User Reviews

The endless previews for the show got me interested. And I found it interesting that I was interested because when a network advertises the crap out of a show, I'm easily bored. I thought I would give the show a chance because FX always seems to give us racy, dramatic, unique shows. And I wanted to see Courtney Cox as a bitchy, lost editor in a hot red dress. I'll admit it.

The pilot was a little rocky, but most pilots are. I try to never judge a television show by the first episode because it takes time to develop the story lines and characters. This show could easily find a groove if it wanted to.

Courtney was fitting in her roll. She's got the tough, commanding demeanor about her. But it still seems as though she hasn't completely found the character. But maybe that's how it is supposed to be right now in the show. I think her character has many places to go in time.

I found that the real star was Josh Stewart who plays a failing actor who finds himself sucked into the world of a "celebrity". Stewart is that smirky, doomed, lovable rebel that Jason Dohring recently made a career out of on "Veronica Mars." As I mentioned before, the show is on FX, so obviously there is a lot of sex. A lot. I think this is one of the weaknesses of the show. The softcore porn distracts from the plot and the sweet camera shots that are accompanied by great music. I doubt that will go away.

The show has a message. We live in a messed up world. We are all awful. But has the world become so despicable that there is no humanity left? I have hope for this show but it could easily suck. I'll give it a few more chances, though.

I loved Dirt, Basically because Courtney got to be the ruthless story hungry b*ch I'd come to love through the Scream Series. And the character of Lucy Spiller is like Gail divorced Dewy in order to run 2 magazines.

Lucy sets up pratfalls for the celebrity community around her. A community she navigates in and out of with an uncommon ease. She also is very aware of her place among them. She runs the PEOPLE magazine rip off called Now - in which she has the power to build a career for stars and starlets with heartwarming pieces on them. But she also runs Drrt the STAR ripoff - that has the ability to break them.

And she's more concerned with the breaking. Using the leverage she has she employs a young talent who made a few bombs and got dropped by the industry to tattle on his friends. And when he does consequences arise.

But what makes Lucy one of the coolest maneaters on television is that she does have a heart albeit, a very small one. Or at least a warm spot for her photographer who's got some heavy duty mental problems. Also she shows the cracks in her tightly glossed veneer after taking a new love interest home and then tasering him the next morning when she thinks he only slept with her to get a foot in the door. All in all, this might be a nice follow up to the Nip/Tuck dark sadonic tone.

that being said, Courteney Cox excels here. After the disappointment of cancellation of "Friends" (she was the talented one on the show) seems she has finally parlayed this into a career.

This is a good story: sleazy tabloids, celebrity back-stabbing; but it is presented with class, and without utter contempt for the audience (This is a MAJOR feat in television today). There are some parallels to true celebrity stories, but they are carefully disguised.

This series proves the difference between a true actor (Cox) and a celebrity, such as Paris Hilton, who could not act her way out of a paper bag. An actor worth their salt has likability and believability to a general audience. We rarely see this in film, and almost NEVER on television.

Courteney Cox, kudos to you for this show. I have not seen a series worth watching on TV since 1990. Highly recommended. 8/10.

Wow, an excellent cast and an original, gritty hardcore plot...kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Up there with Dexter and Breaking Bad. Very upset that it was canceled. Courtney Cox was great and her side-kick photographer is brilliant. The special effects and the way they present the story is unique and very well done. Great, great acting! Good job Courtney! Why on earth would something like this be taken off the air. One of the best shows I have seen in a long time. I was not going to watch it as the cover was pretty lame, but what lay inside the watch it now on Netflix was a treasure. They should bring something like this back or something similar to it. It uncovers the world we live in today and the lengths we will go to to expose people and their private lives.

'Dirt' is about a woman, Lucy Spiller (Cox), who works at the tabloid magazines, 'Drrt' and 'Now'. It focuses on the life of Lucy and those around her. The characters of the show are different, outrageous, and hilarious-all with their own personality. Lucy the bitchy, rude, and bitter boss of evil is set out on a goal-HER WORK. Cox's character is struggling with trying to develop an actual social life. The only "friend" Lucy basically has is Don, her schizophrenic paparazzi.

