I am – Hercules!! It’s an FX hourlong, from writer Matthew Carnahan (“Fastlane”), about a Hollywood-based weekly tabloid editor. It stars Courtney Cox (“Friends”), Carly Pope (“Popular”), Will McComack (“Syriana”) and Ian Hart (“Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story”). TV Guide give it a 2 (out of 10) and says:

… Dirt reminds us that few things are as depressing as dull smut. … an embarrassing dud that's both trashy and self-pitying. Unconvincing on any level of execution …

USA Today gives it a star and a half (out of four) and says:

… dull as, well, dirt, this haltingly comic drama has as much trouble finding a workable tone as it does making a coherent point. …

The New York Times says:

… in a part that cries out for flair and flared nostrils, Ms. Cox is strangely wooden and bland. “Dirt” provides a very literal, coloring-book interpretation of a tyrannical publishing diva: the wall art in Lucy’s office is a giant Renaissance-style painting of nude figures twisting under the fiery torments of hell. It’s not fair to compare anyone with Meryl Streep as the icy magazine editor in “The Devil Wears Prada.” But the Devil in “Dirt” wears red satin, horns and a tail. Ms. Cox’s performance is not the only speed bump, but the series gets better as it goes along, mostly thanks to Ian Hart as Don Konkey, a tabloid photographer and functioning schizophrenic who hears voices as he works. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… instead of examining the moralizing titillation that fuels the gossip press, "Dirt" just follows its lead: The show takes basic-cable porn about as far as you can imagine, and there are drugs and deception and other displays of human weakness that we somehow account more awful and interesting when magnified by stardom. It does not help that executive producer Courteney Cox has miscast herself in a lead role that plays to none of her demonstrated strengths or sparkle. …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… The trouble with Spiller, however, is not that she’s ambitious, duplicitous and nearly amoral (as are many of cable television’s most magnetic characters). It’s that Cox and the shallow “Dirt” scripts fail to bring this woman to life. …

Variety says:

FX's enviable reputation with originals is stained by "Dirt" … the show falls thuddingly flat, feeling tired, gratuitous in its dirty doings and a trifle narcissistic ..

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… fashions a world that is dark and simplistic. … Hollywood is a nest of vipers. Actors, agents, producers, reporters -- even nannies to the stars -- they're all the same. Everyone is corrupt or corruptible, shallow, self-absorbed and, usually, addicted. That dismal set of characteristics extends to the main characters as well. …

10 p.m. Tuesday. FX.





Whedon-y Goodness Under $20!!!!