Maybe now they'll stop misusing that Peter Gabriel song in the ads

Caught the opening episode of Courteney Cox's much-hyped new FX series, "Dirt" last night. Cox is very sexy in it, more beautiful here (IMO) than she was in the last few seasons of "Friends" when she had that Skeletor thing going on. Becoming a MILF, it seems, has agreed with her.



I've thought for a whole now she was the most underrated actor, certainly among the women of her old show, and maybe among the whole cast.

Next time you watch an episode of "Friends", watch Cox's face when she listens to the other characters. She looks as though she's actually hearing them and is not just waiting for her next joke, which is a trap into which some sitcom actors fall.

"Dirt" gives her a chance as an actress to show some of the layers that no sitcom was made for, even one good as hers often was.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the rest of the pilot was a lot more uneven. The first time I heard about this series I figured it was going to be a celebrities revenge fantasy. Getting back at the people who make them just hate making millions of dollars a year.

It's a lot better, and a little more ambivilent, than that and it does explictly acknowledge the gossip trade's place in the Hollywood ecology. But still, a real problem point of entry (at least for me) is the old "why exactly should I care?" question. Oh, the beautiful people's lives are so hard!

However, the performances by Cox & others were good enough, and the writing and overall production shows enough promise, that I'll probably be back, for at least another episode or two. To see if they can explain to me why I should care.