Courteney Cox Makes A Gritty Return To TV In FX's DIRT

Former FRIENDS star, Courteney Cox has made a gritty return to TV in the new FX network series, DIRT. Cox stars as Lucy Spiller, a totally driven, but entirely valueless editor of some tabloid magazines who ruthlessly does whatever is required to get a hot story to publish. Her main photographer is a pathetic mentally ill schizophrenic man, brilliantly played by British actor, Ian Hart. Hart's character, Don Konkey is willing to do just about any humiliating thing at Spiller's direction to get even more humiliating shots of celebrities, sometimes even in deeply intimate moments.

Compared to far weaker returns to TV or cable of Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Perry, DIRT is perhaps the strongest material on basic cable TV, both dramaticly and content wise. Both Cox and Hart offer some excellent acting ability and well defined roles. Cox's character sits nervously on her job employment, which hinges from day to day on getting that next big story, while Hart's character lives a pathetic existence best fulfilled when he brings in that next hot celebrity photo, put otherwise characterized by living in a shabby little apartment with his best friend, a cat, dying of cancer, playing strange Hawaiian music on his record player.

DIRT has plenty of potential to grow as a series if it can build compelling stories beyond the excellent commercial free premiere episode. But this gritty new show looks like it can deliver the goods after such an excellent pilot episode, but then again some excellent series such as WANTED and OVER THERE have failed cable for some unknown reasons with viewers.