KEY POINTS:
Love of money may be the root of all evil, as lawyer Nick George sanctimoniously intoned in the opening shots of Dirty Sexy Money, but it was a love of another kind that amalgamated all three words of the title in last night's debut on TV2.
Older brother
Patrick, one of six siblings in the Darlings, "the richest family in New York City", is an attorney-general, beady eyes firmly fixed on becoming a senator. One problem - married man Patrick is having an affair with Carmelita, a statuesque blonde with a very deep voice.
Carmelita turned up at the front door of the vast Darling mansion on the night mummy and daddy were having a party to celebrate 40 years of what looks like less than marital bliss.
Panicking Patrick dispatched Carmelita to a hotel, then sent a "Code Pink!" message to the brand new family lawyer, Nick (Six Feet Under's Peter Krause), who has reluctantly inherited the job after his Darling family lawyer father died in a plane crash.
Patrick, ever so credibly played by an eyebrow-twitching Billy Baldwin, wanted Nick to go to the hotel, give Carmelita a bunch of cash - and dump him/her. Dump your own transvestite hooker, advised Nick.
Nick didn't want the job in the first place, having grown up hating the Darlings for dominating his dad's life and wrecking his parents' marriage.
Nick is a do-gooding lawyer, working for kids' charities and making no money.
So when his father was killed, and patriarch Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland - how delicious to see him on screen) offered him $10 million a year to take over, he couldn't say no. You can do a lot of good with $10 million.
So with mobile phone ring tone cleverly keyed to whichever member of the Darling clan rings, Nick set off on day one. Boy, do they call him a lot.
There's young Jeremy (Seth Gabel), a likeable, bored stoner. Much-married Karen, about to get hitched again, lost her virginity years ago to ... Nick. Another ditzy daughter wanted to be an actor but discovered daddy had been paying producers to give her parts. She overdosed during her parents' party.
There were a couple of other Darlings - it's going to take a few episodes to work out who's who - but the only one who doesn't ring Nick constantly is Angry Darling, the Rev Brian, who keeps telling him, "I hate you." There's obviously some history there. Drained by their mad indulgences, Nick quit at the end of day one, but decided to stay on because the cops discovered his father's plane crash was caused by explosives.
Plus - "Code Pink!" - he's found out about the affair his dad was having with matriarch Mrs Letitia Darling, neurotically played by queen of the onscreen neurotics, Jill Clayburgh.
I like Dirty Sexy Money. I like the fact that one of its executive producers is Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men); a master of head-bending plot twists. I like its cast, especially Krause, Baldwin and Sutherland. As for the others, each character may be slightly caricaturish at this early stage, but there's a Chanel No 5 whiff of potential about this series.
