Cynical Cinema

The Riches is a TV series that airs on FX in the States and on Showcase here in Canada. The first episode of Season Two airs on Showcase tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern time. It’s very good. The show stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver as Wayne and Dahlia Malloy, the parents in a family of traveling con artists. In the last season, they got into a car accident that killed a wealthy couple named the Riches. Rather than going back to the itinerant lifestyle to which they are accustomed, the Malloys decide to upgrade their status in life by assuming the identity of the Riches. Izzard pretends to be Doug Rich, a lawyer, and the con is going successfully. At the end of season one, their scheme is discovered by Pete (Arye Gross) who is a friend of the real Riches. Pete is threatening to blow the whistle when Dale (Dahlia’s cousin) bludgeons him to death. Izzard and Driver are very funny, and the rest of the cast is fantastic as well.

The series is compelling and unusual. It is certainly like nothing I’ve seen before. Season two opens with Wayne (Doug Rich) discovering that Pete has been murdered by Dale, and a tense confrontation ensues involving a security guard, a gun, a lot of booze, Dale, Wayne, and Hugh Panetta (Gregg Henry). Hugh is a real estate mogul with a massive amount of money, a substance abuse problem, a wife who has just left him, and a gun. Wayne is now forced to accept Dale as a partner in crime, while Dahlia and the family are away and on the run. Season Two of The Riches is starting off, tonight, with a tense showdown and a lot of good old fashioned grifter fun.