FX cancels “The Riches”

Unfortunately, the Season Pass list on our Tivo just got a little leaner with the announcement this week that FX is cancelling one of our favorite shows ever, the pitch-black satire of American consumerism, “The Riches”.

Maybe it was too dark, or too weird, or, hell, maybe it was too freaking awesome for TV! But for whatever reason, the brainiacs at FX have decided to let the show go the way of it’s God-awful sister show “Dirt”. Cancelling “Dirt” I understand, that show was just plain stupid, and Courtney Cox? Wow…bad.

But “The Riches” had it all, baby! Juicy storytelling, totally original characters, a super cool concept — a family of modern-day gypsy “travelers” assumes the identities of a normal, all-American “buffer” family in the burbs in an attempt to go straight — and some of the best acting you’ve ever seen on the small screen.

Sure, the leads were awesome, Eddie Izzard can do no wrong in my book, and Minnie Driver’s tragically-flawed character broke our hearts on a nightly basis — I’m not kidding, yo, she rocked! — but this was a show were even the smallest part was amazing. Seriously, even the crazy, catatonic Grandma with like, four lines, was incredible.

And though the kids were all out-of-this-world-good, I gotta say our favorite character was Driver’s neighbor, Nina, played by the rocking Margo Martindale. Martindale has guest-starred in practically everything, but here she was given a chance to really explore a character over time, and she totally ran with it!

Married to a gay alpaca farmer — hilariously played by “Passions” regular, Bruce French — Martindale’s repressed, self-medicating housewife evolved over time into the one person Driver could truly confide in. In lesser hands, these crazy characters could become types, but Driver and Martindale made Dahlia and Nina into living, breathing women of substance, and watching their relationship blossom was really beautiful to watch.

And when Driver lied to her about something major on the season finale, and Martindale knew she was lying, the look on her face was just…wow…I mean, give this woman an Emmy already!

So, though we’ll never know how things turned out for the Malloy/Rich family and their strange, Southern-Gothic brood of extended friends, co-workers and enemies, I gotta tell ya, our lives have been richer — no pun intended — for knowing them. Rock on in rerun heaven, amigos!

Morgan Spurlock’s “30 Days”

Ever since we first saw his Oscar-nominated documentary “Super Size Me”, Christine and I have been huge fans of writer/director Morgan Spurlock. So much so that when the third season of his kick-ass show “30 Days” premiered on FX two weeks back, we were kinda glued to the Tivo.

If you haven’t watched yet, the concept is deceptively simple, each week someone is chosen to live in another person’s shoes for 30 days.

Spurlock has appeared in several episodes himself — most recently in this season’s first episode which found him working in a Virginia coal mine for 30 days — but usually he picks someone whose lifestyle and belief systems are exactly opposite of the life they will be living for 30 days.

Previous seasons have seen a born-again Christian living in a Muslim household, a homophobic straight man living with gays in San Francisco, an outsourced American tech worker living in India and working in a call center, and a hard-core minuteman from Texas living with a family of illegal immigrants in Los Angeles. If you think that sounds like a juicy set-up for a show…you’re right!

But while most other networks would tart everything up for the sake of the drama, FX has pretty much given Spurlock free reign to make “30 Days” into something truly unique. Not so much a show as a series of insightful, funny, and sometimes enormously-moving one hour films, “30 Days” is not to be missed.

Some people have criticized Spurlock for injecting himself into the drama too much and becoming kind of a Michael Moore-lite, but I could not disagree more. I mean, sure, sometimes Moore’s presence in his own films is distracting and tends to turn the proceedings into the Michael Moore show, but Morgan Spurlock has the exact opposite effect onscreen.

Whether it’s his goofy, everyman quality, or the fact that he just seems more likable than Moore, Spurlock has way more soul as a “character” and lacks the obvious political agenda that drives Moore towards some of his more outlandish stunts. That’s not to say Spurlock doesn’t try to steer the proceedings a bit — which of course, he does — but the thing I like about “30 Days” is that it just feels more heartfelt and real than anything Moore has churned out in recent years.

And better yet, Spurlock never tells you what to think, but rather presents the information to you “as is” and lets you decide what you think, which, hello, is kind of what a documentary is supposed to do, right?

Future episodes this season tackle such hot-button issues as gay families, anti-gun activism, life on an Indian reservation and this Tuesday’s episode which finds a hard-core hunter from Chapel Hill, NC moving into a home of Peta-loving vegans for 30 days.

While those all sound kind of awesome, I have to say that last Tuesday’s episode — which featured retired pro-football great Ray Crockett confined to life in a wheelchair for 30 days — was probably one of the best hours of television we’ve seen in years. If you can find it in repeats, WATCH IT!

Crockett’s struggles adjusting to life in the chair are one thing, but the wheelchair-bound people he met and befriended during his 30 days were just amazing. The paraplegic counselor working with the recently paralyzed, the tough-as-nails wheelchair rugby team featured in the documentary “Murderball” and most poignantly, the young girl recently confined to a wheelchair after a horrible accident.

The look on Crockett’s face as he sits in on the girl’s rehabilitation sessions is heartbreaking, and I defy you not to cry when she pulls herself up in bed for the first time since her accident. I’m not kidding, folks, this is cable television at its finest…really beautiful stuff.

The first two seasons of the show — which I highly recommend — have recently been released on DVD and the third season of “30 Days” airs Tuesday nights at 10pm on FX. Spurlock was quoted recently in Entertainment Weekly as saying that this Tuesday’s episode (the hunter/vegan family) is the best one of the season, so…what better time to check out “30 Days” for yourself?