The Riches (2007-2008) is a show about a family of Travelers, which basically mean they're Irish con-men and thieves pulling stunts across the country. It's two adults and their three children, starting when the mother is let out of a two-year stint in prison. The outline is basically them stealing from the family bank, running away, being party to running two rich people off the road, stealing their lives, trying to keep up the lie while avoiding being arrested, killed, or found out by the other Travelers, people who knew the people who's lives they stole, or by pretty much anyone ever. The couple they killed were Doug and Cherine Rich.Eddie Izzard plays Wayne Malloy with Minnie Driver playing his wife Dahlia. Their three children are Noel Fisher playing Cael, Shannon Marie Woodward as Delilah (DiDi), and Aiden Mitchell as Sam. The ensemble cast is basically Todd Stashwick as cousin Dale who is pissed at the rest of the family for stealing, leaving, and not cutting him in, Margo Martindale as the "Rich's" neighbor Nina, and Gregg Henry as Hugh Panetta, who is "Doug Rich's" neighbor, boss, and eventual partner in the show. Everyone's acting is out of this world good. Eddie Izzard acts a lot in the same way as he does stand-up, which makes sense as he's a writer and producer for the show as well. Driver plays the drug-addicted-but-ashamed wife while living a life she doesn't want as opposed to the thieving and conning which got her arrested in the first place. The kids all have their personalities that don't quit, save for DiDi changing a lot towards the end of season two with her attitude towards sex. Dale is a sociopath, which also weens away a bit in season two, but it works with what's going on closer to the end.
The writing in the show is great. The Traveler terminology and vocabulary is very nice touch. The writing as a whole is very engaging and drawing the viewer in, if being a little predictable. The predictability is less hokey than, say, Seinfeld, but is instead really nerve-wracking. The show is an off-balance of 90% drama to about 10% comedy, but that seems to be deliberate, as Izzard has wanted to move to drama for a while. The show was canceled after its second season, which was done during the peak of the writer's strike with its short-sighted seven episodes. The whole series ran a whopping twenty episodes, which is really not good enough for such a show. The show ended with so many questions that needed to be answered--not as many as The Black Donnellys, but a lot.
There is good news for The Riches, however. Eddie Izzard said in an interview that he is working on a script for a movie to tie up all the loose ends and to pick up right where it left off. The problem I see with that is that the film won't pick up a lot of box office success unless the people going to see it saw the television series--which is very difficult to pick up in the middle considering how convoluted the story can be with all the things carrying over. Also, the place they left off is a very awkward place to try to wrap it all up in two hours or less. It would not work as Firefly's Serenity--it couldn't--despite how much one would like it to be.
The show is absolute worth watching. It may not be worth the fifty-some-odd dollars it may cost to buy the two seasons on DVD, but it is definitely worth checking out on iTunes or Hulu or something. The acting, writing, and really nice story all lend themselves to each other and should not have been canceled. FX assholes better not cancel Rescue Me, or you bitches are dead to me.
-Evan "Dez" O'Connor
FX is already dead to me after they cancelled "The Riches" and I wrote them as much. Of course no answer. I'm disgusted with that network and wouldn't trust any of their shows now.
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