The camera shots are amazing on 'Dirt', along with the writing. The music used is perfect for the show and perfect to listen to when you are in the mood for something fun. The acting is all really good from everybody in this wonderful show.

So watch 'Dirt' and let the dark comedy cheer your day up!

Watched this again recently and it still holds up very well, especially the first season, not so much the second. I was never a fan of Courteney Cox but she's perfect in this role as a ruthless magazine editor, very charismatic and beautiful too, as is Laura Allen as the conflicted and compromised star.

What saves it from being just a guilty pleasure is the stylish directing, often witty writing, and the production's overall willingness to take risks -- a schizophrenic photographer as a main character is one of many such risks that pays off.

Courtney Cox's role encouraged me to view this series as a fan of hers. She was beautiful and played her role well. She has to be the most deceitful person in her business as well, she must result to a state where anyone could be a story and she would trust no one. At the same time she is feared because of the 'Dirt' she can get on others, she is the one in control. Cox nails that role. This series focuses on the lives of celebrities and their erotic nature. The thing is every scene is followed by another voluptuous scenes and occasional outlandish moments which would tend to make some viewers turn away from the television screen to escape such eccentric scenes. Cox's character brings forward duplicity of an amusing nature,impersonality and reprisal and is the stronghold of the magazine, but in all she has no one real person in her life, except her unstable photographer, hence the dismal parts of the series emerges. This series relates to actual events, and the extent a journalist would go through to get a story. It is directed to a specific cohort and can be very depressing and misleading at the same time.

The very first scene in the pilot of Dirt shows Courtney Cox as Lucy Spiller, a Friend-less tabloid editor who basically spits on everyone. Now, that is the role I like to see Courtney Cox in. I hate to see her in the role of cutesy charming girl-next-door. She's stupid and annoying in those kind of roles.

Lucy runs "Dirt" and "Now" Magazines, and she'll do anything to get her story, including blackmail, betrayal, maybe even someday, she'll resort to murder. That would be fun to see.

What I like about Dirt is the way it's shot, it's just beautiful. I also like how Cox's character makes every pathetic little excuse for a human being cry. Her performance is to die for. And, even though I've only seen the pilot, I see no signs of slowing. It looks like it will keep getting better and better. The people on IMDb who have given this a "1" need to go out and watch some truly horrible programing. Because this is far from it. It's terrific and you should definitely watch it.

I wasn't planning on watching this show. Don't get me wrong, I like Courteney Cox, but it just didn't feel like my type of show, based on the previews. However, after coming down with the flu, I was left to a few sick days and I happened across the pilot. First the good, it drew me in. I was just flipping through and it caught me and made me want to watch. It was dark, it was edgy, it felt different from most other things on television. However, it also felt like either something was missing from the show or that I was the kid at the far end of the table left out of the joke. I liked the characters, quite a bit more than I probably should have, but something was not right with the story. I'm not sure whether it was the intentional choppiness to try and represent the story of the schizophrenic photographer, or the fact that it bounced back and forth too much between story lines.

I don't think I'm going to give up on this show. But, for it to stick, it needs a little bit of re-working and making the show something more than simply edgy.

Along with Heroes one of the best series to come out of America in a long while. Courteney Cox has proved herself an extremely good actress, leaving Monica from Friends way behind. She plays a total bitch with only one redeeming feature, her loyalty to Don, played by Ian Hart. The chemistry between them works so well ,I was hooked from the first episode. The first series has just ended in UK and I could not miss any of it. The performances were uniformly great and the story lines pulled no punches given the strictures of TV. I for one cannot wait fro the second series. I am not sure how it has gone down with the great British public as I can hardly find anyone else that has watched it!! It has been shown on little-watched channel 5 so it must have been difficult to garner a big audience. It certainly deserves to be seen by a wider viewing public. BTW check out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip if you get the chance. Matthew Perry shows he too can shake off Friends (also a terrific series)

Network: FX; Genre: Drama; Content Rating: TV-MA (for strong language, simulated sex, drug use and violence); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: 2 seasons

Lucy Spiller (Courteney Cox-Arquette) is the ruthless producer of the salacious tabloid DirtNow Magazine who uses her schizophrenic best-friend photographer Don Konkey (an absolutely phenomenal Ian Hart) and fresh-faced, wide-eyed freshman reporter just waiting to be ruined by the industry Willa (Alexandra Breckenridge) to sneak into the lives of Hollywood's rich and famous to get the story. One of those celebrities is Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart) who like many of the celebrities makes a deal with Lucy to be her source if certain information is kept under wraps.

