TV is the New Reading

‘Guy TV’ establishing

its presence on the grid

Networks seem to be betting on more guys staying in watching television this fall, because there’s certainly more guy-oriented television on the dial.

One wild thing about shovelling out the DVR over the weekend is a lot of programming just blends together in one’s head. Even though they’re separated by entire days, I can’t entirely distinguish “Dirty Sexy Money” (9 p.m. Wednesdays on ABC) from “Big Shots” (9 p.m. Thursdays on ABC).

Both concern schlubbish alpha males in varying stages of commitment to their wives and loved ones exhibiting all manner of outlandish behavior.

Also, with that guy from “The Practice,” that guy from “The Nine,” that guy from “Titus,” that woman from “Dharma and Greg,” and that guy from “Commander in Chief” – OK, I’m going for parallel construction, here, but I can’t honestly leave the great Donald Sutherland as “that guy from ’Commander in Chief’” (and I know “Titus” was a FOX production) – it feels like ABC had a bunch of contractual commitments to a bunch of high-profile actors and they weren’t able to burn them off in a single show, so they greenlit two (or three, if you count Wednesday’s unwatchable “Private Practice” as featuring “that guy from ’Eyes’” and “that guy from ’Day Break’”).

And I’m so glad. Because believeable as Dylan McDermott is as a lawyer, I’m just impossibly pleased with Peter Krause (that guy from “Sports Night”) and his appearance in “Dirty Sexy Money.”

For me, the draw of that show is the nostalgia it instills for the half-hour single-camera comedy “Arrested Development” sung in the tune of Krause’s Nick George, a hapless do-gooder who finds himself sucked into the whirlwind of issues presented by a huge, rich and powerful and out-of-control family – one which, darkly, may have had something to do with his father’s plane crash – taking over his position as their family lawyer.

He might have been on the periphery before, but he quickly discovers why his father was never home. He’s on the speed-dial of nearly a dozen unstable people, all of whom see him as their personal slave.

Loopiness

The thing about a show like this is that it could descend into loopiness (albeit enjoyable loopiness) instantly. There’s an “actress” daughter being bought starring roles by her father in shows that would rather cancel than go on with her on the stage. There’s a flamboyant brother priest trying to sneak his bastard child into an exclusive school without his wife and family finding out. And a tranvestite prostitute blackmailing another rich and powerful guy and insisting on making a big scene.

Oh, wait. That one could be from “Big Shots,” in which the exact same storyline is developing as well.

McDermott’s not the only one in “Big Shots” with fidelity issues. His one friend, played by Joshua Malina (incidentally, a Krause co-star from “Sports Night”), is cheating on his wife with a clingy mistress who by the end of the first episode has single-white-female’d her way into best-friend status with his wife. And another friend, played by Michael Vartan (that guy from “Alias”) discovered his wife had an affair with his boss, which he finds deeply upsetting.

Between “Big Shots” and “Dirty Sexy Money” and this week’s premieres of “Cavemen” and “Carpoolers” (which you may safely skip) there’s a lot more unapologetically guy-oriented television on television. One wishes the writing was better, but the sets and the look are spectacular, there’s a lot of great names associated with them so ...

... who said complete artifice was necessarily unwatchable?

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