Ellen Gray: ‘Noose tightens’ in 2nd season of ‘Riches’

THE RICHES. 10 tonight, FX.

ANYONE WHO still thought what Eddie Izzard was doing on FX was comedy should probably get over it.

And if you're still waiting for him to turn up in a dress on "The Riches," I think you'll be waiting a while.

Drama's apparently what Izzard does with his pants on, and as the story of a family of con artists trying to steal their way straight enters its second season tonight, "it's somewhat darker," the cross-dressing comic told reporters in a conference call last week.

"Some of the episodes in the first season were somewhat funnier," said Izzard, who plays Wayne Malloy, a "traveler" who's living the life of Doug Rich, a wealthy lawyer whose death in a car accident triggered a massive case of identity theft. "The funny comes out of dry and desperate circumstances in this season."

"The noose is definitely tightening," agreed Minnie Driver, who co-stars as Dahlia Malloy, an ex-convict and recovering addict who's had less to laugh about than Wayne from Day One. And if all that sounds a bit depressing, well, maybe it should.

"The Riches," after all, aren't the first family to get the McMansion and find that keeping it requires constant compromise.

Anxiety's the peculiar luxury of those who have a lot to lose, and for the first time in their lives, Wayne and Dahlia and their three children are getting a taste of what security might feel like and finding that the price is eternal vigilance.

Still, it might seem as if con artists would sleep better than the rest of us, untethered by principles, unpricked by conscience. Not the Malloy-Riches.

"I don't think they sleep well at night. I really don't," Driver said.

"I think that they are taking a huge gamble" as they stick around after their cover's nearly blown to go for one big score that could set them up for life.

Driver, who, like Izzard, is a Brit playing an American, has some theories about us.

"America likes to look at itself as this straightforward picket-fence ideal, when the reality of that is much stranger than that . . . I think a ton of people are coloring outside of the lines."

Izzard agreed: "I think that's true. The only calm people are astronauts."

Driver and Izzard must be ready for their space walk then, because when they're quizzed about the impact of a strike-shortened season that left "The Riches" with just seven episodes on the schedule, they seem unfazed.

"We built a sort of cliffhanger halfway through the season, so it didn't hurt us in any way," Izzard said. "I think it makes it like a tighter punch."

"It's going to leave the audience wanting more, which is a really great way to end a season," said Driver.

High school guidance counselors probably shouldn't expect a fair shake from TV comedy writers, who, if they'd followed the advice most of us got, would never have grown up to be paid to sit around tables, eating candy and pitching jokes.

So the first few minutes of ABC's "Miss Guided" (10:30 tonight, Channel 6), which stars Judy Greer as slightly clueless counselor Becky Freeley, might look like payback.

But then a mildly funny thing happens on the way to the faculty lounge.

Becky, who's working in the same high school where she herself was a bit of a loser a few years earlier, turns out to be not quite so clueless as she first looked.

Neither is "Miss Guided," which was created by Caroline Williams and produced by, among others, Ashton Kutcher (who'll be playing a substitute Spanish teacher in the episode airing at 8 p.m. Thursday).

Oh, the comedy's broad, the characters broader - Chris Parnell plays a control freak of a vice principal, Brooke Burns the former homecoming queen from Becky's year who's just joined the faculty - but there are moments when you can see it turning into something watchable.

Becky actually seems to care about her students, and once in a while, even to understand them. She could be working toward the respect she never got in high school.

Good news for guidance counselors everywhere may not translate into comedy success, though.

Like Becky, "Miss Guided's" not fully up to speed and ABC, which after tonight seems intent on burning through episodes by airing them back to back on Thursdays - with a "season finale" April 3 - may not be offering much in the way of guidance. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.