So I'm catching up on my Dirty Sexy Money last night, and I almost did a spit-take when Kenny G (pictured) cameo'd to play a funeral. When I recovered, I phoned my friend Sheila to ask (a) if "the song(s) you want played at your funeral" is too morbid a subject to blog about (she said no, then launched into that "Tell Laura I Love Her" scene from High Fidelity) and (b) what her song(s) would be. She said when she was a rebellious teen, she wanted Elvis Costello's "God's Comic", but now that she's mature, she's leaning toward Duran Duran's "Ordinary World." ("Everybody knows I love them, and of their songs, I feel it's the most appropriate.")
I know one of my songs will be Sam Cooke's "You Send Me." In 2005, when I wrote its entry for EW's list of the 25 greatest love songs, I said, "If heaven exists, this song is playing there." So it's both a sweet inside joke that no one will get, but it makes me smile and a subtle tribute to that side of my personality that I like to refer to as "excitable."
What's on your playlist?
First of all, can we discuss Karen Darling's (Natalie Zea) dress at Nick's birthday party? Yeah, I know Simon Elder was all like "my new fuel can solve the energy crisis," but the greater scientific achievement was how that hella deep neckline plunge did not result in a wardrobe malfunction. No wonder all time and sound and breathing seemed to stop when she and Nick (Peter Krause) swept past each other with that meaningful glance. Sure, he'd seen her in her birthday suit (that + grappa = very thoughtful gift) earlier in the day in his office, yet somehow that the sight of her in that dress was significantly more scandalous.
Yet as much as I love love love Karen Darling -- I can almost hear her responding with a curt "Wow. Thank you. I think you're really neat, too." -- does anyone else find it totally obscene that she and her father have devised a corporate espionage scheme against Mr. Elder that involves her having sex with the guy? (Perhaps she's Tripp's favorite because, like him, she'll do anything to help the family business.) That final confrontation between Karen and Simon -- the one where he kept referencing her "Daddy" -- made me shudder a little, although I appreciate the fact that the writers remain staunchly ambiguous as to whether Karen's feelings for Simon are, in fact, real (see: returned vial of fuel) or if her character is a terrific actress with ice running through her veins (see: stolen crystal swan). And I was glad to see that crystal swan incident meant Simon doesn't quite have the emotional and intellectual advantage he thinks he does. Team Karen!
Dirty Sexy Money returns tonight for its long-awaited second season (ABC, 10 p.m. ET), and we're all over it: I had actor Glenn Fitzgerald (a.k.a. Brian Darling) shoot behind-the-scenes photos for us as the cast filmed its first two episodes. Pictured, left, are William Baldwin and Peter Krause enjoying some downtime. Check out the rest of the gallery here.
Carrie Bell sat down with the charming/gorgeous trio of Krause, Blair Underwood (Simon Elder), and EWwy nominee Natalie Zea (Karen Darling) to find out what's in store for season 2. Watch the video below and tell me if there's anything hotter than hearing Krause use the word heinie. I think not.
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Now that the Emmy semifinalist lists for Supporting Actors and Actresses in dramas have been leaked, it's time to vent. First, it's clear there's no love lost between Lost and the Emmy voters. Yeah, the cast is huge, but seriously, no room on the shortlist for Terry O'Quinn, who won the statuette last year? None for Henry Ian Cusick (upper left), who had the most emotionally satisfying character arc of season 4? None for Yunjin Kim (lower left), who had the most devastating arc? I'm also bummed that Robert Sean Leonard didn't get noticed for his heartbreaking turn on House (but then, the Emmys have never given the lead actor prize to Hugh Laurie either, incredibly enough). And like Gold Derby's Tom O'Neil, I'm irked that Friday Night Lights' Connie Britton isn't there, nor January Jones from Mad Men, though her co-star, hot-to-trot office manager Christina Hendricks (lower right), deservingly made the cut. (As O'Neil bluntly puts it: "In: Floozies. Out: Whiny wives with emotional baggage and babies.")
Actually, what's in, at least on the actress list, is Emmy royalty, women the Academy seems to recognize reflexively because of their pedigrees, regardless of whether they did extraordinary work this year. I enjoyed Rachel Griffiths on Brothers & Sisters and Jill Clayburgh on Dirty Sexy Money, but I'd toss them both overboard without remorse to get Britton or Kim on this list. There's some of that on the men's list, too (Shatner? Again? Really?), but I am happy to see Ted Danson (upper right) here for his chilly turn on Damages; Lost-ies Naveen Andrews and Michael Emerson; John Slattery for his Mad Men boss (and not, thankfully, his Desperate Housewives villain); Blair Underwood for his In Treatment patient (and not, thankfully, for his mysterious mogul on DSM); and Jake Weber for his understanding hubby on Medium. (Did I just see Michael Slezak doing a cartwheel past my office?)
Your turn, TV experts: Who are you pleased to see on these lists? Which of your favorites didn't make the semifinals? (Hey, where's cuddly Heroes standout Masi Oka?) And what else of interest do these lists reveal? (I'm glad Burn Notice mom Sharon Gless is in the running, but in the dramatic category? If Monk is a comedy, how is BN a drama?) Have at it, below.
Don't you just love Karen Darling? As her proud papa rightly points out, she's clearly the most capable of the Darling clan. And she reveals several shades of her competence in this jam-packed episode, which marks a reunion of sorts for Peter Krause fans, since it's co-written by veteran Six Feet Under scribe Jill Soloway (along with series co-creator Craig Wright).
