HOLLYWOOD—I seriously have been off and on the FOX series, “Filthy Rich.” I will admit the first episode had me hooked, by episode two I was still intrigued, but by the third episode I easily started to lose interest. I would tune in, but I would not be glued to what I was witnessing on the small screen. The big draw for me was Kim Cattrall’s character of Margaret Monreaux, a Southern charmer with a religious side that is as dicey as one’s heart.
However, Cattrall alone would not be enough to rescue the series that was about infidelity, betrayal, lies and so much more. However, the series was cancelled after one season a few weeks ago. That always seems to happen, just when a series starts to gain its footing, it gets the ax. I mean I loved the dynamic between Margaret and Ginger Sweet. Those ladies went toe-to-toe, but mid-way thru the season, the friction between the two ladies soon turned into respect and that rivalry ceased which took away a ton of fun from the show.
The series never gave the audience that touch of sibling rivalry until this season finale/series finale if you want to call it that. There was no actual finality given to the audience which sucks to levels I cannot describe. The series suffered from trying to do too much at once; a load of characters and a ton of twists and turns amidst the chaos people.
The final episode, ‘1 Corinthians 3:13’ finally saw Eugene return to his family, but only during the final moments of the episode, where the series did reveal a bombshell that I will admit I never saw coming a million miles away. Margaret had been desperately trying to keep control of the Sunshine Network, while being undermined by Reverend Paul Luke Thomas and his minions. It turned into a heist that just became too much to handle to be honest, as Luke met his maker in a bloody battle.
His demise haunts his sister Becky, who can’t dismiss that bloody image of his brother lying on the piano. Yeah, Eric knew Luke was in dire need of help and left him to die. That decision has haunted him, which he confessed to his mother, Margaret, who burned all the paperwork. It was Margaret who burned all that evidence that Eric found hoping to protect her son.
Margaret was dealing with all this while launching Sunny Club and discovering that it was Franklin who tried to arrange Eugene’s ‘death’ with that plane crash. Yeah, Franklin, Margaret and Eugene had a bit of history, as it was revealed that Eugene and his buddies were responsible for Franklin being brutally beat during his early years. To say Franklin was holding a grudge was an understatement to say the least America.
In the midst of this madness, Rachel and Antonio were getting close after she was praised for rescuing the child from Hagamond. This did not make Eric happy as he realized the woman he was secretly canoodling with was falling for someone else, and his wife, Becky was failing for his half-sister Ginger. Yeah, Eric was receiving the short-end of the stick people and he was NOT happy about it.
Rose was in utter bliss after realizing that she and Mark were about to tie the knot, which took Margaret by surprise, as she realized Mark was NOT who he initially came to be. One would suspect that Margaret would be happy for her daughter to walk down the aisle, but nope, she wanted to undermine the ceremony and went digging into Mark’s past and discovered some secrets that she decided to expose and it led to a happy moment, leading to Rose cancelling the ceremony.
This only led to more mayhem as Eric and Antonio got into a fight and Ginger was exposed as knowing that Eugene was alive and hiding him out at her home with her mother. Simply put it was all about Ginger having the family she never had. However, that was nothing compared to the bomb of Eugene making the rounds, first stunning Eric and Antonio, leaving Rose in tears, and Margaret literally speechless.
However, it was those final moments that took the cake, as Eugene explained his reasoning for returning to his family to reunite with his six children, which at first I did not understand, but it became a realization that when Becky walked down the stairs with her new daughter, that Eugene had slept with his son’s wife and got her pregnant! Yeah, it was literally one of those moments where your jaw-dropped to the floor and I tipped my hat off to the writers for delivering a surprise I did not see coming. It left everyone tied to Eugene stunned by the reveal, but for Becky to keep a secret that big for so long was major will power.
With that said, Franklin was determined to make Eugene pay for his past crimes, and he decided to ignite the Monreaux compound on fire and Margaret was okay with it. From a distance, the entire family minus Eugene and Becky witnessed the home go up in blaze; it was literally the same scene the series opened with that it concluded with. The only hiccup was now that I’m hooked with the drama it is done and over. “Filthy Rich” unfortunately took a little long to get its footing, but what new series instantly connects with an audience after a few episodes, it rarely, and I mean rarely happens.
