Pilot Review: Easy Money

Easy Money (CW)
Premiered October 4 at 9pm

To say this show is just not interesting is probably the best way to describe it. It comes off as a lesser version of "Sons of Anarchy," loan sharks who run everything in the town, except in this show there's no motorcycle club. The characters are uniformly one-note and not one of them stuck with me. Airing right after "Valentine," this show couldn't possibly be as bad, but it doesn't improve terribly upon its lead-in. Casting Jeff Hephner, Sandy's one-time protege on "The O.C." as the lead here doesn't do the show any favors, and I couldn't even recognize Laurie Metcalf, and now that I do, I'm convinced her talents are not being served here. And then there's the always terrible Jay R. Ferguson, whose previous credits include the abysmal "Glory Days" and "Surface" (he did hit a career high with an acceptable arc on "Sleeper Cell"), whose casting as the token underachiever just makes the show such anymore. Plain and simple, there's nothing remotely good about this show, and I lost interest way too early to give it another shot.

How will it work as a series? Well, supposedly there's some kind of story here, but it should be difficult enough to get into considering the unbreachable nature of the pilot.
How long will it last? It got horrific ratings, as did lead-in "Valentine," but I know that Sunday night programming isn't quite fully in the hands of CW. It could survive longer than "Valentine," but I doubt it will still be around come January.

Pilot grade: F