As has now been pretty well documented, I didn't make it all the way through the first season of Dirt [1]. That's the bad news. The good news is, when I say I really enjoyed the first episode of the new season, it really means something.

Lucy (played, of course, by Courteney Cox, who I recently interviewed [2]) is back after being stabbed at the conclusion of the first season. Don is getting his schizophrenia under control. And there's a host of new characters entering the Dirt atmosphere to make things interesting. Here are the top five things that worked for me in tonight's premiere:

1. Lucy is back — and she has a reason to be a little nice sometimes, or at least a little more conflicted about what she's doing. After all, it got her stabbed. She's still tough, and she'll still do anything for a picture, but now she's seen the dangers of it close up, which I think makes her a more interesting character.
2. Don is a little less crazy. He's on medication for his schizophrenia, which means fewer faux-artsy visions — though, at least
   in the first episode, he still talks to his cat.
3. Farber Kaufman. This new character, played by Ryan Eggold, is my favorite of the new additions — both because of his journalism-golden-boy-gone-to-the-dark-side story and his flirty relationship with Willa.
4. The ripped-from-the-headlines plot lines are an improvement, as far as I'm concerned — including one that introduces the recurring character of a starlet who seems like Paris, Britney, and Lindsay all rolled into one teeny blond body.
5. A character points out that Don Konkey's name sounds like "Donkey Kong." It's a little thing, sure, but it immediately made me like the show about three degrees more.

Dirt premieres tonight at 10 p.m. To check out a preview and a clip from the first episode, just .

Photo courtesy of FX [3]