I’ve seen the tonight’s episode of DIRT (FX, 10PM) and I fully recommend it to anyone who’s never seen the show before and everyone who tried it last year but gave it up. The writers managed to fix everything that didn’t work in the first season in the first 20 minutes of season two. Because I don’t want to spoil the fun, I can’t explain what I mean by that except to say that most of the episode takes place in the DIRT offices and I always thought that was where the show was strongest. The day-to-day drama of running a tabloid magazine is fascinating and since everything that Lucy Spiller (Courtney Cox) does is in the service The Story, it makes sense to set the bulk of the series there.

I had the chance to participate in a conference call with Ms. Cox last week actually and I told her how happy I was with season two so far. (Thanks to Chrissy at FX, I was able to see the first two episodes early.) We discussed the producers’ decision “to make [the show] more relatable” and how they went about doing that. Courtney explained, “I think the fans that liked it last year, hopefully they will be like you and hopefully they will enjoy the changes that we’ve made. But I felt like last year it was dark and it was serious, and it was really interesting and I loved it, but I think this year it’ll be more of a fun show to watch, where you’re kind of guessing who are we talking about. And it’s stuff that people know about and then we can give you a different perspective on it. People who read US and In Touch and all those tabloid magazines I think will get a kick out of the show. And we have new characters that I think add humor. It’s just an all over more fun, lighter tone, but hopefully still outrageous.”

It is still outrageous because as anyone who keeps up with the lives of certain celebrities knows, real life is always stranger than fiction with these people. And Dirt starts off with a few familiar “ripped from the headlines” stories. Says Ms. Cox, who is a very involved executive producer on the series, “We usually do a hybrid of celebrities and then add to the story like maybe what happened to cause this to happen to them or sum it up in a different way just for fun. In almost every episode you’ll see something that you will recognize, and that’s hopefully the fun of it, that you’ll be able to guess who this person we might be talking about, even though it’s not really about them. It could be about a couple of people or a couple of situations… I feel like what’s been really interesting is that we come up with these story lines and sometimes we think ‘wow, no way this could happen, but man would it make for a good episode,’ and then you find out after you’ve filmed it that something even more outrageous has happened, or they’ve done exactly what you thought they were going to do.”

“We have this character on the show this year that will definitely resemble someone that’s in the press all the time, but she’s a recurring character. And I won’t say who she’s portraying, because you’ll be able to figure it out relatively early on, but what I like about it is it kind of shows a side to this person’s character like what could have happened or maybe there’s a different side to the story that we don’t know about. And we give another version and I think it’s been really interesting.” That character, Sharlee Cates, is played by Ashley Johnson (little Chrissy Seaver from Growing Pains all grown up) who Courtney calls “an amazing actor.” I would agree and I look forward to seeing more of her as the season progresses. The first two episodes will feature other guest stars TV fans will recognize. Jordan Hinson who plays Sheriff Carter’s daughter Zoe on Eureka is in next week’s episode along with Elisabeth Harnois (“Clean Teen” Shelly, One Tree Hill) and Charlie Weber (Ben, Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Fans will also get more of their favorite characters and favorite pairings. The producers know that Don and Lucy’s friendship is “the core of the show” but they’ve changed the dynamic up a little. “Don’s on medication now so his schizophrenia has been toned way back and he’s much more in control, which makes him have to look at what he’s do for a living and how far he goes for Lucy. So they’ve kind of reversed roles a little bit. As opposed to her taking care of him, he’s taking care of her more. And so it’s an interesting change this year.” We’ll also get more development on the Holt/Lucy relationship. “That’s definitely something that we were going to explore, and we did. I like Holt and Lucy. I think it’s really interesting. Two kind of lost souls trying to make it, and the way they come together… And we’ll continue to explore it in season three, if we get picked up. [Lucy] definitely has her fears and intimacy issues, as many of us do, but I don’t know, I like that [fans] like that and I think we’re going to explore it more.” One of my favorite characters, Willa (Alexandra Breckenridge) is also back. From Courtney, “Willa, who was wanting to take over my job [last season], has a revelation that maybe it’s harder than she thought. But she’s not the young, new reporter anymore. She’s much more savvy this year and she’s just become really smart.”

She’s also funnier. The whole show is. The wit is still shocking and biting, but the tone (and the look of the show) is brighter. Lucy survived a brush with death and she’s enjoying life more because of it. And I think Courtney is having a ball playing her. Since Friends we’ve all known that her comic timing is outstanding, but Lucy sense of humor is much darker than Monica’s and that makes her a more complicated character. She revels in other people’s humiliation. Banter is a full contact sport for her. She’s not a very likable person, but somehow Cox and the writers have made me care about her. I am very much looking forward to these seven episodes and I hope the ratings go up so that we can get the other six they had planned for this season before the strike happened as well as seven more next year. Help me out. Watch it tonight and next week. Then come back here and tell me what you thought.

P.S. Congratulations to GR117 for winning the signed DIRT poster giveaway!