Is anybody else watching this great new show on FX? It's American, but stars Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard. They get around the usual British-actors-can't-talk-American problem in the usual way, by portraying Southerners, an accent everyone can mimic. (Hugh Laurie of "House" being the outstanding exception of course.)

They play a family of "Travelers," a real ethnic group that lives very much like Gyspies, but they're originally from Ireland and are Celtic, Catholic, and anglophone. Due to some problems with the leader of the Travelers' trailer park and a fatal road accident as they're being chased down the highway in their motor home, they take the identities of a wealthy family on their way to a new home in Florida where no one knows them, to hide from their pursuers.

It's a sitcom hybrid with a lot of pathos, the kind of TV that drives British fans of Benny Hill and Mister Bean crazy, but the kind we love over here. It's really delicious. Well written, well scripted, well cast, well acted, and on cable TV it doesn't have to obey the government nannies' rules about language and content that hamstring broadcast TV--yet doesn't go for gratuitous titillation like "Sex in the City."

These people of little education who have been hustlers and scavengers can't help adapting to their fictitious life, especially since it offers so many luxuries. And so many opportunities to use their nefarious skills. Eddie Izzard walks into the lawyer job waiting for him, and immediately becomes successful without any of the proper background. He has such good "people skills" that he's an instant master at the corporate con game, and with the help of devoted assistants he even wins all of his cases and makes partner. Minnie Driver has more trouble fitting into Florida high society, especially when she discovers that the Riches are Jewish. The kids have to go to school, where the eldest son quickly finds other boys with larceny on their mind to hang out with, but the daughter takes to the "Buffer" (that's what they call us) community, gets a boyfriend, takes her education seriously and dreams of becoming successful in honest business. The youngest boy, a cross-dresser, is delighted to find Buffer society to be so tolerant. They aren't any weirder than any of their wealthy neighbors and to their shock they fit right in and no one suspects anything.

Along the way we watch them go through some angst. The girl is expected to enter an arranged marriage with her retarded fiance (whose sister tracks them down) at sixteen and discovers to her delight that what he called "love at first sight" when she was nine and he was fourteen is called "pedophilia" in the rest of the world--then learns that the kid really is a good man as he releases her from the betrothal at her request and swears his ritual protection of her family against all harm from his clansmen. The dad--who knows something about being the object of discrimination--has to refuse to sell a home in a Christian fundie tract to a lesbian couple with a son in order to keep his entire company from going bankrupt. The mom discovers she has a mother in a nursing home (no Traveler family would ever do that to an elder), who is as delighted to be taken "home" as the kids are to have a "grandma."

As expected, seeing ourselves through the eyes of outsiders provides a lot of uncomfortable revelations and many good laughs. We learn right along with the Riches that the ethics of Corporate America are just as shady as those of the Travelers, except that there's no underlying loyalty to anyone.

Minnie Driver, whom I love, and Eddie Izzard, whom I'd never heard, are absolutely wonderful in their roles. I think this is the best new show of the year and I heartily recommend it.

Cheers for the in-depth synopsis, Fraggle.

I meant to keep an eye out for the show after hearing Eddie talk about it on a UK chatshow.

You should check out some of his stand-up. He can be a little crass, but he's quite amusing and has his own style.

Did you know he regularly cross-dresses? :D

the kind of TV that drives British fans of Benny Hill and Mister Bean crazy
Misconceptions, these, Mr. Fraggle. Benny Hill was v. popular in the 1970s when the shows were being produced. Everyone then ditched it as sexist nonsense, and he's now viewed with a slightly ironic nostalgia. Mr. Bean was briefly popular with the very young, the very old and imbeciles. They've all slowly lost interest.

It's very much America that's keeping both alive.

PS Those of us with any semblance of taste do love Eddie and Minnie though.

Sounds interesting.

I think my great-grandmother was conned by a traveler once. He 'repaired' her leaky roof. A pretty common traveler scam. As is the M.O. of preying upon the elderly.

Did you know he regularly cross-dresses?Yes, my wife was already familiar with him and said he seemed to be most famous as a female impersonator. This role must be quite a change of pace for him but he's outstanding in it.Misconceptions, these, Mr. Fraggle. Benny Hill was v. popular in the 1970s when the shows were being produced. Everyone then ditched it as sexist nonsense, and he's now viewed with a slightly ironic nostalgia. Mr. Bean was briefly popular with the very young, the very old and imbeciles. They've all slowly lost interest. It's very much America that's keeping both alive.Interesting. Whenever we talk about our TV shows here, the Brits always complain about our taste for sitcom mixed with melodrama, like "Desperate Housewives" and "Ally McBeal." I guess "The Riches" doesn't fall into that category because it's sitcom mixed with real drama, not melodrama.

