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Yeah, I’m awesome and this show is awesome and no more questions.

Of all the new shows this fall, the greatest single moment comes early in ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money. Peter Krause’s character Nick is attending the funeral of his father, the former lawyer to the rich and powerful Darling family. Once inside the doors of St. Patrick’s Cathedral Nick shakes hands with Brian, one of the Darling sons and an ordained priest. Brian hates Nick and after a brief exchange, dressed in full saintly black with the ubiquitous white collar mutters a hilarious and bitter, “I hate you.” For my money (which is, I guess, none given that it’s broadcast TV), that one line reading sold the show. It is, after all, funny to see priests swear, fight and generally hate people around him — Brian does all of these things in the premiere episode, and he’s only one of the five Darling children. More after the jump…

The next half-hour or so is a madcap romp through the ridiculously wealthy as Nick attempts to keep the family out of trouble after agreeing to take over his dad’s job as the family’s lawyer — on the condition of the Darlings giving him a good chunk of money that he can give away to his various do-gooder charities. It also happens to be impeccably acted and super-funny.

A lot of the fun comes from Krause who is clearly enjoying himself. It’s easily his most “fun” performance since Sports Night, though I suppose that isn’t saying a whole lot given Six Feet Under’s love of the manic yell/cry. Here he soaks up the screen as a veritable Michael Bluth of Manhattan. In one of the pilots funniest gags we see him frequently interupted by cell phone calls, each with an increasingly wacky ring-tones, by members of the family in dire need of his help.

The family is broken down thusly: the father, Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland) is wealthy for reasons that don’t seem all that important. He’s married to Letitia Darling who we learn was having an affair with Nick’s dad for decades (can you say, “hidden relations”?). Their kids are Patrick (William Baldwin), a future senator who happens to be in love with a tranny hooker. There’s Karen, a serial romantic who has yet to get over her first love, who happens to be Nick. Brian is the aforementioned priest. He has a bastard son, and just hates Nick with a passion. This leads to a fight in the family’s mansion’s foyer where Nick tackles him and then pulls his ear: funny. The two youngest, who may be twins though it is unclear, are Juliet and Jeremy. One is a Paris Hilton type, the other is a drugged out party-guy who wins a boat in a card game at Ethan Hawke’s place.

It’s basically Arrested Development with an added murder mystery — though I suppose that show had its share of murder mysteries as well (George Sr. in Mexico… maybe that’s it). Honestly, for Dirty Sexy Money the mystery (who killed Nick’s dad? Is he even dead?) is the series weakest element. Sure, it gives the episodes a strong narrative thread and gives Nick a reason to continue working for these people he finds mentally crazy and morally bankrupt, but it is easily the least affective part of the narrative. Personally, I’d love if the series were little more than Nick bailing the family out of zany situations. Zany can get you a long way (i.e. Ed), and really what has murder ever helped us with (thanks a lot Cane!).

Either way, Dirty Sexy Money is good TV. Easily some of the best of the new crop.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 10:09 pm and is filed under ABC, Dirty Sexy Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.