The latest and best series produced by the Arquettes (it's a hell of a lot better than "Daisy Does America") and created by Matthew Carnahan ("Fastlane"), "Dirt" is TV's first attempt at taking a bite out of the paparazzi - and I can't think of a target more full of potential and deserving of satire. Despite this, "Dirt" falters under the kind of shallow sleaze, manipulation and sensationalism that it should be satirizing.

For the show's many faults, the last thing going wrong here are the performances. The show gives us the opportunity to see a leaner, meaner Courteney Cox and frankly I'd rather watch Lucy Spiller over Monica Geller any day. This is what Cox does best and it is a blast watching her slink through this role like a Siamese cat. But it gets better. Ian Hart's performance, as a the schizophrenic Don who will do anything (even sacrifice his own fingers) to get the shot for Lucy, is one of those performances that makes the entire show worth watching. Just to see him. It's a one-of-a-kind character, the sympathetic paparazzo, whose schizophrenia opens up the show to some surreal visual moments involving talking cats, talking corpses and a showdown between two Dons. This is Emmy worthy stuff and the relationship between Don and Lucy is kind of sweet.

Maybe Carnahan and the Arquettes are to angry at the paparazzi and it's clouding the teleplays. "Dirt" is an nasty, unpleasant show that many times, despite such fine performances form the leads, is a hard hour to get through. It's ugly/sleazy like "Nip/Tuck" seasons 4 and 5, not fun/sleazy like "Nip/Tuck" seasons 1 and 2. If you know what I mean.

What really grinds my gears about the show is the "ripped from the headlines" vibe it pushes on us in which it takes actual celebrities and scandals and simply re-creating the events. The would-be satire is as transparent and amateurishly thrown together as anything I've ever seen. "Dirt" characters stand in for Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Remember when Britney locked her kids in the car? Remember when David Hasselhof got drunk and ate steak off the floor? And remember about 5 years ago when Madonna and Britney Spears lip-locked at the VMAs? Yeah, real timely "Dirt". So in addition to being years after "South Park" has covered the respective celebrity ground, "Dirt" add no next-level insight. In the hands of someone else, someone like Ryan Murphy, "Dirt" could have made one wild & crazy dark comedy. "Nip/Tuck" at it's worst is still a challenge.

The show can't quite achieve the ambitious feat it is trying to pull off. And there in lies my love/hate for it. It goes for the celebrity culture jugular, but does so in such a shallow way that it can't quite articulate it's point and falls flat time and again. It tries to take us into the world of the paparazzi, showing us just how sleazy they are but is unable to keep from rising up from that sleaze itself to get to that necessary pedestal where it can look down upon it condescendingly. Which is what we need.

The characters do what they are supposed to do, no they are not likable and they aren't supposed to be - but you've still got to give me some reason to stick with them. This anti-hero stuff is right up FXs ally which makes it all the more disappointing (and a little perplexing) to watch "Dirt" break the network's roll of high quality output.

* * / 4

I originally started to watch this show just because I really like Courtney Cox. She really is a great selling point, however I really think that this show has depth. It's interesting that the show looks into so many different parts of the show business life, whether this is a true look at this life or not... She (obviously) plays a much different character than Monica Geller, however her character is interesting. (Although she doesn't really fit the name "Lucy".) I encourage all who are curious to check out this show. I gave it a 7 of 10 because I'm not really grabbed by any of the other characters yet, but I have faith that they will be developed. I'm hoping that they develop the characters further and try to find a good divide between "cheesy" and good acting.

