''Dirt'' (styled ''d!rt'' for logos) is an American
television serial
In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of ...
broadcast on the
FX network. It premiered on January 2, 2007, and starred
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom '' Friends'', which aired from 1994 ...
as Lucy Spiller, the editor-in-chief of the first-of-its-kind "glossy
tabloid" magazine ''DirtNow''. A 13-episode second and final season was announced on May 8, 2007. However, only seven episodes were produced before the
2007 WGA strike shut down production. The shortened second season began airing on March 2, 2008.
''Dirt'' was created by
Matthew Carnahan
Matthew McNair Carnahan (born February 6, 1961) is an American producer, writer and director.
Career
'' Valley of the Boom'' is a six-part American docudrama television miniseries, created, directed, and executive produced by Carnahan. It p ...
and produced by
Coquette Productions
Coquette Productions is a film and television production company founded by Courteney Cox and David Arquette in June 2004. The company is located in Los Angeles, California.
The company name is a portmanteau of Cox's and Arquette's surnames.
Fi ...
in association with
ABC Studios
ABC Signature is an American television Filmmaking#Production, production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the List of assets owned by The Walt Disney Company#Disne ...
. On June 8, 2008, FX canceled the series after two seasons.
Plot
Season one
The series revolves around Lucy Spiller and her best friend, the freelance photographer Don Konkey, who aids Lucy in her career as editor-in-chief of ''Dirt'' and ''Now Magazines'', which Lucy merges into a single magazine at the end of the second episode due to budget issues. Most episodes focus upon Lucy's never-ending quest to find new news stories regarding celebrities, with help of her staff of reporters and photographers, most notably Don and the young upstart writer Willa McPherson.
As the series progresses, more is learned about Lucy and Don's personal lives. Don is a man with schizophrenia, who regularly hallucinates and hears voices, which is often filtered through his sense of guilt over the questionable actions he takes in order to help Lucy land her stories and the fall-out that comes from exposing people's dark secrets. Lucy meanwhile is a secretly depressed person whose life is totally devoted towards the magazine, to the extent of forgoing any sort of social life whatsoever. Her relationship with her family is strained, in part due to the mysterious suicide of her father, which haunts Lucy due to the cryptic suicide note that he left her, which she kept from the rest of her family.
One of the main subplots of season one is Lucy and Don's relationship with Holt McLaren and the love triangle that erupts between Lucy, Holt, and Holt's current girlfriend Julia Mallory, a popular sitcom star who has begun breaking out into horrible movies while Holt's career has tanked after a series of movies he has done, flopped. In an attempt to convert Holt into a secret source for potential stories, Lucy offers to use the full resources of her magazine to revive Holt's career. In exchange, Holt reveals that Julia's best friend is pregnant after a one-night stand with a fellow actor. The actress overdoses (whether intentional or not is never fully revealed), then has a brain aneurysm and dies. Holt, feeling guilt after hearing of the actress' death, has a mini-breakdown while driving and gets into a high-speed car crash, nearly killing himself and Julia. Julia suffers severe injuries, which leads to an addiction to painkillers and eventually a full-blown drug addiction. To revive her career and gain public sympathy, Julia secretly obtains and leaks a copy of a sex tape of her and a co-star and falsely accuses her co-star of rape, though Lucy exposes her lies in her vault of secrets.
As Holt's star rises and his girlfriend's plummets, Holt and Lucy begin a relationship which is exposed to Julia by a rival magazine editor/friend of Lucy's. Julia ultimately realizes that Lucy has helped ruined her life and attacks her with a knife, leaving Lucy bleeding to death. Contacting Don, season one ends with Lucy ordering Don to take photos of her lying on the ground bleeding, in order to ensure that her magazine will be able to have the ugly photos for the story on the attempt on her life.
Season two
Season two opens with Lucy surviving the attempt on her life and Julia dying. Returning to work with a young idealistic male writer she met and hires during her stay at the hospital, Lucy finds the magazine floundering without her hard driving leadership. While Lucy's boss Brent arranges for the sale of the magazine to a womanizing, pill-popping foreign investor, Lucy blackmails a down on her luck pop star, Sharlee Cates, to hire Don (now back on his medication) as her personal photographer in order to keep tabs on her. This causes problems between Don and Lucy, as Don becomes friends with the singer, whose marriage collapses upon the revelation that her ex-husband is sleeping with his first wife and only married the singer in order to divorce her and take half her fortune. Lucy, on the other hand, wants to use his friendship with Sharlee to exploit her problems, including the cutting off of her hair, divorce, and her confrontation with a pop legend, Mia, at an awards show. Meanwhile, Lucy's new hire, Farber, begins a relationship with Willa, who betrays him in order to break the story involving a former child-star friend of her new boyfriend, who was caught soliciting sex from an undercover officer. After an awards show, Brent dies from carbon monoxide poisoning, caused by passing out in his still-running car.
