Monday, April 28, 2008
"Dirt" on FX
The FX series Dirt was a real discovery for us. We had been searching hulu.com for something worth watching. The site gives the appearance of a dumping ground for the not very good. It was put up by entertainment companies as self-defense. At least they would be in control of content. Fox, Universal, NBC, many big names. (Here is a list provided by the wiki man: “Hulu carries shows from the USA Network, Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, Sci Fi, Style, Sundance, G4, and Oxygen channels.”) Re-purposing content is what the network execs would call it.
Dirt is a great show. The acting has a richness that is fully framed by the excellent directing and smart, funny scripts. The characters are given a real story arc — they change and learn or can't learn as the show evolves. I have to mention it again — the acting is just terrific. The part of the schizo principal photographer is wonderfully acted (the actor is English); he is a central character, but like any good show, everyone comes off well. Even the smallest part is embraced by actors doing wonderful turns. Cox herself plays the lead editor, a withheld, angry, damaged human property. The slight pull back in her manner is perfect — she exudes obsessive, ruthless predation.
The show is an exposé of the exposers. It is about the gossip rags and their world. You would think, given that Courteney Cox and David Arquette are the executive producers, and prey to the very predatory paparazzi harassment they portray, that they would delineate the denizens of this dubious world as flat characters — just creeps. (That last sentence was so alliterative I must be channeling Walter Winchell.)
But the scripts are smart, the presentation makes the point that these predators, who think of themselves as the top of the Hollywood food chain, making and breaking careers, are fully aware that often they are the ones who are being used by celebrities who are so hungry for fame that they help out, tip off, and beg these magazines for an article. The celebrity subjects of the gossip rags also view themselves as product. Being famous is all that is necessary in the entertainment industry according to this show — it doesn't matter for what. That seems to be confirmed by the value system embedded in the media culture in which we all swim.