Dirty Sexy Money: The Wedding (1.7)

There was an interesting contrast created throughout this episode, made clear with Kiki's line where she described how she wanted to live in the Darling mansion forever, no matter what. This moment was followed by Ellen angry over being part of a "fake world", smiling for the cameras and being forced to deny the pain she's actually experiencing. It's a tradition of the genre to reflect the dark underbelly beneath the glamorous exterior of the wealthy, and it's something Dirty Sexy Money has done pretty well so far.

Unsurprisingly, Karen's wedding was a disaster, but there was at least an attempt to underpin her sadness at the failure of it all, especially when she described that she only had an epiphany about Freddy when he told her that he loved her. Equally saddening was Karen's own profession of love to Nick. Every show has their "big couple", and from what the writers have given us so far, it doesn't look like it'll be Nick and Karen. Lisa is too stable and unassuming a character to be considered an obstacle in the middle of their romance, so we're only left with assuming that Karen's destined to be left alone.

I still can't get a handle on Simon Elder, and his vagueness will only keep me genuinely intrigued for a little while longer. His partnership with Patrick is interesting due to the ramifications created between Patrick and the rest of his family, but the entire subplot itself is too vague right now to be considered truly involving.

Elsewhere, I liked Sheryl Lee as Andrea, and it was pretty sad to see Brian Jr taken away from his father just as he had grown to actually have feelings for him. The Juliet/Natalie/Jeremy subplot was too inconsequential to give a damn about, and I was a little distracted by Samaire Armstrong, who checked into rehab for some kind of substance abuse right after the episode was filmed. Meth sucks, kids.

It's hard to grade this show because it's always just one continuous story, but I think I liked this one. Emphasis on Karen is a major plus, while a lot of the subplots (while in a creative dry-spell) were handled mostly successfully. Line of the episode: "That's a candle, mom". Heh. C+

Credits
Guest stars Daniel Cosgrove (Freddy Mason); Chloe Grace Moretz (Kiki George); Bellamy Young (Ellen Darling); Tamara Feldman (Natalie Kimpton); Sheryl Lee (Andrea Smithson); Jeffrey Hutchinson (Driver); Shawn Michael Patrick (Clark)
Writers Peter Elkoff, Jake Coburn Director Jamie Babbit