I just watched my tape of The Riches -- damn if Ken didn't make me cry. All noble and protective of DiDi and then suddenly genuinely scary when he threatened his sister.

Like lisah said, I expected him to just be Cletus the Slack-Jawed Traveller, but he turned out to have some surprising depth.

The Riches: More painful and lovely Dahlia singing!

Okay, I thought this was an excellent ep for several character points, certainly including the startling and sure to be difficult Ken reveal. I liked it because of how tied in and intricate it seemed. How none of the characters had been forgotten, how each of their personal storylines seemed ongoing, regardless of the state of our heroes.

Also, on a purely shallow note, I thought DiDi looked completely gorgeous (if completely uncomfortable in her skin) in that wedding garb. I am so fascinated by the Traveller bits and environment and lore.

I find Dale compelling, although clearly sociopathic, and believable in his villainy. I think his love for Dahlia is genuine, and it just cuts even that much worse that his dad, not just his love, chose his rival over him. And that his mother, perhaps seeing his sickness, knowingly stood by that decision. How much more rejected could you get? And yet, he is a deeply disturbed person, and probably everyone is right for feeling the way they do.

His Commodus-style patricide was an awful, awful scene. It's made worse for me because it trips some of my helplessness & elderliness panic buttons. But the scene this ep was so striking because it was clear that his motive for killing his father had mixed up in it somewhere the knowledge that the funeral would bring Dahlia back. And he still believes, deep inside, that he can woo and win her away from Wayne. And if he can't, he'll kill Wayne, and you can bet he'll try to win her again then with him dead.

This is a horrible story. So horrible it feels absolutely real.

All the fakery back in Edenfalls (which, great name, btw, it just now occurs to me) is so much more interesting in contrast to what's going on here. But now you can see that maybe Wayne felt like he was always half faking it in Traveller culture and so half faking it in suburbia isn't so odd.

Okay, I've got more, but that's enough ramble for tonight.

But now you can see that maybe Wayne felt like he was always half faking it in Traveller culture and so half faking it in suburbia isn't so odd.

Oh, I like that. It sums up Wayne pretty well.

The kicker is that IMHO, Wayne would have made a very good lawyer, as in the kind of law guy I'd want on my side.

I definitely wouldn't wany Wayne on the other side - or against me in any way. Down that path lies madness and destruction.

I still haven't seen the most recent episode of the Riches, but the show continues to astound me. It's full of deep, many layered comments on how we're all lying and faking it to some degree or another.

And with each new episode, I'm delighted at how often Eddie's standup winds up informing the plot, characters, themes and dialog. He's just infused through the whole show. I know, he's credited as an Executive Transvestite Producer, so by virtue of that alone he's given a lot of influence over the show, but he seems to haven taken the opportunity to really explore and run with it.

Also, Eddie's USian accent is getting better, as I thought it might, with practice (and probably dialect coaching).

Yeah, that's such a strong and valid theme. We're all pretending to be people. We all make our living by conning people to a certain extent. We tell them the portion of the truth that they want to hear. We show them the portion of ourselves that we think they'll like. We try to get them to believe that they need or want us or what we provide.

Their family's struggle to be accepted in Edenfalls, to balance what they're trying to be with what they feel they are, with their identity and sense of self, it's all universal.

Argh. I tried to tape Hustle last night and TOTALLY screwed it up. Does AMC repeat it any other time during the week?

Did anyone else watch Jericho, last night?

Sorry, this isn't the thread for Jericho!

(I thought I'd posted about it -- but it's over in the network drama thread.)