The new FX drama The Riches, starring British comedian Eddie Izzard and film actress
Minnie Driver, has drawn a bunch of rave reviews from American television critics.
Possibly best described as a marriage between the polygamy drama
Big Love (the concept of having a huge secret that can come crashing down at any moment) and the film thriller The Talented Mr Ripley (stolen identity), The Riches is about a family of con artists (mum, dad and three kids) who assume the identity of a family called the Riches when they discover them dead in a car wreck.
They have to swap living out of their beat-up car and driving around Louisiana scamming people with a move into a neighbourhood house, and their ability to fit in with buffers (their name for ordinary people) is sorely tested.
Izzard and Driver star as the two parents, and the praise has leaked out thick and fast for their performances.
The New York Daily News said about the stars: "Individually, they're impressive, together, feeding off each other's energy, they're incendiary."
According to a New York Times review the show is "so compelling it deserves to be a hit, generating as much media attention and internet chatter as
Deadwood,
Nip/Tuck or
24."
The Baltimore Sun praised the stars for their "high energy, great charm and plenty of edge".
"With its off-off-beat take on family values and penetrating exploration of mainstream values, The Riches is the kind of TV drama that makes one think while being entertained," wrote Sun critic David Zurawik.
A number of critics claimed they were hesitant at the casting of Izzard and Driver before the show aired, but once it did they discovered some true acting genius.
The Boston Globe explained why it thought the casting was so good:
"The reason the casting of The Riches works so well has something to do with the fact that both Izzard and Driver are Brits," wrote critic Matthew Gilbert.
"They have a decent-enough handle on their American accents, but they nonetheless bring a vaguely alien quality to their characters.
"And that works thematically. They are actors feigning a nationality, just as the Malloys are counterfeiting the Riches.
"The only truly genuine thing about The Riches, it seems, may be its promise."
The Riches premiered in the US on the FX network on Monday 12 March.
We like the sound of it. Who's buying?