Before Ken Follett wrote epic, thousand-page bestsellers like Pillars of the Earth, he wrote sleek, taut thrillers like The Big Needles, and sci-fi classics like Capricorn One. I mention this because, however well done Pillars of the Earth might be [I’ve not read it], the television miniseries [Starz, Friday, 10/9C] is an overstuffed, frequently ponderous work that is most notable for its amazing cast – Ian McShane [Lovejoy, Deadwood], Donald Sutherland [Dirty Sexy Money, Salem’s Lot], Rufus Sewell [Dark City, The Illusionist], Gordon Pinsent [Away From Her], Tony Curran [Underworld: Evolution, Doctor Who] and Allison Pill [The Book of Daniel, In Treatment] among them.
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Grade: B-
Tags:
Donald Sutherland,
Ian McShane,
Pillars of the Earth,
Rufus Sewell,
Starz,
Television,
Television Reviews
Of the several television programs that lost momentum and were, in effect, cancelled by the Writers’ Strike, Dirty Sexy Money was the only one that was a grand, over-the-top, old-fashioned primetime soap – we’re talking Dallas, Falcon Crest, Knots Landing, here, folks. Tales of the rich and fabulous – of ethically and morally dubious and, occasionally, sanity-challenged – told by writers who knew how to construct characters of every stripe and intrigues of all sorts.
The final season of Dirty Sexy Money played out the boardroom [and bedroom] chess game between Trip Darling [Donald Sutherland] and Simon Elder [Blair Underwood]; the love story about Jeremy Darling [Seth Gabel] and Nola Lyons [Lucy Liu] – a love that started as a ruse but became real; the disintegration of Darlings’ lawyer, Nick George and his wife Lisa [Zoe Mclennan]; the Lyons/Elder connection; the feeling that Nick and Karen Darling [Natalie Zea] might be fated to be together [if not for that Elder fellow... again] and… so many plot threads, twists and backtracks that it made the classic soap spoof, SOAP, look completely transparent.
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Tags:
Blair Underwood,
Buena Vista Home Video,
Donald Sutherland,
Peter Krause,
Primetime Soap
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