You're not trying to say that it's my people who are responsible for Mr. Bean having a feature length film? How depressing! Oh well, on the plus side we can't get enough of the Monty Python crew. They're narrating documentaries on PBS and John Cleese did a speaking tour. And our summary of the entire Middle East is "the Palestinian Liberation Front battling against the Front for the Liberation of Palestine."I think my great-grandmother was conned by a traveler once. He 'repaired' her leaky roof. A pretty common traveler scam. As is the M.O. of preying upon the elderly.Yes, they seem to have acquired exactly the same reputation the Gypsies have, even in America. The TV show freely plays on that stereotype.

I LOVE that show! My fear is that they are going to cancel it as it happened to my other 2 newcomers, the Drive and The Black Donellys. They even canned 2 unaired episodes of the Drive and showed House reruns.The horror!

Why do I like the show? It is an original idea and set not in LA or NYC, but the South.

Eddie Izzard is very likable. I watched a stand up concert of his quite a few times. He had a very good and funny view of history...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_to_Kill

I still don't know the gender of the youngest child!!!

Of Dress to kill:

"The centrepiece of the performance is a retelling of British history from Stonehenge through to the Reformation. This is done with Izzard adopting a very Italian accent (and miming riding on a Vespa) to signify the Pope talking to Henry VIII ("who is Sean Connery for this film") and explaining that he can't marry as many wives as he wants to. This is set against the backdrop of Martin Luther pinning his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, a paper that reads "Einen Minuten bitte. Ich habe einen kleinen Problemo avec diese Religione". "He was from everywhere", explains Izzard to great cheers from the audience."

Is anybody else watching this great new show on FX? It's American, but stars Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard. ...


You know, I was surprised to discover that Minnie Driver was English. She had various TV parts, I guess I didn't watch the shows she was in. Wasn't until 'Grosse Point Blank' that I noticed her, and then I thought she was American.

On Benny Hill etc, yeah, well, it's not on TV over here anymore, well, perhaps on some obscure nostaglic cable channel, but as has been said, it got tired in the early 80's and now, well, we kind of file it alongside 'Love thy Neighbour', as something that was OK at the time, but not really PC now. It's like going back to your vinyl and admitting what you were once into, if you like.

I LOVE that show! My fear is that they are going to cancel it as it happened to my other 2 newcomers, the Drive and The Black Donellys. They even canned 2 unaired episodes of the Drive and showed House reruns.The horror!

I was utterly pissed when they canned Drive.

It wasn't great, but it was an interesting idea.

And just to show re-runs.. the bastards :mad:

Apparently they might show the last 2 eps in June at some point. That's the last I heard.

I'll have to check it out :P

Eddie Izzard > You :D

He's a stand-up comic and a transvestite.. funny, funny man :D

I LOVE that show! My fear is that they are going to cancel it as it happened to my other 2 newcomers, the Drive and The Black Donellys. They even canned 2 unaired episodes of the Drive and showed House reruns.The horror!This is on FX--basic cable--which doesn't need anywhere near as many viewers for a show to survive as NBC. Jon Stewart has become an icon and I don't think he's ever had an audience of two million.

There should be a special place in hell for network executives who decide to cancel a show while we're on the edge of our seats wondering how it's going to end. "Daybreak" and "Vanished," for instance. Or cancelling it to be PC, like "Dark Angel." And a special place for stars who can't stay sober long enough to finish a series, like Yancy Butler in "Witchblade."I still don't know the gender of the youngest child!He's a boy but he does a lot of cross-dressing and he's very sensitive. Perhaps that was an homage to Eddy Izzard. :)It's like going back to your vinyl and admitting what you were once into, if you like.Hey, I still love Judy Collins and Quicksilver. I even pull out Hank Williams once in a while. But I'm a musician, folks, best to leave this to the professionals. :)He's a stand-up comic and a transvestite.. funny, funny man.I never heard of him before this show. It's been explained to me that the cross-dressing is just part of the act, off camera he's normal... well as normal as any entertainer. :)

Eddy said the child's character was already developed before he signed up for te show...

Why did the British disown Benny Hill?

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article620206.ece

I love this show.
We have travelers here in the summer. They were all over in the news when a Mom tried a con, didn't work, and she took her frustrations out on her child in the parking lot of the store. I'd never heard of them before that.

I've had them come to my house and had them do jobs twice. Apparently they also do honest jobs.