todd stashwick-related stories
Posted Apr 23rd 2008 8:43AM by Brett Love
Filed under: The Riches, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S02E06) Here we are, with the next to last episode of the season, and I found it just a little strange. Perhaps I was reading too much into the fact that there is only one more episode to go. Or, perhaps the strike just did more damage to the flow of the season than I am giving credit for. But this didn't feel like an episode setting us up for a big conclusion/cliff hanger. I'm left thinking there are a whole lot of irons in that fire that need to be dealt with next week. While it wasn't what I expected, there were some very interesting developments in Eden Falls this week.
Continue reading The Riches: Dead Caelm
Posted Apr 16th 2008 8:39AM by Brett Love
Filed under: OpEd, The Riches, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S02E05) Right about now, some of the Malloys should probably be having some second thoughts about returning to Eden Falls. The lure of big money is hard to resist, but it's certainly not going to be easy money. The dark turn to their adventure continues in episode five as we find Dahlia continuing to struggle with her new triple life, Pete causing more trouble for Wayne, and young Cael striking out and getting some story all his own.
Continue reading The Riches: Trust Never Sleeps
Posted Apr 8th 2008 11:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Riches, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S02E04) Use any cliché you want: this is the episode where the chickens come home to roost, the shit hits the fan, the bill comes due, the Malloys have to pay the piper, etc. etc. What we do know at the end of this episode is that Wayne is starting to get in over his head, and even he knows that his conning skills are only going to get him so far. He's been able to dig himself and his family out of the messes they've created to this point, but this one is a doozy. Not only is he going up against a guy that's probably an even bigger con artist than he is, but also this guy doesn't have any semblance of a conscience. Talk about a deadly combination.
Continue reading The Riches: Slums of Bayou Hills
Posted Apr 1st 2008 11:06PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: The Riches, Episode Reviews
(S02E03) Well, the Malloys are back in Eden Falls, living life as the Riches. And all hell's about to break loose.
That's the situation we have in this episode. Wayne's trying to keep the big deal Hugh brokered alive while Hugh searches for his mojo. Dale is stalking around Panco looking for a job so he can be in on the deal. Only we know that the lummox has some information and a hell of a lot of muscle behind him. And Dahlia is having yet another crisis involving her sense of place in the world. Oh, and then we have the kids: Cael wants out, DiDi wants to fit in, and Sam wonders why there's blood stains on the stairs.
Looks like we're entering the darkest part of the tunnel in this show, aren't we?
Continue reading The Riches: Field of Dreams
Posted Mar 25th 2008 11:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Riches, Episode Reviews
(S02E02) For the second week in a row, Wayne spends most of the episode separated from the rest of his family, cleaning up the messes he got in at the end of the first season. In fact, we're pretty much where we left off in last week's
season premiere, with Wayne trying to figure out what to do with Hugh and Dale while also trying to figure out how to dispose of poor Pete. Meanwhile, Dahlia, Nina, and the kids try to steal a van but are caught by a stressed out man with a big gun and an itchy trigger finger.
What this sets up is, in a lot of ways, a "scam of the week" episode, something we saw a lot of last season. But I get the feeling this might be the last one we see for a while, mainly because the "big scam," which is Hugh's massive development deal, is going to swallow up not only the Malloys, but everyone around them.
Continue reading The Riches: Friday Night Lights
Posted Mar 18th 2008 11:03PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Riches, Episode Reviews
(S02E01) As much as I liked the first season of
The Riches, I thought the show had a couple of basic flaws. First, it seemed like too many episodes were about the con of the week rather than the "big con," which was the Malloys trying to pass for the Riches. But the most fundamental flaw of the entire first season was that, well... we just didn't find enough of a reason to like the Malloys. As despicable as the characters around them in Eden Falls were, we still felt that they were the victims of this family of Irish Travelers stealing the American Dream.
I think Dimitry Lipkin realized this, as the abbreviated second season of
The Riches brings us a number of seedy characters that are so heinous that it makes the Malloys look like heroes. The season premiere just sets the table for what's to come.
Continue reading The Riches: The Last Temptation of Wayne (season premiere)
Posted Jun 5th 2007 7:08AM by Brett Love
Filed under: The Riches, Episode Reviews
(
S01E13) Well, there you have it. The big finale for the first season of
The Riches. The thing that strikes me about the season is how much it was not what I was expecting. What we ended up seeing was very different than what the promotion FX tossed out all those months ago led one to expect. And I think that was a good thing.
This was a much darker show than those voiced over commercials with Wayne and Dahlia walking down the staircase hinted at. The Malloy family has some serious issues. But at the end of the day, they are a family, and that drives everything they do.
Continue reading The Riches: Waiting for Dogot (season finale)
Posted May 29th 2007 10:22AM by Brett Love
Filed under: The Riches, Episode Reviews
(
S01E12) With just one episode to go in the season, the dominoes have started to fall. We've seen the Malloy family wriggle their way out of some tight spots. After this episode, you really have to wonder just how they are going to do it again. Some kind of a showdown with Dale was inevitable from the get go, but the new twists with Nina and Pete really add fuel to the fire.
