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October 02, 2007

The Riches

The Riches

A new drama from the US, a sort of cross between Desperate Housewives and The Sopranos, this one is most notable for it's interesting casting. Hugh Laurie and Ian McShane have been waving the flag for Britain recently in 'House and 'Deadwood', convincing the native population in the US apparently that they aren't upper class twits, or sleazy antiques dealers, but true born and bred yanks. So now the powers that be in TV have taken what would have been until very recently the most unlikely Eddie Izzard and given him a chance to pretend he is a gypsy from America's deep south. The accent is all over the place in my opinion, maybe he'll grow into it. Maybe no one will care as long a he keeps throwing in the funny one-liners. The beard is maybe a mistake, and he needs to get some trousers cut to the correct length as the material clumping at his ankles make him look a bit small in the long shots. He is, as always though, very watchable and you want him to be in every single scene.

As his partner in crime and on screen wife is yet another Brit, the implausably named Minnie Driver. This casting isn't quite so hard to believe, as many people think she is American already having seen her in films like "Gross Point Blank" and the massive "Good Will Hunting". Some attractive actresses seem to think their looks are a drawback, and choose roles against type to prove how talented they are. Helena Bonham Carter turned her back on costume dramas and went as far as dressing as a monkey to disguise herself. Driver hasn't gone that far here, but as she emerges from prison at the start of this episode, with her stringy hair, drawn expression, and throaty gutteral southern drawl, she does a very good job of coming over as the lowlife she is portraying. I anticipate much more make-up and expensive clothes later in the series to make the most of the contrast that is obviously being set up.

As to the plot itself, the premise actually has a lot of promise. We have a family of travellers who make their living moving from town to town in a campervan stealing and swindling. There is a big community of these people, but all is not well with inter family feuds coming to a head when they try to force Izzard's daughter into an arranged marriage. The family flee, and when fate throws an opportunity into their laps, Izzard sees it as a chance at a fresh start as a normal family living the American dream.

I can see the family's new life, pretending to be people that aren't, and under constant threat from being discovered both by their new friends, and by the gypsy families, as being one which has a huge potential for drama, and for comedy. I hope they let some of Izzard's ad-libs though; I've read that he did quite a bit and that they had to cut a lot of it out, so maybe the DVD extras will be worth watching. I think the first episode was good, but was obviously trying to pack a lot of back story in for the future and suffered a little for that. I really hope the potential it has is realised in weeks to come.

Update:
Appallingly late update, apologies. I watched another three or four episodes, but kept forgetting it was on, and eventually gave up. If you are forcing yourself to watch a program, then something is wrong. I think it was the complete unbelievability of the plot. This plot could have worked, but the writing was bad, and didn't do enough to convince us that, in particular, Izzard's character could wing it as a lawyer. Driver's character was just a whining waste of space. And those accents, terrible. How it got renewed for a second season I'll never know.

Posted by se71 at October 2, 2007 09:50 AM

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