The Riches Go Poor

I love being right. There’s a certain sense of vindication when you look at something that’s happening and just know that it’s not progressing as it should. Whether or not it’s obvious what will take place, there’s still a sense of accomplishment when you’re able to look at something and know what’s going to happen.

I hate being right. There’s a certain letdown when you look at something and know that a huge mistake is being made, something is going down that shouldn’t be going down; if you’re able to figure out, why weren’t the people in charge?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The Riches has gotten funnier and smarter as the season has progressed, they have corrected some of the original imperfections in the series. The Riches has gotten dumber as the season has gone along, completely forgetting the show's origins and pushing a storyline to the fore that makes no sense whatsoever. 

For the record, and because I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t make this abundantly clear: I told you so, I told you so! Last week I sat here at my computer and I said to you that producers of The Riches were making a huge mistake, that they seemed to have forgotten that the family could just pick up and move as soon as the rest of the Travellers found them. That there was no reason, save the show title, that they shouldn’t do just that (if they were no longer pretending to be the Riches the show shouldn’t be called The Riches). Don’t believe me? Check it out, you’ll see that I’m right and that I told you so. 

Last night’s episode threw into stark relief just how right I am. Di Di ended up in jail because of Ken’s (the Traveller the Malloys have been forced to take in) stupidity. Dahlia had to go to jail (remember now, she’s broken her parole and consequently jail is probably not a good place for her to be, what with the identity theft too) to get her daughter out, and Wayne showed up at the jail completely and totally blitzed (he too is committing identity theft). It’s insane and it’s ludicrous. They should be leaving town. They should be packing it in. There’s no reason to continue this charade, but for some reason (I think it really is just that they like the title of the show) the Malloys continue to pretend to be the Riches. 

What’s even worse is that all the producers really have to do is come up with some nonsensical, completely and totally idiotic, absurd reason that the Malloys can’t just pack it all in and move on. The excuse, whatever it is, only needs to have the smallest, the tiniest, just the absolute littlest bit of credibility. It only needs the smallest shred of believability to get the audience to go along with the Malloys sticking around as the Riches. 

Why the producers haven’t provided it I don’t know, and what really bothers me is that up until this story arc began everyone but Wayne was all for packing it in and moving on rather than trying to tough it out as the Riches. As soon as it became apparent that they should pack it in that entire discussion disappeared. 

It’s bad writing and badly conceived. The producers seem to be trading on the audience’s good faith, something they haven’t yet earned. I’ll go on with them, at least for a little while, but I want to make it completely clear that they’re now in our debt.