Give the writers credit for some nice planning with Pete (Arye Gross). Cael found the emails from him early on and I had wondered if and when they were going to deal with that. Wayne's plan to just play dumb seemed a little crazy, but what other option did they really have? It did make for quite the crazy scene for the "Mont Pierres."
Continue reading The Riches: It's A Wonderful Lie
Posted May 22nd 2007 12:45AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Riches, Episode Reviews
(S01E11) Remember when
Third Rock From the Sun had been on for a few seasons, and the Solomons had assimilated so fully into earth society that the show became no longer interesting to watch? I sometimes wonder if that's what's going to happen to
The Riches; The Malloys become so ingrained in the fabric of Eden Falls that they become too "normal" for viewers to care about.
You can see evidence of that happening in this episode. DiDi is really becoming more buffer-like every day; she's studying, she has a boyfriend, and she wants to break away from the Traveler lifestyle she's known her whole life. Dahlia alternately wants to do whatever is necessary to stay in Eden Falls and whatever she can to separate herself from it. And Wayne has to play the game, even though he hates himself for it. But what might prevent this show from sliding into the abyss of boredom is that all of it is built on a lie, and how long the Malloys can maintain that lie is the engine that keeps this show going.
Continue reading The Riches: Anything Hugh Can Do I Can Do Better
Posted May 15th 2007 10:22AM by Brett Love
Filed under: The Riches, Episode Reviews
(S01E10) The fallout from the dinner party in "Cinderella" hit this week, and it made for one crazy ride. This is also the episode that switched my thinking from "Eddie Izzard, the comic, is doing a great job as Wayne" to, "Eddie Izzard is an actor." The writers heaped a heavy load on his back this week and he answered with what was an amazing performance.
Things got off to a great start with Wayne and Dahlia's fight over the drugs that Chunky left behind. It's interesting that he walked in on her before she could decide which way she was going. I think that she would have flushed the stuff eventually, but we'll never know for sure. The chaotic argument after Wayne snorted a handful of the crank was fantastic. Dahlia's reaction, "Of all the assholic things you have done, this is the most assholic." summed it up nicely. That was such a crazy thing to do that it warranted brand new words to describe it.
Continue reading The Riches: This Is Your Brain On Drugs
Posted Apr 24th 2007 12:42AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, The Riches, Episode Reviews
(S01E07) Guns. Money. Blackmail. Threats. We knew that when the Malloys made their way back to the Traveler village for Earl's funeral that there'd be trouble. But little did we know that there'd be so much of it.
What's amazing about this episode was that, with everything going on, viewers were pretty easily able to keep track of the various machinations. The cost was a decided lack of heart-palpitating tension. I really expected, with the Malloys re-entering the fold for the first time since Wayne stole the family money and buggered off with his family, that we'd be seeing more action.
But
The Riches isn't about action. It's about relationships. And, boy, did we find out a lot about those relationships tonight.
Continue reading The Riches: Virgin Territory
Posted Mar 27th 2007 1:01AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, FX, The Riches
(S01E03) Things are starting to settle in for the Malloys, and their new lives as the Riches, and this is where the fun starts. As I watched the first two episodes, I was waiting for the series to get into a routine and show the Malloys faking and conning their way through life at Eden Falls. I just felt during these cons we'd see the lighter touches that the show's casting and premise indicated would be there.
And this third episode doesn't disappoint.
Continue reading The Riches: Operation Education
Posted Mar 20th 2007 7:30AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Cable, FX, The Riches
(S01E02) This week the Malloy family continues their transition into their new lives. The episode felt like a part two to the premiere as it ended with a bit of resolution for everyone, finally acknowledging that they are really going to do this. Now that they have committed, we can move forward with the story and let the drama and hijinks begin.
We'll get to all of that in the coming weeks though. For now, there are setup fish to fry. For me, the best part of this episode was how they showed each of the characters dealing with all of these changes. Of those, I thought Dahlia's story was the most interesting. The burying of the money and the towing of the RV both served to show hard it is for Dahlia to let go of her old life.
Continue reading The Riches: Believe The Lies
Posted Mar 11th 2006 6:21PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, Talent
Lots of casting news
today in
The
Hollywood Reporter.
Dylan McDermott has joined the cast of the ABC
drama,
A House Divided. It's about a rift between a midwestern farming community and the federal government. I
wish I knew more because, wow, that sounds like a snoozer. Sarah Clarke (aka 'Nina' on
24) is also part of the
cast. She plays the wife of the lead character, which might just be McDermott.
Wendie Malick, of
Just Shoot Me and
Jake in Progress, has
been cast in the ABC comedy pilot,
A Day in the Life. The show is about a young couple's wedding day, from
different points of view (I imagine it'll have to advance past the wedding day). Malick plays the mother of the
bride.
Other casting news:
Continue reading McDermott, Malick join ABC pilots
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