Courtney Cox stars in this FX series about a magazine that deals in Dirt. However, if you’re going to wallow in the dirt you have to expect to get covered in it.
Lucy Spiller (Courtney Cox) is editor-in-chief for two separate magazines. One is called Dirt and has to do with celebrity gossip (think National Enquirer) and the other is called Now and tends towards “Wal-mart mommies” (think People).
Lucy is under pressure from her publisher to make the magazines profitable under threat of termination (they’re both combined early in the series so that Lucy can save her job).
Lucy’s number one go-to-guy is photographer Don Konkey (Ian Hart) and he often gets the exclusive photos to go with the dirty stories. The problem is that he’s also schizophrenic, off his meds for the most part, and has a tendency to have hallucinations. Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart) starts off the series with only one claim to fame, being the boyfriend of Julia Mallory (Laura Allen).
However he comes into some “dirt” and passes it on to Lucy and he eventually profits from it but finds that the consequences might outweigh the profits. Dirt deals with our fascination with celebrity and digging into every aspect of their lives.
It’s not a pleasant place to be from the look of things and it’s not like producers Courtney Cox and David Arquette don’t know all about being in the spotlight.
What Dirt has is interesting characters and situations with both Cox’s editor and the functioning schizophrenic Konkey being the stand out characters. Konkey’s strange visions are the highlight of the show as they add an interesting, quirky feel to the show. Look for Friends alum Jennifer Aniston in the final controversial episode.
There are also some thinly veiled reference to the Hollywood stars that are currently in the rags today and that makes the series all that more interesting. All thirteen first season episodes are spread out over four discs.
Dirt is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features are on disc four and include the 5 minute “Celebrity Couple Gets Dirty” which examines the origins of the show and interviews executive producer David Arquette, executive producer/star Courtney Cox, FX Network president John Landgraf, producer Theo Mann, executive producer/writer/director Matthew Carnahan, Jeffrey Nordling (“Brent Barrow”), executive producer/writer Joel Fields, Josh Stewart, Laura Allen (“Julia Mallory”), and Alexandra Breckenridge (“Willa McPherson”).
The 6-minute “Through a Lens, Darkly” looks closer at the Konkey character and adds interview footage with Ian Hart. The 6-minute “Tabloid Wars” looks at how the tabloids inspired the series. There’s also a 90 second gag reel, eleven deleted scenes with introductions by Carnahan, and an 80 second preview of season two.
Dirt takes a look under the rugs of both the celebrities and those that stalk them. It seems that both have equal amounts of things to hide and human foibles. This interesting series looks at both through some interesting characters.
Dirt - The Complete First Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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