Holt begins work on a new film project and struggles to deal with pretending to be in mourning over his deceased girlfriend while lusting after Lucy. Lucy begins to date a powerful studio executive, but it ends after he suspects Lucy would rather be involved with Holt. Lucy's mother dies during a botched plastic surgery procedure, Lucy agrees to Holt's ultimatum that they go public with their relationship after he completes work on his new movie.
Characters
Main
* Lucy Spiller (
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom '' Friends'', which aired from 1994 ...
) – Lucy Spiller is the
pivotal
Pivotal may refer to:
* Pivotal CRM, a customer relationship management software system offered by Aptean
* Pivotal Labs, a software company
** Pivotal Tracker, a project management product offered by Pivotal Labs
* Pivotal Software, a softwar ...
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
of the show. She runs the magazine ''DirtNow'', (previously two separate magazines), which is marketed as a respectable
tabloid. Lucy is a
workaholic
A workaholic is a person who works compulsively. A workaholic experiences an inability to limit the amount of time they spend on work despite negative consequences such as damage to their relationships or health.
There is no generally accepted ...
with a brilliant eye for a story and little remorse about the lives she tangles with. She is constantly burdened with the guilt of the suicide of her father and the feelings of loneliness which stem from this. She does however, truly love her best friend
Don Konkey
''Dirt'' (styled ''d!rt'' for logos) is an American television serial broadcast on the FX network. It premiered on January 2, 2007, and starred Courteney Cox as Lucy Spiller, the editor-in-chief of the first-of-its-kind "glossy tabloid" magazi ...
and her brother
Leo. For Don, she goes to great lengths to keep him healthy – on his medication, and she and her brother are also close. She finds herself unable to reach orgasm with anything other than her
vibrator until she meets
Holt McLaren
''Dirt'' (styled ''d!rt'' for logos) is an American television serial broadcast on the FX network. It premiered on January 2, 2007, and starred Courteney Cox as Lucy Spiller, the editor-in-chief of the first-of-its-kind "glossy tabloid" magazi ...
.
* Don Konkey (
Ian Hart
Ian Davies (born 8 October 1964), better known by his stage name Ian Hart, is an English actor. His most notable roles are Rabbit in the Channel Four drama miniseries '' One Summer'' (1983), Joe O'Reilly in the biopic ''Michael Collins'' (1996 ...
) – Don Konkey was in the journalism club with Lucy during college, and as such is the only character revealed she has a true bond with. Don does exceptional photography work, and is so committed to Lucy that he severed one of his own fingers to get a shot. He has manageable
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
, and is often reluctant to take medication, even at the request of Lucy.
* Holt McLaren (
Josh Stewart
Joshua Regnall Stewart (born February 6, 1977) is an American actor who is best known for his role as Holt McLaren in the FX TV series ''Dirt'' and as Detective William LaMontagne, Jr., on the CBS series ''Criminal Minds''. He was also cast as ...
) – At the beginning of the series, Holt McLaren was a has-been actor whose only claim to fame was his long past blockbusters and his girlfriend, Julia Mallory. After telling Lucy about Kira Klay's
pregnancy
Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins.
Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ca ...
in episode one, she agreed to do a profile about him in her magazine "Now" when it was still a single entity. After that, he received multiple offerings from movie studios and is currently working under contract on a big-budget action film. He is also Lucy's love interest.
* Willa McPherson (
Alexandra Breckenridge
Alexandra Hetherington Breckenridge is an American actress. She began her career with supporting roles in the teen comedy films '' Big Fat Liar'' (2002) and '' She's the Man'' (2006). She later played reporter Willa McPherson in the FX series ...
