'Dirty Sexy Money:' The sordid truth

Oh, I am sad. So sad, in a wistful, TV-watching way. A show that once was one of my favorite guilty pleasures died a quiet death last weekend, burned off on a midsummer Saturday night, a shadow of its former self. I wonder if the actors knew it was the end by the time this episode was filmed; they seemed to be sleepwalking all the way through. And the writers? I think they were mixing alcohol with Ambien. A stab wound victim, looking perky in his private medical suite, interrupted from telling his sordid life story because the nurses had to give him a bath? A nurse who puts on a black fringed teddy the minute she gets off duty? A quickie Vegas wedding? A pregnant woman falling down the stairs and losing the baby (and not really seeming to care, one way or the other)? This show used to be wicked and almost-believable; it ended somewhere between insultingly unrealistic and absurdly unoriginal. Granted, the storylines were all cut short by cancellation - the writers seemed to have more to tell, at least about Nick's dad - but I've already seen enough. (If you haven't, you can catch the last few episodes on abc.com.)

What sent the show careening downhill so quickly? Perhaps it was the presence of Lucy Liu, who as a revelation a long, long time ago, but now somehow makes most shows she's in seem tacky. Or the absence of Carmelita, much more fabulous than any gay congressman's wife. Or the absence of Jeremy's twin sister, Juliet, who pouted in the most delicious Paris Hilton way before actress Samaire Armstrong decided to pull a Lindsay Lohan. No one was really present, by the end; Donald Sutherland barely got any screen time, and Peter Krause looked embarrassed. His character was the biggest problem of all, I guess: Nick George was once the eye of the storm, a pillar of near-integrity amid the Darling chaos, and here he was, having to pretend that he wanted to have a baby with vapid Karen. Watching him in those scenes, I could practically hear him counting in his head, Five more pages of dialogue and I'm outta here! Indeed. Has there ever been a show that so desperately wanted to be over?