Last week, we saw Karen craftily getting a drugged-up Patrick to sign some mysterious papers while hospitalized — perhaps carrying the water for mom and getting the charges dropped against half-brother Brian. This week, she's still in bed (literally) with Tripp's arch-rival, Lando — Simon Elder. Only it appears that she's doing so at the bidding of dear old dad. (He was doubtless talking to Karen when he made a phone call to a mysterious informant to find out why Simon was seeking five years' worth of Darling financial data from Nick.) The twist is that Karen may be going off-message and actually falling for the shady, pill-popping, cherry lemonade-swigging "Russian," particularly after getting the blessing of Simon's royal ex-wife, who met him after plunking her head into his boat while swimming in the ocean. (Seriously, swimming in the ocean at night? Who does that?) But despite the fresh dalliance, Karen still seems to have some chemistry with longtime crush Nick, particularly at the family's annual Nutcracker staging at the Darling mansion.
Speaking of Nick, it's hard to make out exactly what he's up to. Just as he's beginning to warm to Karen and feel all brotherly-protective (or is it jealous?) toward her, cozily sitting beside her during the ballet, he goes and makes nice with the wifey with whom he still has not the faintest spark of chemistry. He even goes so far as to suggest that they sire another sibling for Kiki. Ironically, this comes after Lisa has been flirting with another member of the Darling clan: the irresistible Jeremy.
You know I love this show, right? But this episode, "The Watch," really underwhelmed me. Maybe it was the script, which seemed to have fewer zingers than usual. Or maybe it was the Velveeta-rich flashback sequences in which we finally meet Nick's late dad, Dutch (Peter Strauss, the veteran of late '70s made-for-TV movies like Jericho Mile and Rich Man, Poor Man, is forced to utter such clichés as "I wasn't there for him"). Come to think of it, those flashbacks were definite low points, underwritten sequences that even came primed with tinkly piano music on the soundtrack. It all seemed very...daytime soap.
And let's talk about the daytime plot points. First and foremost, there's the revelation that Brian is the product of Tish's adulterous affair with Dutch. (Yes, some of us have suspected as much for some time.) Tish fesses up to Nick and then to Brian, who are both pretty shaken--though they end up forging a stained-glass-lit reconciliation that was better scripted than most of the episode and yet still rather puzzling. "This is what church is for," Brian tells Nick, "dragging the ruined past through the messy present into the perfect future, and ruining it. Together." Sure, it sounds lofty and poetic. But what the heck does it mean? (I was half-expecting him to start talking about his coon hounds, à la Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows, the book whose ending he spoiled for Nick as a kid. Either that or singing that Sonic Youth song.) Still, I appreciate that Brian has softened a bit since we first met him, even if his hyperactive immature side continues to get the best of him from time to time.
Like last week, when he tried to bribe the arbitrator in the custody case over Brian Jr. The fallout from that stunt comes early this week, as he loses custody of his son and gets arrested for what Nick reminds Tripp and Tish is a "class C felony." Tripp wants him to do jail time, to teach him a lesson, I guess (out of spite for not being his son, one supposes), but Tish goes behind everyone's back to get the charges dropped. Oddly, the supposedly Darling-obsessed press never catches a whiff of this news--though the arrest came in a public courtroom! And you'd think that Attorney General Patrick Darling would have something to say about this, right?
Who'd have guessed it? Turns out there's a legitimate explanation for how Blair Underwood, a fellow who once played Jackie Robinson, can pass himself off as the Russian orphan-turned-American billionaire Lando--I mean, Simon Elder.
And that's just one of the highlights from this very full pre-Thanksgiving meal at the Darlings. Plot-wise, this episode was more stuffed than a Butterball.
Nick arranges a powwow between Simon and Tripp, with Tripp's newly estranged son Patrick tagging along for no particular reason (he had the role usually played by Nick's wife, Lisa, for much of this episode). There, Tripp unloads the backstory: Seems Simon's parents were African-American servants who worked for Tripp's parents; Simon's dad had an affair with Tripp's mom; Simon's folks were also Communist sympathizers and since it was the '50s, they found they had to flee the U.S. for the Soviet Union; Nick's own dad, Darling lawyer Dutch, apparently tried to get them deported by leaking incriminating info to the State Department; the Elders ended up in a Siberian work camp, where they died and left young Simon an orphan. Oh, and Simon's a vegetarian and drives--product placement alert!--a Mercedes Maybach. Phew! Got all that? Is it time for pumpkin pie yet?
So, now there's an explanation for Simon's apparent grudge against Tripp, whose Darling Plaza he demolishes by the end of the episode (though I can't imagine that any New York developer could get the permits to raze a building that quickly, let alone one quite so historic-looking). But Simon could also have a grudge against Dutch; perhaps he caused the plane crash that killed Nick's dad. To further complicate matters, Simon plants the notion that Tripp may have been responsible for the assassination of his own brother, Kenneth. (Foreshadowing alert: Two people implicated Tripp, though they were discredited as suspects in the killing. How long before Nick chases them down?)
This just in: I'm having a mojito on my way home from work tonight. And not just because I'm going to need some liquid courage to survive The Bachelor season finale at 10 p.m. No, PopWatchers, I'm in celebratory mode because Dirty Sexy Money -- my favorite new fall show -- has been picked up for a full season by the suits at ABC. In the words of my favorite dysfunctional Darling, Karen (wickedly hilarious Natalie Zea, left), explaining her wedding-day requirements to her preacher brother Brian (hilariously wicked Glenn Fitzgerald, right) last week: "All we need is 'have and hold,' 'sickness and health,' and an open bar." Okay, maybe that quote doesn't have anything to do with anything, but if it made even a few of you non-fans curious about this week's Thanksgiving-eve episode, then it was totally worth it. So who's with me on raising a glass to Dirty Sexy Money's good news? Hip, hip…(that's where you say "Hurrah!")
(No, I didn't already have that mojito, and I don't appreciate the insinuation!)