) – Willa McPherson is a reporter under Lucy who is frequently on thin ice with her and definitely the most important recurring character. She goes to great lengths to get stories for Lucy, much as Don does to get photos. In various episodes, she takes drugs, submits to sexual advances and befriends the mentally unstable to further the goals of the magazine. She was involved in a
casual relationship
Casual dating or a casual relationship is a physical and emotional relationship between two people who may have casual sex or a near- sexual relationship without necessarily demanding or expecting the additional commitments of a more formal rom ...
with Brent Barrow in season 1 and a romantic relationship with Farber Kauffman late in season 2.
* Julia Mallory (
Laura Allen
Laura Allen (born March 21, 1974) is an American actress. She starred as Lily Tyler during the first two seasons of the USA Network television series ''The 4400''.
Personal life
Allen was born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Julie and Da ...
) – At the start of the series, Julia Mallory is "America's sweetheart", but as ''DirtNow'' destroys her career, the series tracks her character's degeneration, pain and corruption. Julia is an actress dating actor Holt McLaren. She hurt her back in episode one after Holt crashed their car at 90 miles an hour following the news of Kira Klay's death. She has since developed various problems – narcotic, sexual, physical and mental, which led to the collapse of her career and her eventual death. Julia was hit by Leo in his car, which killed her and gave Lucy her first cover after returning from the hospital.
* Leo Spiller (
Will McCormack
William Joseph McCormack Jr. (born January 13, 1974) is an American actor, executive producer, screenwriter, and film director. He is best known for his short film ''If Anything Happens I Love You'' (2020), which earned him the Academy Award fo ...
) – Leo is Lucy's younger brother, to whom she is reasonably close. He appeared to cope with their father's
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
slightly better than she has, and is closer to their mother than her. He finds his sister's line of work destructive and shallow. He identifies himself as
bisexual
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...
, although his sister argues that he is
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
and in denial. He has a search for peace and disapproves very much of his sister's career, especially after an incident with a closeted A-list celebrity, Jack Dawson. Along with Brent Barrow, Leo was a central character in Season One but remains a mostly unseen character in season two.
Supporting
*Brent Barrow (
Jeffrey Nordling
Jeffrey Richard Nordling (born March 11, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jake Manning in ''Once and Again'', Larry Moss in '' 24'', Nick Bolen in ''Desperate Housewives'', and Gordon Klein in '' Big Little Lies'', as wel ...
) – DirtNow's publisher. He is very constricting when it comes to content and schedule issues. Throughout the series he has threatened Lucy with termination from her position as their interests conflict. Brent is rarely seen in season two, and dies in the season 2 (and series) finale.
*Sharlee Cates (
Ashley Johnson) – An obvious parody of Britney Spears, she soon begins a friendship with Don Konkey during the Breakdown of her marriage.
*Tina Harrod (
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since her career ...
) – A rival magazine editor. She is Lucy's arch rival, former friend and brief lover when they were younger. Though she has been mentioned several times in the first season, Tina's only appearance was in the season 1 finale.
* Prince Tyreese (
Rick Fox
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
) – A basketball star who gets photographed and later blackmailed after committing adultery. After Brent Barrow (under the threat of having his
penis
A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...
cut off, cooked and fed to him by Tweetie McDaniel) reveals that it was Prince Tyreese that leaked the information of how Tweetie killed music artist Aundre G, he is badly beaten by Tweetie and his men. In the second season, he returns and appears to have written a book about how his loss of a basketball career helped him open his eyes to what is important in life.
* Gibson Horne (
Timothy Bottoms
Timothy James Bottoms (born August 30, 1951) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing the lead in ''Johnny Got His Gun'' (1971); Sonny Crawford in ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971), where he and his fellow co-stars, Cy ...
) – Lucy and Brent's boss and owner of DirtNow, he is in charge of
publication
To publish is to make content available to the general public.[Berne Conve ...](_blank)
and seems to be the highest ranking character introduced on the show so far. He has little to do with ''
DirtNow'', only stepping in occasionally as Brent has a more hands-on job of overseeing the
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
.
* Garbo (
Carly Pope
Carly Pope (born August 28, 1980) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles on The WB's drama series ''Popular'' (1999–2001), supernatural drama series ''The Collector'' (2004–2005), USA Network's legal drama series '' Suits'' ...
) – A high-profile
lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
drug dealer for many actors and actresses. She and Julia Mallory had a short-lived sexual relationship prior to her rehab visit but Garbo falls in love with Julia. Her name is possibly a reference to bisexual 1920s superstar actress
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
.