(Just in case any one is curious you can check out the first episode and all of the fore coming ones for $1.99 at Amazon.com)

If you have so much as sneaked a glance at the cover of the "Star" or the "Enquirer", you probably really want to see DIRT, but would never dare admit it to your friends and/or neighbors. And though it's really too early to judge it from the pilot, DIRT is simply following the tradition of all those potboilers that came before it about the wickedness that pervades big, bad Hollyweird. Except since this is on FX and not the other networks, the sleaze can be just a tad sleazier than on other shows. And boy, do they take advantage of the opportunity! As co-Executive Producer and star of the show, Courteney Cox-Arquette wants to make sure that you smell the vengeance wafting off of this show. She "loves the smell of payback in the morning." And it kind of smells like...cherry lip-gloss...

Having been a friend of the friends who were on "Friends", as well as one herself, she knows what it feels like to have every move, every sneeze picked apart in public by the tabloid media, and she takes this time to "thank" them with a show that's about as subtle as a dozen eggs dropped off the top of Mount Fuji.

As Lucy Spiller (good, nuanced name, no?), the editor-in-chief of weekly trash wallows "DRRT!" and "NOW!" (so that the Star and People Magazine can't sue, I guess), she will stop at nothing to get the lowest of the lowdown stories on who's screwing and who's getting screwed in Tinseltown, both literally and figuratively. Of course, being a type-A go-getter, Lucy has no friends and more enemies than Alexis Carrington and Joan Crawford combined.

Well, maybe one friend: mentally unstable schizoid paparazzi Don Conkey (Ian Hart, brilliantly underplaying a role that could've been ridiculously over-the-top), who is kind of Lucy's lap-dog with a zoom lens...if she gets dirty at all the best parties and premieres, Don gets downright filthy (literally) as he catches the day's favorite marks in the act of...well, anything and everything. Drug use, unplanned pregnancies, kinky sexual infidelities, you name it, Don will shoot it and bring it back to you. Oh, and he'll also provide a little help making it happen.

A lot has been said about how there seems to be no redeeming characters on this show, but I think those people forgot what they were watching. This is SUPPOSED to be the kind of show where if you harbor any illusions about "making it big in Hollywood", it functions as a sledgehammer-driven morality tale that will allegedly make you think twice.

So have human beings REALLY sunk this low? Is this what passes for glamour, for beauty, for culture in the world these days? Well, if the way the tabloids at my local drug store sell out each week is any indication, I would have to say unfortunately - YES.

And that's also why I predict here and now, that DIRT may not last longer than a couple of seasons, but it knows that only the good, well-intentioned dramas about people-who-need-people are the ones that die young. So it should be sticking around for a while.

And what would I recommend it for? I'd say flawless camera-work and production design, great performances from Cox-Arquette, who attacks Lucy with venomous gusto, and Hart, who plays probably the only truly sympathetic character the show has, even though he does things that are at least as despicable as Lucy, if not moreso.

Let's see if they can get beyond the Lindsay Lohan/Paris Hilton/Jared Leto/Kobe Bryant stereotypes as the episodes progress, and give us something we haven't seen before.

It's too early to really judge "Dirt" yet. Based on the pilot, it's sleazy as hell and has no likable characters. Of course, F/X is an expert at this kind of thing and just might make it a go.

The star is Courtney Cox as Lucy, the editor of "Dirt" and "Now" magazines. She's a cold bitch who wants whatever slime she can get on celebrities - all of whom are painted as young, on drugs, having sex in restaurants, and cheating on their spouses and significant others. Frankly, when Don the schizophrenic (the only character I actually liked and felt sorry for) gets their revealing photos, it's kind of hard to have pity on any of them. At the end of the show, the writers tried to flesh out the Lucy character a bit, showing her as a lonely woman who seems to care about Don the schizophrenic. Not sure I bought it, since I'd just seen her use a stun gun on someone she slept with, as she suspects he only went to bed with her because he knows who she is and wanted his CD promoted.

Cox looks gorgeous. The acting ranges from okay to lousy. There are lots of new young faces, and one suspects that the budget went for other things. "Dirt" gives the audience a very dim view of Hollywood, celebrities, and the tabloids that basically is what the mainstream media has been telling us for years. Everyone is Paris, Britney, Nicole, Justin; no one practices safe sex; and everyone uses drugs. It's all kind of sick. Is there an audience for it? Most likely.

