Pilot Watch: "Dirty Sexy Money"

by POPSUGAR Entertainment 14

The networks have announced their fall schedules, but which of the series will actually be worth watching? Throughout the summer, as I watch the pilots, I'll be posting my first impressions. Note that a lot can change before a show actually makes it to air, so these aren't comprehensive reviews, just quick thoughts on how the shows look now. Today's installment: ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money."

What's it about? A lawyer takes over his dead father's job as the personal counsel to a rich, crazy New York family, getting sucked into a world he spent his childhood resenting.

Who's in it? Peter Krause of "Six Feet Under," Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, Natalie Zea

The good: Considering the size of the cast, this pilot does an amazing job setting up the dark, decadent world of the Darlings without feeling heavy-handed. Where other pilots rely on expositionary dialogue ("but you're the best-selling author in history!"), "Dirty Sexy Money" has mastered the art of showing and not telling — one of my favorite touches was how the character of each Darling is revealed through a ring tone on Nick's cell phone.

The bad: This pilot does a great job of setting up the world of Nick and the Darlings, but it doesn't give me a great sense of how the show will be structured from week to week. I worry that the wacky Darlings, so amusingly quirky in the pilot, will be tiresome by a few weeks in.

Will I watch? Definitely. Krause alone was enough to get me to give the show a chance, but all the curveballs his character gets thrown in the second half of this pilot will keep me watching.

To watch a preview for the show and check out a gallery of photos, read more

Photos copyright 2007 ABC, Inc.