Kim Cattrall in the ‘Pilot’ series premiere episode of ‘Filthy Rich’ premiering Monday on FOX.
Fox Media
Left to right, Benjamin Aquilar as Antonio Rivera, Mark L. Young as Jason Conley, Melia Kreiling as Ginger Sweet, Gerald McRaney as Eugene Monreaux, Kim Cattrall as Margaret Monreaux, Aubrey Dollar as Rose Monreaux, Corey Cott as Eric Monreaux and Olivia Macklin as Becky Monreaux in ‘Filthy Rich,’ premiering Monday on FOX.
Fox Media
Fam, glam and controversy take center stage in Fox’s latest satirical drama series premiering Monday, Sept. 21. “Filthy Rich,” featuring “Sex and the City” star Kim Cattrall, is now one of the network’s fall entries after its original May premiere was bumped, like so many other things, by the pandemic.
The project, created by Tate Taylor (“The Help,” 2011), is not only Cattrall’s first network TV series as an actor, but also as a producer. This isn’t her first time in the producer’s chair, though: in 2014, she shared executive producer duties on the BBC black comedy “Sensitive Skin,” a series in which she also starred. Her work on that show landed her a nomination for a Canadian Screen Award.
While her producing skills will no doubt be an asset to the series, it’s her acting that will have fans eager to watch the series. “Filthy Rich” is a southern Gothic family drama. Cattrall plays, Margaret, the matriarch of the Monreaux family and host and co-founder of the Sunshine Network. She is keen on controlling the company completely, at any cost, now that her husband has died. Playing her two children are Aubrey Dollar (“Battle Creek”) as Rose, a fashion designer who has made a lifestyle out of avoiding her mother, and Corey Cott (“The Good Fight”) as Eric, the family-owned network’s VP and aspiring heir.
The cracks in the family are clearly visible from the start, as anything and everything comes between them. The show follows the aftermath of the death of the rich and famous family’s patriarch, Eugene (Gerald McRaney, “This Is Us”), who founded an extremely popular Christian television network. He secretly sired three illegitimate children, who are all written into his will, and when those secrets are revealed after his death, serious drama ensues. As the series rolls on, it becomes clear that everyone has an ulterior motive, and no one is willing to give an inch.
Playing the three illegitimate children who are threatening the Monreaux family’s fortune are Benjamin Levy Aguilar (“Before the Dawn,” 2019) as Antonio Rivera, a boxer; Mark L. Young (“The Inbetweeners”) as Colorado marijuana grower Jason Conley; and Melia Kreiling (“Salvation”) as Las Vegas cocktail waitress Ginger Sweet. Also in the series are Broadway actor Aaron Lazar (“J. Edgar,” 2011), Steve Harris (“The Practice”) and Olivia Macklin (“The Young Pope”).
“Filthy Rich” has been an entirely novel experience for Cattrall, who is neither from the South nor raised in a religious household. But, of course, the star plays the scheming matriarch to perfection.
Fox announced two years ago that it had given the production a pilot order, with Taylor writing and executive-producing the show. Taylor is an American filmmaker and actor whose most prominent work includes “The Help” (2011), “Get on Up” (2014), and 2016’s “The Girl on the Train.” In 2019, he released the psychological horror film “Ma,” which featured Octavia Spencer (“Hidden Figures,” 2016) and went on to become a critical and commercial success. Around the same time, Fox ordered “Filthy Rich,” which is Taylor’s first major foray into the television world.
“Filthy Rich” was meant to air back to back with the hip hop family drama “Empire” and was among five other Fox drama pilots, including “Prodigal Son,” and “Deputy,” all five of which were major undertakings and drew a lot of interest. Unfortunately, scheduling issues got in the way of “Filthy Rich,” and it was delayed long past the premieres of the other shows in its initial cohort.
The series is based on a New Zealand comedy-drama TV series of the same name that premiered in February 2016. The New Zealand parent series is also a tale of three illegitimate children finding out about the wealth of their recently departed father, one of New Zealand’s richest men, John Truebridge, and learning that they were named as beneficiaries in his will.
Known as New Zealand’s most expensive TV show ever when it first aired, the series was a big hit, and the network renewed the show for another season, after which the show retired for good. Hopefully, this American version of the series will have a longer life than its predecessor.
Dive into this melodrama when it premieres Monday, Sept. 21, on Fox. With stars like Cattrall and McRaney at the helm, and bright, young up-and-comers on board, “Filthy Rich” is sure to be a delightful guilty pleasure — something we could all use these days.
