All this week, now one month into the Fall TV season, BuddyTV takes a hard look at the new shows to determine which ones we were right about, and which ones have surprised us the most, both positively and negatively.

Dirty Sexy Money came out of nowhere.  All the summer buzz surrounded shows like Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Reaper, Bionic Woman, and even Aliens in America.  Why did Dirty Sexy Money, with its preposterous cast and impressive behind-the-scenes experience, sneak up on us?  A few weeks before Dirty Sexy Money premiered on ABC, I got a chance to view the pilot.  It was an impressive hour of TV, teeing up an enticing series premise with precision and intrigue, sprinkling in the necessary exposition and back stories with ease.  Still, I was too high off the hype for Pushing Daisies and Chuck.

In my initial new series rankings, my top four looked like this:
1) Chuck
2) Pushing Daisies
3) Dirty Sexy Money
4) Reaper.

Recalibrating those standings after a full month of Fall TV, those rankings now look like this:
1) Dirty Sexy Money
2) Pushing Daisies
3) Reaper
4) Chuck
637) Big Shots
7,234,672) Viva Laughlin.

Pushing Daisies is great, don't get me wrong.  I love the show and I love that such madness exists on network TV, but Dirty Sexy Money is easily the best new series of the year.

I give to you, loyal reader, the top five reasons that Dirty Sexy Money is the best new TV series and why you should be watching:

1) Donald Sutherland

Rarely on TV do you find a veteran, distinguished actor playing a character suited to their immense talent.  As Tripp Darling, the unspeakably rich patriarch of the Darling Empire, Sutherland gets to sink his teeth into a complicated and unique character.  Tripp Darling is at once compassionate, mysterious, melancholy, disappointed, ego maniacal, selfish, selfless and almost entirely sympathetic. 


2) Resisting the Urge to Demonize the Rich

On the surface, the Darling family seem like the Hiltons or the Trumps or any number of billionaire families whose progeny cause havoc everywhere they go, reeking of self-entitlement, seeking undeserved fame, and looking down on the common person.  The “Paris Hilton” character, especially, played by Samaire Armstrong, has turned into one of TV's most intriguing characters.  Armstrong plays Juliet Darling as a Hilton cipher, but with one important difference: Juliet is a good person.  We recently learned that although her public image is one of promiscuity, Juliet is a virgin.  In her words, it's just easier that way. 


3) Walking the Comedy/Cartoon Tightrope

Dirty Sexy Money manages to be laugh out loud funny at times, without making a mockery of its characters.  Despite some of the Darling family's ridiculous actions and character flaws, the show somehow stays realistic.  Each of the characters are three-dimensional and often horribly flawed, but the writers aren't sacrificing their integrity for easy laughs.  They could turn the Darling family into caricatures, or veer towards straight melodrama, but they've somehow found a perfect balance. 


4) The Murder Mystery

The premise of Dirty Sexy Money is one of the most beautifully simple you'll find on TV,  especially in an era when the high-concept rules: Devlin George, the long-time lawyer of the Darling family (and best friend to Tripp Darling) dies unexpectedly and Devlin's son, Nick, is reluctantly hired to take over as the Darling's lawyer.  That, on its own, is a juicy enough premise to support seasons upon seasons of TV.  But, Dirty Sexy Money added a wrinkle that at once motivates Nick and creates a constant, mostly unspoken tension between Nick and the Darling family: Nick believes that his father was murdered, or at least died under mysterious circumstances.  The writers have so much to work with, it's not even fair.


5) Peter Krause

Coming off a long-run on HBO's Six Feet Under, Peter Krause didn't have to get right back into TV.  But, I guess when a project like Dirty Sexy Money comes along, and you are offered the chance to work along side Donald Sutherland, you have to take it.  Krause has the unenviable task of being the grounding center of Dirty Sexy Money.  He has to carry the show, he has to be the voice of reason among the quirky and uninhibited Darling family.  In lesser hands, Dirty Sexy Money might collapse under such tremendous weight.  But, Krause is a great actor, and his portrayal of Nick George is pitch-perfect.  Krause plays Nick with an air of constant disbelief, some playfulness that might not have shone through with a less experienced actor.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of ABC)