrong here are the performances. The show gives us the opportunity to see a leaner, meaner Courteney Cox and frankly I'd rather watch Lucy Spiller over Monica Geller any day. This is what Cox does best and it is a blast watching her slink through this role like a Siamese cat. But it gets better. Ian Hart's performance, as a the schizophrenic Don who will do anything (even sacrifice his own fingers) to get the shot for Lucy, is one of those performances that makes the entire show worth watching. Just to see him. It's a one-of-a-kind character, the sympathetic paparazzo, whose schizophrenia opens up the show to some surreal visual moments involving talking cats, talking corpses and a showdown between two Dons. This is Emmy worthy stuff and the relationship between Don and Lucy is kind of sweet.

Maybe Carnahan and the Arquettes are to angry at the paparazzi and it's clouding the teleplays. "Dirt" is an nasty, unpleasant show that many times, despite such fine performances form the leads, is a hard hour to get through. It's ugly/sleazy like "Nip/Tuck" seasons 4 and 5, not fun/sleazy like "Nip/Tuck" seasons 1 and 2. If you know what I mean.

What really grinds my gears about the show is the "ripped from the headlines" vibe it pushes on us in which it takes actual celebrities and scandals and simply re-creating the events. The would-be satire is as transparent and amateurishly thrown together as anything I've ever seen. "Dirt" characters stand in for Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Remember when Britney locked her kids in the car? Remember when David Hasselhof got drunk and ate steak off the floor? And remember about 5 years ago when Madonna and Britney Spears lip-locked at the VMAs? Yeah, real timely "Dirt". So in addition to being years after "South Park" has covered the respective celebrity ground, "Dirt" add no next-level insight. In the hands of someone else, someone like Ryan Murphy, "Dirt" could have made one wild & crazy dark comedy. "Nip/Tuck" at it's worst is still a challenge.

The show can't quite achieve the ambitious feat it is trying to pull off. And there in lies my love/hate for it. It goes for the celebrity culture jugular, but does so in such a shallow way that it can't quite articulate it's point and falls flat time and again. It tries to take us into the world of the paparazzi, showing us just how sleazy they are but is unable to keep from rising up from that sleaze itself to get to that necessary pedestal where it can look down upon it condescendingly. Which is what we need.

The characters do what they are supposed to do, no they are not likable and they aren't supposed to be - but you've still got to give me some reason to stick with them. This anti-hero stuff is right up FXs ally which makes it all the more disappointing (and a little perplexing) to watch "Dirt" break the network's roll of high quality output.

* * / 4

I wasn't planning on watching this show. Don't get me wrong, I like Courteney Cox, but it just didn't feel like my type of show, based on the previews. However, after coming down with the flu, I was left to a few sick days and I happened across the pilot. First the good, it drew me in. I was just flipping through and it caught me and made me want to watch. It was dark, it was edgy, it felt different from most other things on television. However, it also felt like either something was missing from the show or that I was the kid at the far end of the table left out of the joke. I liked the characters, quite a bit more than I probably should have, but something was not right with the story. I'm not sure whether it was the intentional choppiness to try and represent the story of the schizophrenic photographer, or the fact that it bounced back and forth too much between story lines.

I don't think I'm going to give up on this show. But, for it to stick, it needs a little bit of re-working and making the show something more than simply edgy.

Watched this again recently and it still holds up very well, especially the first season, not so much the second. I was never a fan of Courteney Cox but she's perfect in this role as a ruthless magazine editor, very charismatic and beautiful too, as is Laura Allen as the conflicted and compromised star.

What saves it from being just a guilty pleasure is the stylish directing, often witty writing, and the production's overall willingness to take risks -- a schizophrenic photographer as a main character is one of many such risks that pays off.

Wow, an excellent cast and an original, gritty hardcore plot...kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Up there with Dexter and Breaking Bad. Very upset that it was canceled. Courtney Cox was great and her side-kick photographer is brilliant. The special effects and the way they present the story is unique and very well done. Great, great acting! Good job Courtney! Why on earth would something like this be taken off the air. One of the best shows I have seen in a long time. I was not going to watch it as the cover was pretty lame, but what lay inside the watch it now on Netflix was a treasure. They should bring something like this back or something similar to it. It uncovers the world we live in today and the lengths we will go to to expose people and their private lives.

I loved Dirt, Basically because Courtney got to be the ruthless story hungry b*ch I'd come to love through the Scream Series. And the character of Lucy Spiller is like Gail divorced Dewy in order to run 2 magazines.

Lucy sets up pratfalls for the celebrity community around her. A community she navigates in and out of with an uncommon ease. She also is very aware of her place among them. She runs the PEOPLE magazine rip off called Now - in which she has the power to build a career for stars and starlets with heartwarming pieces on them. But she also runs Drrt the STAR ripoff - that has the ability to break them.

And she's more concerned with the breaking. Using the leverage she has she employs a young talent who made a few bombs and got dropped by the industry to tattle on his friends. And when he does consequences arise.

But what makes Lucy one of the coolest maneaters on television is that she does have a heart albeit, a very small one. Or at least a warm spot for her photographer who's got some heavy duty mental problems. Also she shows the cracks in her tightly glossed veneer after taking a new love interest home and then tasering him the next morning when she thinks he only slept with her to get a foot in the door. All in all, this might be a nice follow up to the Nip/Tuck dark sadonic tone.