Wednesday, April 9, 2008

You Should Be Watching...The Riches

Normal sucks. This is the sentiment echoed throughout FX's Emmy Award winning show, The Riches. The Riches (FX, Tuesdays 10PM) is actually about the Malloys, a family of travelers who are involved in a car accident that kills an upscale family named Riches. The Malloys, in an attempt to leave their Traveller life behind, assume the identity of the Riches. Yes, it sounds absurd, but the show's plot twist are so deftly intertwined that the incredibility of the plot is forgotten.

Eddie Izzard plays Wayne Malloy, the father and mastermind of the family. Minnie Driver stars as Dahlia Malloy, Wayne's wife and glue of the family. The rest of the Malloy children are Cael (Noel Fisher), Di Di (Shannon Marie Woodward), and Sam (Aidan Mitchell). They are each blessed with a wealth of intelligence and street smarts and an ability to con you out of everything including the lint in your pockets. The children's relationship with each other and their parents is interesting, but Izzard and Driver carry the show.

My one concern with the show is that it is built on a series of plot twists. This leads to the question of how long can the writers continue to pique the interest of the audience before the material turns stale. For now, in its second season, The Riches continues to get curiouser and curiouser and less normal each episode.

2 comments:

Jen Shin said...

I didn't know you watched this show! I've always wanted to check it out, I love Eddie Izzard. I'll netflix the first season, or wait for FX to run a marathon of it.

Zhivago3 said...

LOVE this show! We've been watching it since last season...

"Goddamit Wayne!"