Update: Looks like Maggie and I are sharing a brain today.  And we even used the same Google Image search terms.

That show Dirt was on FX tonight.  And, although it had the potential to be really, really bad or really, really good, it was merely 'eh.'  On a scale from Gilbert Gottfried to Jake Gyllenhaal, it was maybe a Freddie Prinze Jr.  

Notably, this was the first show I've ever seen on FX, although apparently The Commish 2.0 is quite good. 

If you've seen the previews (and how could you not, recently?), you know the deal.  Courteney Cox is a cut-throat tabloid editor who wants to know who's sexin' who, who's gay, who's a coke whore, blah, blah.  She's backed up by a faithful schizophrenic photographer, her douchey boss and a few dozen worker drones who write zingy captions.

Throughout the whole show, you get the feeling the entire point of this show is to make you feel bad for reading Us Weekly.  It's like there's some sort of major point to be made about human nature based on our fascination with Reese Witherspoon picking her wedgie in Stars They're Just Like Us.  

I don't know.  I suppose I've already beat them to the punch when it comes to self-hate, so I haven't really invested a lot of thought into figuring it out. 

Courteney Cox did fine as the icy, crotch-tasering (seriously) Lucy Spiller. (Spiller! Get it?) Frankly, she is kind of an enigma to me.  On one hand, I closely associate her with her character on Friends — the color-coding, tightly-wound Monica — and I kind of suspect she's a little like that in real life.  On the other hand, she's all marrying David Arquette and naming her baby Coco.  So who really knows.

The most interesting character, though, is the aforementioned schizophrenic photographer.  In its most conceptual moments, when he's having his freakouts, peoples' words literally come out of their mouths, cats talk and faces come out of the backs of peoples heads.  It's a fun novelty, but it's merely that.

Anyway, I doubt I'll be a regular viewer so I don't even know why I've created a tag for this show.  Meh. 

Did you know there's this whole other network out there making original dramas, called FX? I sure didn't. But the relentless advertising for Courtney Cox's new show on every website that I frequent and the lack of other new programming forced me to acknowledge this renegade channel last night. FX exists. It's out there. Know this.

You remember — it's the channel with The Closer, though as Dan says, I'm not entirely convinced that show really exists.(update: no. that's TNT. whoops!) It also has The Shield and Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (which wins worst opening credits sequence ever — and I don't care if it's bad on purpose). I watch none of these shows, except for IASIP, that one time, though I hear on the whole they're pretty good. 

Dirt, the aforementioned Courtney Cox show, is about a gossip magazine editor sort of like Janice Min or many other frequently Gawkered media types. She's as cold as ice — she can make you or break you — she trusts no one — etc, etc, etc. Like Damian said, her hair is so big because it's full of secrets.

The pilot introduces her, some celebrities in trouble, her boss, and some of her staff. The best part, and for me the biggest reason to keep watching so far, is Don, Courtney Cox's schizophrenic pet paparazzi, who is amazing at his job (soulless and reprehensible as it is), totally nuts, and obviously incredibly sweet despite it all. I love Don.

The intimate lives of the rich and famous, and those that make their money making you care, is an interesting setting; I'm a sucker for a hopping newsroom, even if the "news" is who's cheating on who. Courtney Cox is smart and I like her, though I hope her character will move out of the powerful-bitch-woman cliches soon. All in all, I was almost convinced that this is a show I want to watch regularly — I just wished it were 10% snappier.

So snap it up, FX, or I may have to forget that I ever rediscovered you in the first place.

And nice work with Don.