The Riches – Season 1

Lawyers are liars, thieves and criminals. Private schools are racist and elitist. Developers, businesspeople of all types are alcoholic, deviant, hypocritical scum who love their guns and have big issues in bed. Did I leave out corrupt and backstabbing? Oh yes, the entire middle and upper class population of women are frustrated, drug addicted, sex starved wretches. And to top it off they are all such idiots that they can ALL be conned, ALL the time, by the only loyal and honorable people around, the gypsies – whoops – travelers or whatever. Only amongst those who make their living explicitly by the con do we find the qualities that are so obviously mistakenly applied to the white-collar class as a rule.

I think this sick view of America is too common among the favored in our entertainment industry but it is valuable to recognize that this really is the way they see this country.

The show is well done and interesting, the acting is generally excellent… but I doubt that any reader here, living outside of Hollywood, knows their general community to be so plagued by every form of sickness (moral, ethical and emotional) as depicted in The Riches.

This could have been a fascinating series about a very interesting and in someways sympathetic culture that is founded in theft, cons and dishonesty of all types. That would make for a great show but having the viewer feel revulsion for a culture TRULY based on dishonesty just wasn’t the aim of the producers of this garbage.
Rating: 2 / 5

I love Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard, but I was disappointed with this series. Wooden. Awkward. Un-funny. Uncomfortable. A disappointment.
Rating: 1 / 5

Not really a comedy, sometimes stressful, sometimes insightful. Ends with a question mark, probably due to the writers’ strike.
Rating: 3 / 5

The Riches has proved to be one of the most intelligent and interesting series on American television in quite a long time. In the episodes from the first season one won’t find catering to the lowest level. Viewers have to think, perhaps even weigh the pros and cons of the characters’ lifestyle and whether the reasons for their actions outweigh the innate dishonesty of what they do.

Included are numerous characters residing in the grid, or the real world, and in the nearly mythical world of the Travellers. Wayne Malloy, played by Eddie Izzard, is the head of the family who takes his wife and 3 children with him to live in the grid. Living the lives of buffers, whom his people have always scoffed at, is the biggest con they have ever pulled. They don’t find it easy to do, but doing it successfully is a matter of life and death. Wayne, posing as high-powered lawyer Doug Rich, works hard at creating this new life, but wife Dahlia (played by Minnie Driver) has a difficult time playing her part. Newly released from prison, and a true Traveller, she fights him at nearly every step. Meanwhile, the three children don’t quite fit into their schools or among the buffers their own ages.

The two worlds have collided frequently, never — or rarely — to the benefit of what most of us would consider normal people. In Eden Falls, where most of the story takes place, normal must be defined, over and over. Plus pursuit by their friends and relations among the Travellers makes life even more interesting. Playing the five main characters must be more than a little schizophrenic, but each actor pulls it off.

A lot of people will be relieved to read or hear that a second season is being taped. The episodes of the first season were so compelling, it leaves fans eager for more.
Rating: 5 / 5

After vacillating for two years I bought this series because of the reviews from other viewers. So many good reviews, I thought that I had to enjoy it. I was bored with the first three episodes and a bit insulted by the final two. The story has a big paradox, which was quite unnecessary because the writers have all the power. It struggles with defining right and wrong instead of following these people on an adventure, with all of their flaws (and without judging them for those flaws). People who spend their lives stealing, cover up an accidental death and commit fraud, yet try to prove that they’re not as bad as the real-estate magnate? I think that the story would have lasted more than one and one-half of a season if the writers had stopped trying to make angels out of these career criminals. This problem is why the story points didn’t add up: a thief and ex-convict takes exception to abusing drugs, but steals them and hides them away but doesn’t take them? Why? Because taking drugs would make her a bad person. But, we say, she’s a thief, ex-convict who’s violating parole, has covered up the deaths of two people involved in a collision and is committing fraud. It’s as if the writers are trying to tell us that stealing, committing fraud/lying, violating parole, disposing of bodies in a lake are okay and even funny, but taking drugs is not okay because people will have a low opinion of you. It’s silly. Watch it, but the series takes about three or four episodes to get interesting, and then gets really stupid in the final two episodes. A waste of two very talented actors.
Rating: 4 / 5