TV: The Riches - Season 1, Episode 10

This is Your Brain on Drugs by Ellen Herman

When The Riches began, I was a bit surprised. You see, I was expecting a fairly light comedy-drama sort of show -- "family of con artists steal the American Dream by pretending to be rich lawyers" rather suggests that to me. Instead I found a pilot filled with random death, drug addiction, arranged marriages, and other generally serious and rather depressing plot points. Heavy. The rest of the series lightened up a bit, thank God, and has managed to be a good mix of the serious and the comedic, the episodic and the ongoing.

Episode 10, however, is pretty much all-out comedy. And it's hilarious, which is what's inspired me to write about it for the first time. Following the events of the last episode, in which Wayne turned down a partnership from his boss (sort of) and Dahlia was left a bag of meth by her ex-cellmate (called Chunky K), a pissed off Wayne takes "a shitload of meth" out of spite, and heads off on a journey that includes trying to get a job from a guy he fired, kidnapping a senile old woman, and confessing to a priest who's having an existential quandary. It's absolutely as barking as it sounds, if not more so. It's also incredibly fast-paced, racing from one crazy situation to the next as Dahlia's attempts to remotely control Wayne, whilst also taking care of the real estate agents he should be dealing with, spiral out of control. And, as I believe I said, it's hilariously funny.

The Riches grew on me very quickly, after the pilot that, while well written and performed, was not what I was after. I can't say I've fallen for it as much as that other darkly comic US drama, Dexter (coming to ITV1 soon -- watch it), but I'm glad it's been re-commissioned. Meanwhile, I've still got three episodes of the first season to go...