* Jack Dawson (
Grant Show
Grant Alan Show (born February 27, 1962) is an American actor best known for his role on ''Melrose Place'' as Jake Hanson, which he played from 1992 to 1997. Since 2017, Show has portrayed tycoon Blake Carrington in the soap opera reboot ''Dyna ...
) – A famous actor who is
in the closet and secretly seeing Leo Spiller. After Leo catches him with his personal trainer he retaliates by taking the information regarding the relationship to Lucy who in turn
outs
In baseball, an out occurs when the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a batter or runner is out, they lose their ability to score a run and must return to the dugout until their next turn at bat. When three outs are recorded in a ha ...
him in ''DirtNow''.
* Johnny Gage (
Johann Urb
Johann Urb (born 24 January 1977) is an Estonian-American actor, producer, and former model.
Early life and education
Johann Urb was born in Tallinn to parents Tarmo and Maris Urb. His father is an Estonian musician and the brother of actor a ...
) – Johnny is a celebrity who worked alongside Julia and Holt. Johnny was labeled as the bad guy when it was revealed that he had made a sex tape of himself and Julia. Johnny was also involved in the hostage situation at the Dirt Now studio.
*Kira Klay (
Shannyn Sossamon
Shannon Marie Kahololani "Shannyn" Sossamon () is an American actress, director, and musician. She has appeared in the films ''A Knight's Tale'' (2001), '' 40 Days and 40 Nights'', '' The Rules of Attraction'' (both 2002), '' The Order'' (2003), ...
) – A troubled young drug-addicted actress who died of a
brain injury
An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, or o ...
. Her death happens in the pilot, where that is the only episode she is "alive." Kira appears in later episodes as a ghostly figment of Don's imagination and becoming a sort of love interest.
*Farber Kauffman (
Ryan Eggold
Ryan James Eggold (born August 10, 1984) is an American actor. He is known for playing Ryan Matthews on the CW teen drama series '' 90210'' and Tom Keen on the NBC crime drama series ''The Blacklist'' and its short-lived spin-off series '' Th ...
) – A reporter, whose penchant for rule bending got him a job at Dirt. In the second season, he has a sexual relationship with Willa.
Production
The first season consisted of 13 one-hour-long episodes. Production on the pilot began in Los Angeles in March 2006, but it was later reshot to include a cameo by
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...
and to add more of Courteney Cox's character.
Production on the series began in September 2006.
''Dirt'' was the ninth drama series pilot shot for FX.
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom '' Friends'', which aired from 1994 ...
and
David Arquette
David Arquette (born September 8, 1971) is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He is best known for his role as Dewey Riley in the slasher film franchise ''Scream'', for which he won a Teen Choice Award and two Blockbuster Enter ...
served as the show's executive producers.
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (2007)
Season 2 (2008)
FX announced on May 8, 2007, that ''Dirt'' would return for a second season.
Season two premiere and ratings
''Dirt'' was originally picked up for an additional 13 episodes. However, prior to the writers' strike, only 7 episodes had been written and the shooting for these episodes wrapped in December 2007. After the strike was resolved, FX opted not to produce the remaining 6 episodes for "economic reasons" that did not affect the show's chances at renewal.
Not only was the season shortened from 13 to 7 episodes, but it was also moved to a competitive timeslot, Sundays at 10 P.M. FX began heavy promotion for the show in December 2007, but only about 1.7 million people tuned into the premiere on March 2, 2008.
The season started off with consistent ratings in the first few weeks. But after reaching its peak at 1.6 million in the middle of the season, the ratings began to slip, ending with 0.2 million in the finale.
While the first season did not receive much positive critical praise, the second and final season was slightly more well-received, with the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
declaring, "it's dog-eat-dog fun", ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' saying, "it's trashy, flashy, and ridiculously addictive", and ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' described Cox's performance as "deliciously deviant" and gave the show a B−, as opposed to season 1 which got a C−.
''Dirt'' was not renewed for a third season.
Home media
The series is licensed for DVD release to
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,[Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in ...]
.
References
External links
*
Dirtat The Futon Critic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dirt (Tv Series)
2000s American workplace drama television series
2007 American television series debuts
2008 American television series endings
English-language television shows
FX Networks original programming
Serial drama television series
Television series about journalism
Television series about show business
Television series by ABC Studios
Television shows set in Los Angeles
Works about magazine publishing