I love this show. I will watch any show with a Friends character. That can sometime's be disappointing, but not in this case. This is a great show...I love how Courteney Cox is playing a complete bitch. This is not Monica at all. I think the story line is great too. I imagine it's how they feel about the morons that chase them around trying to take pictures of them and make a story out of it. I can't give it a 10 because it's too soon. I have only seen the first 2 episodes, but it looks to be a great show. I must say I'm a little shocked it's on regular cable, it looks more like a movie channel show, but it's all good...I like cussing, sex, drinking, and drugs. That all just makes it more like real life. I can do without the commercials though! I have been into so many shows that get canceled I hope this one sticks around!! So if you are thinking about watching it, but haven't; well, then you need to, so I don't go to watch it one day and it's just not on anymore!

It's a little "jumping the gun" to critique a show on a single pilot episode but, in light of its pretty bad direction I feel that it isn't too late to change course for this show. "Dirt" is FX's new Courtney Cox vehicle (of which she also produces) that follows the seedy underbelly of tabloid journalism in Hollywood. Cox plays a rough and tumble editor of "Drrt" a cheesy tabloid rag. She's conniving, evil and ultimately simplistic and rather one-dimensional. The plot also is filled to the brim with interweaving story lines and a bevy of potentially interesting side characters, such as the schizophrenic paparazzi photographer, the cheating NBA star, the failing actor and his hot unfaithful girlfriend and much more, all of which contributes to the mish-mashed story, that frustrates rather than entertains.

What doesn't help is that the editing of this already distracting show is erratic and frustrating. Also, stylistically the show throws in everything and the kitchen sink: on-screen text-messaging, crazy schizophrenic mind-trips, unnecessary soft-glow lenses and much, much more.

Yet all is not lost. This critique is based solely on the pilot, and the creators of the show, as well as Mrs. Cox herself, have ample opportunity to change course in order to save this prospective hit. This doesn't have to fall into the "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" category of a flailing high concept show with great potential (and, oddly enough, starring another "Friends" alumni). The show can be gritty, cool and bitter all at the same time. Just be careful not to package it with too much glitz and glitter…some of us really want to see dirt.

Don't get me wrong, the acting is good. Courtney Cox and Ian Hart are especially good. Hart is outstanding as a functional schizophrenic. He owns the screen whenever he is on. The problem with this series is that it makes you feel even worse than if you subscribed to every tabloid on the planet, and worse yet, believed every word. (Yes some people actually do believe everything that they read. Hi, Ellen!) The writing is good, and like the tabloids, it's of a sensational nature. Most of the characters are bottom feeders, and it's difficult to like them or have any sympathy for them. I did manage some sympathy for the young actor that was blackmailed into turning informant for the editor from hell. This series is seen almost entirely from the point of view of actors who want to eat the hand that feeds them. They need each other; they want and need publicity, but they want to control the publicity. When I first got a parrot, I was told to never pay it more attention than I was prepared to keep on giving it. That turned out to be really good advise for a lot of situations. Actors should avoid any more publicity than they want to have. If you put yourself in the public eye, you will have a certain level of intrusiveness, but if you don't go out of your way to seek it, and aren't out on the town every night, you probably won't suffer that much. Not everybody is Jackie O or Princess Diana, (who famously manipulated the press) and most won't and don't suffer that much intrusive pappi behavior. For the life of me I can't understand anyone wanting to know about Jennifer Anniston, but since she uses the press and then bitterly complains about it, I assume that is why Cox wanted to lend her talents to this series. I, for one, would be happy never to be assailed by yet another picture of the first American martyr when I pass the magazine kiosks. Since that isn't likely to happen, I will sometimes take vicious delight in watching this show! This probably isn't one that most people will want to watch every week unless they really enjoy people behaving badly. In general I don't have much sympathy for people who want a lot of publicity, and then bitch and moan about what they have willingly sought in the past. I also have not much sympathy for the magazine people. Approach this series with caution. It is probably best as an occasional "treat".