Rambimbo

I decided to give CW's "Easy Money" a try solely because it had Laurie Metcalfe in the cast. She always manages to create great characters regardless of whatever else is going on around her. It was worth a look, I figured.

I was pleasantly surprised by the show, given that it's had no critical press whatsoever. I think what's a little off-putting at first is that the photography is very flat, and looks almost as if videotaped. And the show's setting is in a slowly running to seed suburban strip mall, which doesn't exactly lead you to think that anything profound is going to unfold.

But as I watched I began to see that the photography is eminently suitable for the unvarnished suburban scenes, which not only centers on strip malls, but indoor shopping malls and a second tier local community college.

As for the characters and their story, well..it's shaping up to be slightly more Shakespearian than anything set in a seedy suburban setting has a right to be. Laurie Metcalfe plays the "Lady Macbeth" of Payday Loans. She's been carefully guiding (manipulating) her two sons and one daughter, who all work for her in the family business. Like Al Swearingen, she's at once morally repugnant and still somehow likable. In the first episode, her brightest son, the one who best understands the management of the business, finds out that he's not related by blood.

If this sounds familiar, then it is. It's very similar to the story that's being told in "Dirty Sexy Money", only in a slightly more declasse neighborhood. "Easy Money" has an equally skilled cast as the one in "Dirty Sexy Money", and with each episode, the screw turns slightly on Morgan Buffkin, the smart son, just as it does on Nick George, the put upon lawyer. The writing is understated, the humor is dry, and the soundtrack kicks ass.

Sadly, the show has almost no viewership at all, and I don't have any hope that I'll be seeing much more of it. It's smartness is too subtle not only for the masses, but apparently even for TV critics.

The show also answers the burning question of whatever happened to Judge Reinhold.

Reruns of this show just started playing in the US on BBC America and I think this show is a hoot to watch. Half the show is a send-up of British middle-class values, and the fact that the family is also Indian is treated so matter-of-factly that it doesn't seem exceptional at all. It's an interesting illustration of how western and eastern cultural mores can co-exist. Furthermore, the non-sequitor type questions asked by the Kumar family members reveal how our interest in celebrities is partly a self-absorbed wish to see ourselves reflected back. However, the primary thing about this show is that it's witty and entertaining.

I especially like that the celebrity guests aren't the sole focus. The show's unusual format seems to draw a genuine and candid reaction from the guests, most of whom are bemused but are clearly willing to join into the spirit of the show. This tells us more about who they are than all those canned anecdotes one hears on the typical late night talk shows.

This was a long running series on a local television station in South Bend, IN. It was written, produced, directed, and acted by local high school students. I only saw the series from 1975 through 1976, and remember that I enjoyed it immensely. I don't know what the show was like for other years, but during those years it was very Monty Python-esque. It aired during the middle of Saturday afternoons and I used to watch it regularly. It always cracked me up. I also remember that this show had one of the best opening credit sequences I've ever seen on a television show. 27 years later I still remember it as something unique and special.