The Riches

Have you seen this??! Apparently, comedian and executive-transvestite Eddie Izzard has decided to settle down and do a crappy (no offense Eddie) sitcom on FX called The Riches. The premise of the show is that Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver (no shit, Minnie Driver) are parents of a family of travelling con-artists. One day, they accidentally drive a couple--Doug and Cherien Rich--off the road to their death (can't wait to see how that happens by accident). Izzard's character than decides that his family should take over the life of the Riches. The comedy then keeps rolling as the con-artist family must live as normal, law-abiding folk... a hilarious example of the ol' fish-out-of-water scenario (example: see "Back to the Future").

I am opposed to the premise as being not only something that doesn't seem believable in the slightest ("Honey, how come our neighbors look different and now have three kids ages 17, 16, and 10-ish?? Oh well... that's those crazy Riches!"), but the premise doesn't seem to allow for a very long run of the show. Any time you have a family of nomads who decides to finally settle down, their natural instinct will be to leave... making the whole series a lesson in keeping this family tied down to this location. One of the things I learned from improv is that the hardest thing to keep an audience interested in is a character that wants to leave... if you want to leave, just leave and we'll finish the scene without you!

Regardless, I am going to give this show a shot because Eddie Izzard is amazingly awesome. The show is Monday nights at 10/9 Central, and it's on FX... that's apparently a channel on cable somewhere. Check your local listings!