Writing by Peyton Brock, Images by Peyton Brock and courtesy of SCAD
Televangelists, a rich southern family and illegitimate children: what more is needed for a new TV series filled with intrigue? This past Thursday night was the opening of SCAD’s aTV fest at their Atlanta campus. Kim Cattrall, who was given the “Icon Award” by SCAD the same night, premiered her new show she both stars in and produces: “Filthy Rich.”
“Filthy Rich” is the saga of the Monreauxs’, a rich televangelism family, who are struck by tragedy when their patriarch dies in a plane crash. However, things further complicate when it comes to light that the patriarch had three illegitimate children, all of which have been left with shares of the family’s Christian media empire. Tensions rise and the claws of the newfound leader of the family, Margaret (Cattrall), come out as she schemes to buy out the three illegitimate children.
The show is a tongue-in-cheek melodrama that satirizes commercialized Christianity, as the Monreauxs’ play into the fun tropes of the modern televangelism industry. The premiere episode is filled to the brim with snappy banter and catty backstabbing, the perfect and entertaining staples of the prime-time melodrama TV show. The episode’s biggest benefit is its large cast of varied and entertaining characters. Watching the dramatic, often comedic, interactions of the wild characters of “Filthy Rich”is crowd pleasing fun.
After the screening, there was an informative Q&A with members of the cast, including Cattrall, as well as Tate Taylor, the showrunner. The cast was asked to recount their most embarrassing or worst auditions, which resulted in stores of having to hold embarrassing poses, unknowingly ending up in a commercial for Scientology and getting an unfortunate stain on a white skirt. Taylor spoke on how the show’s setting, New Orleans, helped mold the tone, story and characters of the show, and how he sought to display an accurate representation of the city he knows and loves. Tate also spoke on how he wanted to adapt the show, which is based on a New Zealand show from 2016 and create something new which explores modern and topical ideas like religion, sex work and race. He explores how those perspectives inform and affect others.
While undoubtable fun, the show does fall into the expected and standard cheesiness of network television drama, however, it’s sure not to bother its core audience who seek out the steamy melodrama of soap-opera style television. Overall, “Filthy Rich”is entertaining, while not groundbreaking, network television, that features a fun cast of characters who deliver snarky banter.
