Creator Matthew Carnahan also dilutes the show's unique hook, its exploration of modern tabloid journalism, by spending nearly as much time on the celebrities that Lucy and her staff cover as he does on the magazine employees themselves. In particular, the aforementioned young blackmail victim (Josh Stewart) and his starlet girlfriend (Laura Allen) get storylines familiar from any "perils of fame" movie or TV show going back at least 50 years. For all its focus on the way that celebrity media coverage has evolved into a unique entity, Dirt has plenty of well-worn clichés about Hollywood to offer up as well.
Then there's Don Konkey, the paparazzo played by Ian Hart, who's meant to be Lucy's right-hand man and best friend, even though they have conversations like they're on two entirely different shows. Don is a functioning schizophrenic, so Carnahan gives him all sorts of hallucinations and imaginary friends that pop up via special effects every so often. Just what this has to do with tabloids, Hollywood, photography or, really, anything at all is unclear, and again, the disparate elements don't add up to a cohesive whole. A dark, weird show about a functional schizophrenic might be an interesting idea for FX to explore, but it's not the same thing as a glossy soap about a tabloid.
The glossy, soapy elements are really the only ones that succeed, and by the end of the third episode, when Melrose Place veteran Grant Show pops up as a big action star with a dirty secret, the tone seems like it might be working itself out. But it's not likely that this show will settle for merely being an entertaining soap, and the awkward mix of stylistic elements will probably remain.
It's hard not to enjoy some of the more deviant sexual peccadilloes, and certain minor characters, including Show's action star, Alexandra Breckenridge's naïve young reporter and Carly Pope's lesbian drug dealer, show promise. Cox, unfortunately, has to carry the show, and all she can muster is a more hardened version of Gale Weathers, her opportunistic TV reporter from the Scream trilogy. Resting on her bony shoulders, the entire unwieldy thing just falls apart.