TV REVIEW: ‘Dirt’ Spotlights Over-the-Top Guilty Pleasure Performances by Courteney Cox and Ian Hart
By David M. KinchenEditor, Huntington News Network
Hinton, WV (HNN) – “Dirt,” the new series on FX, inhabits the realm of guilty pleasures, with excellent performances by two actors born in 1964: Courteney Cox, playing celebrity tabloid editor Lucy Spiller and British actor Ian Hart playing her schizophrenic photographer Don Kinney.
I caught the pilot of the mini-series on the rebound, having missed
last
Tuesday’s premiere. That’s one thing I like about FX: Shows are
repeated for
those of use lacking Tivo or who lead busy lives – or both. The show
airs at
10 p.m. (ET) Tuesdays on the basic cable network that approaches
premium
cable daring (“Nip/Tuck” on FX is an excellent case in point and such
edgy
series as “Rescue Me” and “The Shield” reinforce my case).
Cox clearly enjoys her “Prada Devil” role as the amoral Lucy, who, in the words of a one-night stand (male) treats men the way men treat women. She’s beautiful and fires staffers at the drop of a hat, especially if they diss her. One magazine isn’t enough for the 5-foot-5 bundle of energy that is Lucy: She’s in charge of middle-of-the-road NOW! and more edgy DRRT! (not a typo, that’s how it’s spelled!)
As much as I enjoyed the scenery chewing performance of Cox, It was Liverpool-born Ian Hart as the “last pap [paparazzi] to use film” – virtually all of them use digital cameras – that grabbed my interest from the start. The pilot shows the full extent of Don’s schizo behavior with special visual effects and sheer acting ability.
Don’s cat Tristan – who is also his best friend – is dying of cancer and he’s in the melt-down mode. Lucy relies on Don not only as a lensman but as a fixer to get celebrities to rat out their friends for favorable treatment in her magazines. By the way, I think it’s smart that he uses film: It covers him and the magazine in the case of lawsuit involving charges of “Photoshopping” digital images, a la the Reuters incident in last summer’s war in Lebanon. Lucy has the film to show doubters and ward off potential lawsuits.
There’s a West Virginia connection with FX, with Parkersburg native Morgan Spurlock, 36, (“Super Size Me”) launching an FX series, “30 Days” in June 2005. The latest news, courtesy of HNN entertainment writer Tony Rutherford, is that six new episodes of “30 Days” have been ordered for the show’s third season by the edgy network. Spurlock grew up in Beckley and is a New York City resident.
Shock value aside, I’ve found the shows on FX to be among the best on TV. “Dirt” may not be the best of the lot – “Nip/Tuck” and “Rescue Me” are my favorites – but I’m giving it a look in the coming weeks. Don Kinney reminds me of all the eccentric photographers I’ve met and worked with in five decades of journalism. Photographers are indeed the drummers of journalism!
Writing and creative credits: Matthew Carnahan, Joel Fields, David Flebotte, Chris Long, Thea Mann, Sacha Schneider. Courteney Cox (in her first series role since “Friends” went off the air) is also the executive producer, as is her husband, actor David Arquette.