What would fall TV viewing be without a juicy, soapy primetime saga to call our latest guilty pleasure? "Dirty Sexy Money," the one-hour drama airing this fall on CTV, follows the shadowy, salacious dealings of New York's ultra-rich Darling family--a clan fraught with the kind of double-dealings antics and hot designer dubs that once made Dynasty the talk of the office water cooler.
Taking its cue from the post-9/11 world we live in, the show's writer, Craig Wright, hopes the morally bereft characters he's crammed into his witty script will mirror the need for more justice and less injustice in today's world.
Wright is well-schooled at writing for the times, having worked on such shows as "Brothers & Sisters," "Lost" and "Six Feet Under."
"He feels we live in an incredibly complex time morally," Donald Sutherland (who stars as Tripp Darling) told eTalk. "He hopes it will be hugely successful. But what he really anticipates is that it will take over the kingdom that The Sopranos has vacated."
Those are some mighty big stilettos to douse with cement and send swimming with the fishes. But as Sutherland says, "The Sopranos was an indicator that audiences are fascinated by moral ambiguity." Wright's hope, he adds, is that the dizzying duplicity in this slick drama "Will engage people and move injustice towards justice."
With a cast that includes Jill Clayburgh (Letitia Darling), Samaire Armstrong (Tripp's daughter Juliet) and William Baldwin (Patrick Darling), the pilot centers around the sudden dilemma facing Nick George, an idealistic young lawyer played by Peter Krause from "Six Feet Under."
Do-gooder Nick is leading the perfect life away from his greenback loving relatives. But all that changes suddenly. His father dies under mysterious circumstances and he is asked by the family to take over the patriarch's job.
Nick agrees, believing that all that money, power and privilege will allow him to do even more good turns for his fellow man. But like any good deal with the devil, things turn out not as our hero had planned. Every step forward into the Darling's shady deals and silver-platted sinning pulls Nick back into a world that soon influences his actions and colours his moral conduct.
As Sutherland says, "It is dirty and it's really sexy, or at least we hope it will be sexy. Money's dangerous."
The U.S. producers didn't have to look far to prove that point and promote the show. Cashing in on the designer-toting, tabloid-loving dysfunction of the Paris Hilton frenzy, a mysterious plane has been seen recently circling above the jailbird heiress' West Hollywood home. Under it dangled a message reading, "We Love Paris, The Darling Family." On June 8, 2007, a full-page ad showed up with the same message in the New York Post.
Not to be limited by Paris' pink frills and pee-wee-sized pouches, the show has even enlisted the veteran journalist clout of Dan Rather to create some buzz. The former CBS anchorman and current host of Dan Rather Reports onHDNet will play a news reporter on an upcoming episode.
"Dirty Sexy Money" may lack the "Yo's," the strippers and the Tony Soprano shrink sessions we've come to love. But its juicy blend of scandal, sex and million-dollar mayhem cuts the money honey.
