Five Reasons to watch Dirt

Most of what I've read about Dirt has been bad, condemning it as a shallow, glitzy, grungy example of what it is ultimately trying to parody, and that is not all wrong. They aren't reinventing the prime-time drama here, or even the FX brand type, but it is worth at least a little storage space on your DVR hard drive.

1. First, and most, Don Konkey(Ian Hart), Lucy Spiller's(Courtney Cox) schizophrenic photographer. At first, I didn't want to buy into this whole plot device, but the performance sells it. He's so pathetic, and yet ruthless and funny, and dances around one hamburger of a line after another, getting the best of them. I'd like to hold this one out as the last nail in the coffin, but he is just too good. The guy's filmography reads like that of two or three different people, Dr. Watson, Lord Voltemort, John Lennon?
   
2. Girls, do you ever tire of watching smug, weak, arrogant men get emasculated? Well, Dirt has the character for you, sometimes the show seems like his personal dunking booth. Underage sex, inter-office dumping, and admitting his own humbling as stand-in editor in the season two opener, Brent Barrow(Jeffrey Nording) is a ready made whipping boy, just for you.
3. Gratuitous cleavage, could you expect anything less. Courtney Cox and ensemble do little jigs on the other side of the line that NYPD Blue long ago blurred and FX predecessors obliterated. A Courtney Cox masturbation scene and over the top tease during Jennifer Aniston's appearance as lesbian friend?? cemented the fact that the producers(Courtney and husband David Arquette) know where their bread is buttered. One revelation while researching this, Disney/ABC is the overseas distributor for this show.
   
4. Gaping. Just tune in to watch them skewer the latest celebutante calamity, breaking it down to what it really is, and expose the scavenging and manipulation. It's not poetry or pulitzer, but it can be fun.
5. Lucy Spiller, the heartless witch editor with a dysfunctional past and family to rival anyone, and a penchant for the weak, to exploit, and care for. Her new personal assistant, a panic attack inclined, nervous man who fired himself before Lucy hired him, illustrates the point. Yeah, well, "overstates" is a better description, but that is what this show does, and that is part of what makes it fun.